Julie Dillon

This is one that is very personal and I'm sure there are only a few who know about this one. When I was in high school I had taken to drawing as a creative outlet. To learn, I came across some tutorials by Julie Dillon on how to draw anime and they were incredible. I would spend hours sketching in front of the TV, practicing cloth folds and figure drawing using her tips. That's when I found out about her now-defunct forum where a mix of up-and-comers all got together to share art and get critiques. I never had the balls (or scanner) to actually post any of my silly drawings up there, but I would lurk in the shadows and eat up all the art advice that I could. The forum of hers may be gone (Julie never really posted on the forum), but the tutorials live on which you can find here. Recently I have looked her up and from what I can gather, she has since moved on from being an anime fan to an amazing fantasy artist. She was a huge inspiration to me and many others and it just goes to show how these small websites can really impact peoples lives.