Fantasy time

(Can't believe it's been almost two months since I have posted a blog!)

Growing up with asthma, I spent a lot of my youth indoors wishing I could be outside doing things. I ended up reading a lot -- Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard, chief among them. A lot of comic books and a lot of doodling and a lot of wishing for this and that. Some folks probably call it fantasizing. There were a lot of artists who I thought were just the best (that varied from one week to the next, of course) -- Gil Kane (The Atom), Jack Kirby (Fantastic Four), Steve Ditko (Spider-Man), Al Williamson, Wally Wood, Jim Steranko and Neal Adams.

Frank Frazetta's Tarzan

None, however, could replace my all time favorite artist, Frank Frazetta, who I have written about before. I can't tell you how many times I sketched, traced, drew the drawing here by Frazetta as part of his series of drawings of Tarzan.

I think the very process of doing that helped me in several areas that I never realized until I started actually pursing artwork about eight years ago.

First of all, drawing in black and white, I developed a strong sense of values. The darkest darks, the whitest whites and the various shades in between. I remember when I first took a drawing class in Hamilton, my first instructor -- Allison Shepherd -- remarked how well I had a sense of value and contrast. Who would have known? It really is about the drama of the light source. The light establishes your darks.

Second, to this day, I still have a fairly decent sense of anatomy and muscle structure. Foreshortening is another story altogether, but where muscles attach and how they work with and against each other is something I've manage to understand pretty well too. I wish I had drawn the hands and feet more, though!

Third, I learned a sense of drama or story-telling that is important in artwork. Can one painting carry a story? For me, that's the sign of a great artist. That may not be the textbook definition of artwork, it may not fly in the museum or gallery community, but it works for me. It's something I strive to do in most of my paintings.

Finally, the most important lesson, was the fantasy. The escape. The place to weave dreams and replace reality with something else. It's the kind of painting I've always wanted to do. 

Once I started taking up artwork seriously, however, I came to the realization that fantasy artwork -- while probably the least respected or regarded -- may also be the most difficult. As an artist you need to master ALL the genres -- portrait art, anatomy drawing, landscape (afterall, you need a dramatic setting), still life and motion.  Furthermore, you can't do a plein air painting of a dragon in flight, and there are no photos you can take of elves and hobbits and ogres. I was nowhere close to doing this kind of artwork when I first started.

I think I'm getting close now. And, what excites me most of all, is that I am doing it in painting, instead of drawing. Both of the paintings are NOT finished.

The Defender of the Realm (oil)

The painting on the right, I'm calling it The Defender of the Realm. This was done in oil and I am really glad that I started it in oil because painting the dramatic clouds in the background are so much easier to do in oil paint. (Thank you, Todd Price for teaching me this!)

Much of the front leg and some of the armor will still need to be worked. The shadows under the right arm, along the cape, need to be darkened. The sword still needs to be fine-tuned. All in all, for the first one, I'm pretty happy.


I have five different books of Frank Frazetta artwork but, interestingly enough, he never painted a dragon. He's painted all kinds of monsters and demons and winged creatures, but never have I come across a hard-core dragon painting. 

The Three Brothers (acrylic)

Dragons have always fascinated me. Magestic creatures. That's my word. Majestic and magical combined -- Magestic.

This piece, painted in acrylic, still has a long way to go, but most of the right third of the painting is set. I needed to get the Red Dragon fully realized to get the perspective of the other two dragons. The middle dragon -- the White Dragon -- needs to be tweaked. The far dragon -- the Gold Dragon -- is well placed, though a suggestion from my Monday night guru, Ken Buck, helped in tilting it more.

The mountains (again, lessons learned from Todd Price) in the background will need further detailing. I need to get some separation from the front mountainside from the mountains behind it. Some different lighting will achieve that result. 

The bluish blob in the lower left is actually going to be another mountain/hillside, but there will be several towering trees that will lend perspective to the landscape. Just how far away are those mountains? How big is the White Dragon if those trees are that big?

I'm having fun. Starting to paint Fantasy Art. Something I've always wanted to do. The time has come.

324 Revisited

324 (Colored Pencil)

I had the great fortune to have my colored-pencil painting, 324, selected for the prestigious Viewpoint show. The 46th Annual national show, sponsored by the Cincinnati Art Club, is also one of the most difficult shows to get juried in to each year. I am very honored.

I am, however, drawn back to being upset with the fact that this piece -- which has now been entered in five different shows (three juried shows) -- and has won awards in three of them -- wasn't deemed good enough to get in to this year's Colored Pencil Society of America show.

You have to wonder what the CPSA judge saw -- or didn't see -- that seven other judges (five of whom are well-regarded artists in their own right) thought was worthy of inclusion. I know it smacks of sour grapes, but my logic says otherwise.