Slaying the Dragon

Every painting starts with an idea, and with this one I got a call for the cover of the Dragon's Hoard by Flaming Crab Games.  I had a while to work on it and get the idea, and even started a separate painting that didn't flesh out to what I wanted to achieve. I ask questions like, "should it be a battle scene with a dragon? Should I focus on the treasure? Should it be more action, or more peace after the fact?" There were a lot of neat ideas, from a view of adventurers picking up new gear, to the dead serpent fuming on the ground. 

So I start exploring those ideas with these abstract thumbnails in 2 and 4 tone designs until I get something that I think flows well and says what I want it to. Sometimes these thumbnails are just lines and other times they are as detailed as full drawings, but it always comes down to what I want to achieve. 

As great as all of these ideas were, FCG and I thought this was the strongest piece for the cover. This was the second attempt at the piece and on this run I really knew almost exactly what I wanted, (which would come back to bite me later!) It's strong and simple at the same time, plus I thought that the armor would offer a good contrast to focus on, and the helmet would be an interesting object to recognize as opposed to a face. 

So I both shot my own reference and gathered ideas from google images if I could without straying too far from what I wanted and went forward with the drawing. 

I usually do much more detailed drawings, but for this one I knew the metal and reflections would be a big part of the image, so it was more important to keep an idea of the landmarks and planes of the armor. I'd do most of my tonal work with the paint, but kept the thumbnail and reference up on the side to give me a map of where to go with it.

Even though I do most of my work digitally these days, I try and keep the process almost exactly as I would when working with oil paint. Here, You can see what the initial lay in looks like on top of the drawing. I'm being loose, and lay down my mid tones first before establishing true darks and highlights. Color relationships at this stage are incredibly important, setting up a language of warm/cool interacting. To me, this is often more important than tone, especially when painting skin.

This is a time where a lot of happy accidents can happen, such as the where the top of the helmet really appears to blend backward and glow! 

 Here, I've established my focus of the painting. Even though it will evolve as I go, I always feel I need something to work with to start pushing and pulling from different areas. I would have no idea what color to make of the cloak or hands without understanding first what they were playing off of. This stage can also be done backwards, working from least important area to most important. Either way- push,pull.

I handle painting digitally with a simple formula, lay in what I need and then blend it together with the blend tool. it's that simple. sometimes I drop down the flow of the brush I'm painting with and I can get away with just slowly painting layer on layer with no blending. 

According to my thumbnail, I felt I was almost done, but thankfully I have a cliff that I climb sometimes when I'm in a pinch to speak to wise men and an oracle about the right path in life (thanks, Todd) and this time the gods spoke that I might do with an alternate light to separate the pieces, and something to help separate the helmet from the armor. 

This is where having that exact idea really hurt me. Sometimes you go into something thinking you've got it, when in reality you close yourself off from the flow of ideas. 

I ended up remodeling a lot of the piece, including the idea that he was wearing plate mail at all. I figured, "So what if it's a spartan-ish helmet. No one said that the treasure you find in a dragon's hoard had to match your outfit." Now he's much more simple with his chain mail and tabard. I knew instantly that it worked and allowed me to better control with pinpoints of light where to lead the eye. It wasn't as hard as you might think because, again, I am pushing and pulling what I'm doing constantly to resolve with the focus. 

So to finish it up, I did some deepening of the shadows and added some grit under the fingernails. I changed with some color "glazes" (layers) the vibrance of certain areas, and ended up with a piece I can be proud of!

If there's any questions or anything I missed, feel free to let me know in the comment section!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allen.morris.3152
Email: allenmorrisart@gmail.com

SPECTRUM FANTASTIC ART LIVE!

 or My First Convention

me and Donato Giancola
everyone's best friend

Sometimes I like to view myself as a vagabond, traveling from place to place and experience to experience, returning to my dusty studio to recollect through paint before setting out again on another great adventure, whether it's through road or brush. I've traveled through Italy, Washington D.C., New York, and New Orleans just to name a few- but nothing has been more fulfilling or more exhausting than traveling to Spectrum in Kansas City!

As the last four years passed I looked on from my computer screen as the first Spectrum's happened- seeing what seemed like old friends by now coming together for a family reunion that I never quite made it to. We stand on the shoulders of giants and in my eyes these were Goliaths and wasn't ready to stand in the puddles they left behind. It was a driving force for me every year to become better than I was. To me, just being able to see their shadows and, god forbid, shake their hands would be a blessing! So finally, this year, I made a decision, packed my bags, reminded myself in the mirror that I was, indeed, not a 5-year-old, and rode to Kansas City (with my friend Eric Summers who was kind enough to drive! Thanks Eric!)

me and Tyler Jacobson

I have no idea what I was expecting. Maybe there would be a lot of clouds and cities of gold. Maybe Gandalf would attend. Definitely Donato would be there slinging spells. What I got was far and beyond. Not only did I shake their hands but I spoke to them and they even spoke back to me! What were nerves at first soon turned into a calm and warm exhilaration. I made friend after friend, exchanged card after card, and drank drink after drink surrounded by the world's largest family. It felt like coming home and I would like to say here that I have never been so genuinely humbled and welcomed in my entire life.

 I tossed a lot of my own work around while I was there, and got the feedback everyone hopes for. I was told not just the changes I needed to make in my own work but the practice I needed to implement. I am inspired that I never need to stop learning and honing my craft, pursuing it to a degree of understanding that makes it a tool for answering my questions. I've always said that I like to use my art to explore other worlds, and to be frank it's like I've been walking these roads half blind with converse and then someone's handed me hiking boots and some binoculars. I will try not to forget them.

me and Captain Morgan/ Greg Manchess
(he painted and posed for the logo)

There was an awards ceremony, where all the winders of the gold and silver medals were announced, and I remember thinking to myself, "I never thought I'd be sitting in on a REAL awards show!" It was something else entirely, akin to the academy awards or the globes. In every artist that won, and in every artist that spoke, I could see not only how far they'd come and their own humility, but a small bit of myself too. That feeling was all around this past weekend. I speak of family but it was a sense of creative humanity- that we were all there for the same purpose and that we were all walking the same path. I could see myself as a child picking up books just for the cover, or stepping into art school for the first time, and I can see myself in another dream standing on a stage at Spectrum one day not as a winner in a competition, but because that huge family wants me there. I shed way too many tears.

So thank you all for taking the time to talk to me, and thank you for taking the time to support me and what I do. Thank you more for inspiring me and taking the time to do what you do. Thank you for following your own dreams and showing me how to follow mine. This weekend I met more giants than I thought I would, and I walked with them. I will never be able to repay that.

-Allen

 

me and Alex Stone

me and Justin Gerard
the world's friendliest man

me and Andrew Cefalu

me and Paul Bonner
the only man to study real dwarves

all my new friends, in card form