Constant Practice

     I think, as an artist, you never stop learning. When you travel and see different culture, adventure, meet a new person, notice a new color on a brick, even experience new technology you store it away, consciously or no, to the file cabinets of your memory. But more than that, there is no better way to train your artistic hand than to use it. Art is skill, not a talent, and much like any other skill it can wax and wain with time. Like taking 6 months off from the gym, 200lbs isn't as easy to lift as it once was- and the same is true for painting/drawing.

    Yes, with every new big painting you learn and grow your skill, but daily I think one should do quick studies of a thing. It is in those moments of seeing a problem before you, setting forth to solve it, and learning from it that both your hand, muscles and mind grow. Action begets action begets experience begets wisdom, I say! 

     Personally, I adore figure drawing. I held a pencil long before I held a brush. At times this has come back to bite me, as a painting and a drawing are not the same thing, but done together and thought of as one and you begin to change the way you think. Different aspects of what you want to get on the page become important and not so much the problem itself but the way you go about solving it evolves into something new. 

     After months of absence from figure drawing I've recently taken it up again digitally. The Croquis Cafe channel on youtube offers a weekly challenge on different models and timed drawing sessions. I've fallen in love with it and thankfully I'm working my way back in the videos so I've got plenty to choose from! 

     I'd like to share some of my favorite pages of sketches over the past few months from these sessions, none taking longer than 5 minutes. I hope you enjoy  and remember that it's the journey and not the finish!

Chasing the Dragon

Hunted   8" x 12"   Digital     2015

     In case you didn't get it the first time, Dragons are one of my favorite things: to paint, draw, design, read about, figure out, and see.
     If I'm being honest, I have no idea why. Maybe it's the challenge of making what doesn't exist seem real or maybe it's that in games, books, movies, you always see them at the end like this big hurtle the hero has the face, the ultimate fight. They're these mythical embodiment of awesome power- the immovable object and the unstoppable force (unless you have a black arrow).
    But that's all imagination, metaphor, storyline. We're here to talk about painting.

     Back during the summer I had some free time and did a sketch that I really enjoyed that kind of encompassed this hero figure avoiding a dragon. For about a month on and off I've been trying to tackle that piece in between commissions- and let me tell you that leaving and coming back to a painting after sometimes weeks on end is not as healthy as you might think for the creative process.
I turned it over in my head a lot, from this idea that dragon riding my be a sport in this world, to someone escaping from capture, to a group of dragon riders out like hunting foxes, to a war fought in the sky. All of it sounded exciting to me, but didn't capture the initial feeling of the sketch I'd done.

I really did like the rest, and I'm working on another one right now!

    In my mind's eye I had this hero- and that was the important part. It was this portrait and the story of this man at that place and time. Who was he? What was he moving away from/ toward? It wasn't so much about the dragons as what they represented to the character- his past and his future.
     It was still exciting, if a little cookie cutter for an image. I really liked the idea of the whites robes separating and leading into his form and the atmosphere in the air. I think subtlety speaks volumes often and that was my idea with the initial scheme.
      I kept working on it, hoping everything would come together, nothing feeling as right as I wanted it to. I still liked the little parts of the painting, but I didn't like the narrative. It wasn't saying anything and it didn't look good.
   

     

      It wasn't working for me. I ended up taking it back down to thumbnail size, because after working on a piece (even digitally) it can start to feel precious with every stroke, like you might mess it up. I did sketch after sketch on top of it in color, and then started playing with the values more, thinking about the background and the relationship between the opposing characters. I'd always known I wanted the guy to look like a wizard with his flowing robes and neat hair and I thought the white was a nice touch to his good nature. But maybe he wasn't so good. Maybe he was more drastic than subtle (he is riding a dragon after all). I took a leap and ended up giving him some actual character with his fine red cloak, ran it past some good friends who liked it, and came down to the final you see up top.

     In the end, it came down to the story of a man being hunted down. He's chased and they're on his heels, but he's moving forward despite what he's done or what he's running from. His hands are steady, one open to face what may come, and his eyes look toward the future, as we all must. 

   

    I hope you'll enjoy seeing my process in the GIF below as much as I enjoyed painting it!

You can always see more of my new work at: http://allenmorrisart.com

or follow me on Facebook 

On Dragons

I remember it clearly.
     There I was just getting home from a day of school. I was on my fifth or so Legend of Drizzt book at the time, and I all ready knew I'd be immersed until I'd read the last of the series. I'd always known of Drizzt, the dark elf with his two scimitars, since my first days playing Dungeons and Dragons at the age of 12 or so. Today would be a different kind of day, though. Today was the day that I would turn to the inside page, see the words "cover illustration by Todd Lockwood," and become lost late into the night staring at Todd's webpage. Before me stretched not only every cover I'd ever seen featuring the dark elf, but also the concept art of Dungeons and Dragons that I'd grown up with- the lines and colors I would mimic in my own sketchbook designing my own characters.

Drizzt detail from The Orc King
 by Todd Lockwood

    I had never heard of Todd Lockwood before that day. Hell, it had never even crossed my young mind that someone might be able to make a career creating for fantasy, but seeing his works spread before me felt like coming home. It felt like a second family I could come back to anytime I wanted- and I did.
    But you know what else I found looking through his work? I found dragons. Dragons upon dragons upon dragons! Red and gold and blue and silver dragons! Big and small dragons! Long and short dragons! Each sharp tooth or edge of flame meticulously rendered, each scale part of an elegant frame whose whole made the creature come to life!
     I was hooked. From that day on, when the urge strikes me, I am apt to sketch a bat-like wing, or fire breathing maw. As the years went by I started art school, and from there I sought to understand the anatomy of what made a dragon. How did they fly? How could they breathe fire? Don't get me wrong, I am fully aware that they don't exist, but the challenge of designing what doesn't exist so that it might better exist inside my and your imagination is a challenge of my dreams!
Dragons have always held a place in the back of my mind, from my first days watching the Pagemaster, to reading Harry Potter and playing D&D as a kid. I do not think I've ever reached a personal excellence for creating them, myself, but I can still enjoy them. I'd like to share a few of my favorites with you. There are many different kinds, which you'll see, and many different styles for visualizing them.

Spellbound
 by Todd Lockwood

Tyranny of Dragons
by Tyler Jacobson

World's End
by Cynthia Sheppard

Adventurers
by Donato Giancola

I love each piece for different reasons, but I'll keep them to myself. There are many more illustrations of dragons out there, too many to count or list. These are just the ones that have stayed with me, and I know will be in my mind as I continue figuring out what makes a dragon to me.

Have a happy new year!

Remember, time is short and art is fleeting!

-A