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Author: Michelle_Parker, Contributing Editor
| How-to art books can be very valuable, even if they are not fantasy-oriented. If you're doing fantasy art you'll be drawing people, animals, and landscapes (backgrounds), so all the principles in the "real-world" how-to books are still valid. Light behaves the same in the real world as it would in a fantasy world. Mostly. And you’ll need to know how it’s SUPPOSED to behave in order to do strange “fantasy” things with it. A lot of people have trouble with this aspect; but really, the better you can draw “real” things, the better you’ll be able to make stuff up as you go along. There are a lot of how-to books about fantasy art available, but don't make those the only ones in your collection. Most of the fantasy art books don’t go into any real detail on extremely important things like composition, perspective, proper lighting and how to handle it, anatomy, and color theory. And they really don’t cover the techniques and tricks you’ll need to learn to master your chosen medium. |
| Start with what you are already comfortable with. If you jump straight in to something that you aren’t familiar working with, you may get discouraged. Don’t try to go from drawing real people’s portraits into trying to paint a battle scene with a knight on horseback, a dragon, two armies and an exploding castle. You’ll go bald, get frustrated, and not want to draw for months. Not to mention that if you’re going to make such a big jump so dramatically, your work will probably come out unoriginal, clichéd or very similar to another artist’s style. Break yourself into it gradually.
With every new aspect of fantasy that you add to your art, you will be blending those aspects into your own art “vocabulary,” and you will be building your own unique style. You might not notice the style at first, but other people will, and that’s what will make your work distinctive. How do you do this? If you have been drawing people, continue, but start adding fantasy elements to them. Make their ears pointy. Make their eyes a little more exotic-looking. Give them historical or fantastical clothing or jewelry. Put some wings on them. Place them in a fantasy-type of background. Allow yourself to ease into fantasy art slowly. Some people start out drawing animals. You can add wings or jeweled elements to animals as well to bring your work into the fantasy realm. If you love to draw horses, for instance, add wings or horns to them. Add decorative reins, saddles or tack instead of everyday ones. Ribbons and designs can bring a fantasy element into animal art very easily. If you’re a landscape artist, then start adding castles or fantastical cities in the distance, perhaps tucked behind a mountain. Start adding things in that don’t normally belong. In a winter scene, add a tree in the full greens and golds of summer. Or in a dark, deep green forest, add a single tree with a blaze of autumn leaves in golds and reds. Designs can be “carved” into tree trunks. Mysterious standing stones can be placed into a landscape to add a mystical quality. |  |
| Keep a LOT of reference material around for inspiration and for fact-checking. The best fantasy is grounded in reality. You'll also want to surround yourself with fantasy art. Most of us already have done this before we decide to tackle it ourselves. Spend some time on the internet looking at all the different artists. Figure out what you like what you don't. But keep in mind that you can learn even from artists you don't like. The choices they make and the reasons for them can help you in your work.
Do yourself a favor and check out the Spectrum books. They are collections of some of the best fantasy art being produced each year, and they are amazing for inspiration and to just get a good feel for the kind of work or styles that are popular that year. The eleventh one is about to come out, and a lot of stores keep a chunk of the series in stock. |
| If you want to become a fantasy artist because of your love of fantasy novels, be sure to keep reading them. They can be an invaluable resource to generate inspiration. This should be obvious, but I actually fell victim to this myself. I had stopped reading in favor of making artwork, and a lot of my inspiration slowly dried up. The more active you can keep your brain, the more creative you will be overall. The mythology and historical sections of the bookstore or library should also be mined for their valuables. The more versed you are in history, mythology, and even fairy tales, the more symbolism and deep cultural reference you’ll be able to scatter through your work. Anything that you can add to your work to make it richer and more meaningful to others is more than worth the time it takes to learn it. |
| Most of all, do what you like to do. Have fun. Experiment. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. A lot of things that you might think of as mistakes can teach you new techniques, and ways of looking at your art. This is something you are doing for yourself; don't worry about making your first few perfect. Just do them. Draw and have fun, and learn. Eventually, you'll get used to it and it won't be a struggle to come up with ideas or to get them down on paper...most of the time. We all have those bad days where it’s a struggle, but the great artists are the ones who keep going through those bad times and come out the other side with much more knowledge and comfort with their work. Don't worry if you find yourself mostly happy with your pictures, but keep getting hung up on one or two flaws. That means you're still learning. Every time I do a painting, I will begin to start seeing flaws within a month or two. That just means that I've learned since I did the painting, or while doing the painting, and that I'm getting better. The same will happen to you if you keep at it. It's a good thing.
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| B i o g r a p h y | |
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Michelle Parker has been a fantasy artist for the past 15 years. For the last 7 of those she has cultivated a love of Celtic knotwork and often incorporates the design elements into her work. She works in a wide variety of media, including watercolor, colored pencils, graphite, pastels, digital, acrylics, oils, sculpey and fabric. |
| E-Mail: mparker@knotwyrks.com Web Site: http://www.knotwyrks.com | |
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