Oil Over Water, Pt.1

About 4 years ago, a reader named Andrew emailed asking about my choice of medium, and the change in preference between Acrylic and Oil. So here I am, having dug up the email, about to discuss it.

When I started painting in high school, I only saw two options: Oil and Acrylic. I did not know any contemporary fantasy illustrators really using watercolor (they existed, but they weren't ones I was following). Oils seemed "hard" to do for some reason. Maybe because the old masters used them. I was all of 14 or so, so you must excuse the simplicity of my decision. Besides that, Michael Whelan used Acrylic, and I had just had my world changed by his work in that year. So the decision was made and I started painting in Acrylic. Nevermind that Elmore, the late Parkinson and Boris (other early favs of mine in High School) all used oils. They still seemed hard for some reason.

If I remember correctly, my first attempt at painting was a collaboration with my older brother, who was 2 years ahead of me at the same high school. We both had dug the art of Derek Riggs that was used on Iron Maiden's album covers. We never actually listened to Iron Maiden, but we loved the art. As an aside, apparently Iron Maiden have been complaining that Riggs was posting the art he did for them on his own website and so he has had to remove them. What the heck? Riggs probably did as much for Iron Maiden as they did for Riggs. I know I certainly would never have cared who Iron Maiden were without Riggs' art. Very cool, Iron Maiden. Way to stick it to the man.

So anyway, we bought a 22x28" canvas board, some cheap Acrylic paint, brushes and a cheap white chipboard palette. We alternated working on various parts of it night by night, and so did a copy of "Somewhere in Time" (at least the front cover of the cassette we borrowed. I think we listened to the tape once while working on it--meh. If I was back in California I would include a scan of it here, because I still have it. Of course then Iron Maiden might toss a lawyer my way, too). I really loved working with the paint.

From then on I painted a lot. My father procured for me an airbrush, which I used for years. It wasn't that great--I think it was meant more for industrial use than illustration, but it did the job. I used it mainly in art class where they had compressed air available. I cut friskets. I was on my way!

My trusted airbrush for about 10 years. Thanks dad!

A couple of times during those years I also attempted working in oils. That same brother, years earlier, had received a basic Grumbacher gift set--maybe 8 tubes of paint, some cheap brushes, a bottle of linseed oil, a bottle of turpentine, I think. He maybe used it once and then abandoned it (before our Iron Maiden debut). I basically appropriated the set. I copied illustrations I liked a lot in those days, often by the above-mentioned or other fantasy illustrators. It was the primary way I taught myself in those days. I worked on my desk in my bedroom, completely flat. Occasionally I'd use my brother's drafting table. Sometimes I worked on my bed, kneeling at the side of the bed like I might be saying evening prayers or something. I painted a lot. I read a book on Acrylic painting. I read Boris Vallejo's book, "Fantasy Art Techniques." Mainly, I reinvented the wheel.

By my senior year I was basically painting all the time. Prior to that I would do large finished pencil drawings, or drawings in Prismacolor pencil, which I won't link because I now despise them due to wax bloom that appears on the drawings you create with them, making everything hazy and light.

(Perhaps I sold it because I'd just started dating my now-wife. Motives are hard to discern.)

But mainly I worked in Acrylic. My junior year I sold my NES and all my games since I didn't have a job yet (I was 15) and bought a compressor so I could airbrush at home. I would do it outside because it was noisy as a...commercial compressor. I also didn't wear protective breathing apparatus and probably lopped a couple years' worth of life expectancy off. More things I wished I'd learned....