Preface
When a book long out of print is republished, the most compelling urge is to rewrite it all, to amend and correct, to bring to it new experiences and thoughts that fill the interim since that initial publication. On the other hand, one should not invalidate the existing work, nor create a sort of hybrid volume which is neither old or new. This book, which combines Fantasy Art Workshop and Fantasy Drawing Workshop, is both old and new. The original books compose the major part of it, with new amendments, and a new portfolio section with more recent work and thoughts. The result is a book about drawing and painting, and how to take the right steps to achieve whatever goals you might have set for yourself. There are exercises and examples, vehicles for your imagination and your capacity to visualize, but the most important role is played by you. If you know how to draw already and you are quite satisfied with the results, then this book is not really for you. If you feel that figurative and narrative imagery is not your cup of tea, this book is not for you. If you feel that mythology and fantasy have little to say to our modern world, then this book is most definitely not for you. If you are searching for off-the-shelf methods and sure-fire technical tricks of the trade, then this book is most definitely not for you. However … … if your mind is full of images that keep escaping from your fingertips, this book may be of help. If you are unsure of the direction your art wishes to take, but know you should be heading somewhere, this book may be a signpost of a kind for your journey. If you find pleasure in telling stories in pictures, then this book may help you clarify your thoughts. If life has obliged you to leave pages of yourself unturned, and you’d feel better with a little company for a chapter or two, then this book is definitely for you. I will say from the start that I dislike ‘How To ...’ books, unless purely technical and about carpentry, hot-water pipes or pruning. I dislike the temptation to reduce an intuitive, personal process to a ‘system’ applied to any circumstances. I am dubious of rectangles and circles that magically turn into animals. I dislike seeing archetypes transformed into stereotypes. I sigh in dismay when I see famous paintings divided into arbitrary shapes and golden means. These leave little place for serendipity, imagination and instinct, your most precious allies and tools. Pencil drawing is giving yourself up to an exercise in the incidental. It is a form of communion with your subject, whether the subject is in front of you or inside your head. Expertise and skill, intuition and imagination, information and experience go hand in hand with your desire to express feelings, to tell stories, to create and share worlds. This mix of the universal and the personal is unique to you. I have tried to say in words how I feel about all of that. (With each picture being worth a thousand of them, that makes quite a few.) I’m grateful to the editors for allowing my thoughts such unruly growth, pruning only when necessary. This book is personal, too. I speak for myself, not for the art of drawing and painting. It is the product of four decades in art, and many years’ teaching. While much of this time has been spent locked up in the studio, these studios have been in many countries, on varying projects. Events have allowed me to meet people the world over. This has all enriched and enchanted me, part of the experience I wish to share. Finally, to my comrades-in-art and fellow illustrators, I beg your indulgence for this foray into the dreaded land of Explanation and the perilous realm of Reason, momentarily forsaking the foggy shores of Inspiration. I am speaking only for myself, not for my profession. All of you have your own voices. (But buy the book anyway.)
