In this article I aim to publicise a highly talented but a fairly unknown member of the deviantart community =Dragonbrush. As it is Traditional art week I took it upon myself to find the best Traditional artist I know, And This guy takes the biscuit

Withought further ado, Begin the harrassment... I mean... Interview.. Yeah.

Firstly, Please will you tell us a bit about yourself?

Well, I have been creating artwork for many year's in one form or another, really since I was a child. When I was in the military, I was stationed in Honolulu Hawaii for five year's. That is where I learned about the airbrush. One day, after watching the street corner airbrush artist's painting on T-shirts and making a lot of cash doing it, I purchased an airbrush, and all the trimmings of it! When I took it home, my wife asked me, "Do you know how to use that thing?!"

My reply was, "No, I will learn!" And I did. I read every article that I could on airbrush techniques, and watched the artist's on the street corners for hours. I then began to experiment with it. Soon, my airbrushed oil paintings were hanging in art galleries in downtown Honolulu! Since that time, my paintings have been in many different galleries, and I have taught airbrush technique's in many settings, and many different venu's. Even as an art teacher at Western Michigan University.


So, When did you first become interested in art?

I was born interested in art! LOL! I remember when I was about three year's old, I took a drawing I did of Bugs Bunny to my mother. She thought I was lying about drawing it, untill she sat down and watched me do another one!


When did you first become aware of deviantArt?

I only became aware of deviantArt late last year. A friend told me about this online art community. I lurked for a while, and looked at much of the artwork, and saw how people here treat each other before I decided to join. I am pleased that this community is full of many talented people! I am equally pleased that this is (in large part, I have never had a negative experience here yet) a positive minded community of artist's who treat each other with respect, and do not try to do the "My work is better than yours" thing. I see deviantArt as a wonderful community of artist's of all skill levels sharing they're talents with respect. What a wonderful thing!



Why do you always depict some form of mythical creature or person-like entity in your deviations?

Hmmm. That is a good question. Well, I love dragons! If you read my current journal you will understand why. I also love the human figure! It also seems that the majority of companies that I work with really like the fantasy aspect of my paintings.

Here is another reason of why I do this. As I was growing up, I found a wonderful illustrator named Boris Vallejo, and another named Frank Frazetta. Wonderful artist's those guy's are! When I was young I would emulate they're styles as much as possible! I even did many commisioned paintings based on Boris, and Frazetta art. Then when I began to grow up, I began to develope my own style(s).

Another answer could be that phsycologist's say that artist's draw the things that they are trying to control in some way. I see alot of monstrous actions done by the human race as a whole. I suppose that I am trying to control that aspect in humanity, and try to "excercise" it in some way. I have also witnessed the nobility of the human spirit! I try to illustrate that aspect also.

I guess there are many different answers which could be given on this question, and I could actually go on for hours about it!



Where does all your inspiration come from?

Life. Everything that I see, no matter where or what it is, my mind instantly begins to calculate the paint strokes that would be needed to capture the image, and feeling!

I am alway's looking at things, and trying to see them in a different way!



Were you Artistic in School?

When I was in school, my parents were constantly called to the office. The teacher(s) would complain, "He will not do his work, he always has that darned pencil in his hand and is drawing!" I never thought that was a bad thing however. I would get back at the teacher's by drawing them in umm..............situation's that were involved with the principal or whoever. I would get in a lot of trouble! However, I was also the kid that the art teacher adored, and I did many special projects for the school system, the town, and was published several times professionally by the time I was twelve.



Do you have any more gems hidden away somewhere?


I have my own website. [link] it is full of the artwork that I have done, and continue to create.



Where are you planning on going in the future with your art?

At this present time I am working with several publisher's. I am also involved in a wonderful project with many talented people! We are doing something (I cannot go into the details of it at this time due to contractual limitations), however, this project is going to ROCK when it is published!

I will most likely die while painting or drawing something (hopefully many year's from now), with a paintbrush in my hand! My family has been instructed to hire a wonderful portrait artist at that time, and take my (creamation remains) and mix them in with the paint. The artist is then to paint a portrait of me, so that I can be forever united with the thing I love most, art.

Some of=Dragonbrush's Work

And that concludes our interview with =Dragonbrush,Come back for more great Traditional Artists later in the week.