Who is Duncan Long?

 

Duncan Long is a graphic artist who’s also an inter-nationally recognized author with nearly 100 books and manuals that have gone into print including thirteen novels. Originally, Long did most of his illustrating work for his own non-fiction books.

 

“These were ‘traditional’ drawings done with pen and ink,” Long says with a grin. “Then I discovered computer graphics and got a graphics tablet. Now I don’t think I can easily go back to the ‘old ways’ of doing artwork. What used to take me several days to do, I can now do in hours. And no ink splotches on my clothing afterward, either.”

 

Can I use your artwork for free at my Web site?

 

With a very occasional exception for non-profit organizations, I’m no longer letting folks use my artwork for free. I have a family to support and have lost several sales due to the use of artwork on sites. Remember, too, that if you display any artwork without permission, you not only are breaking the law, you’re also hurting the artist who created the work you like.

 

Do you consider yourself an Outsider Visionary Artist?

 

I have been called that. Of course I’ve been called a lot of things that ̵ hopefully ̵ I am not. You can see a fuller discussion of this in my Outsider Visionary Artist Interview.

 

How do you create your illustrations?

 

I do everything on the computer, though people sometimes mistake my work for oils or airbrush work. That's probably because I cut my teeth on oil painting and liked the final product - but not the mess of getting there. (And that mess is also why most of my pre-computer stuff was pen and ink for the most part.)

 

I use a graphics tablet for most of my digital work; at first it didn’t seem much better than a mouse, but after a couple of days I got used to it and now it is in the “can’t live without it” category.

 

What software do you use for your illustrations?

 

Whatever gets the job done. Just as I sometimes used this or that brush, a palette knife, or whatever with oil painting, I often switch from this and that 3D or paint program and this and that plugin within those programs to obtain what I have pictured in my mind.  

 

I try not to “upgrade” programs too often. Most art programs have so many capabilities, that it often takes years to really discover all they can do and to gain skills in using them. A constant upgrade path can derail this progress.

 

Sometimes I use 3D programs to do the “grunt work” I don't want to do by hand, roughing in ideas. But these are almost always extensively reworked in a paint program to get the final look I desire.

 

Where do you get your ideas?

 

Many of my pictures are “made to order” for editors and others. These are a matter of transforming a writer’s story or an editor’s idea into a workable picture.

 

However, the illustrations I do for fun often become the ones that everyone wants - go figure. Sometimes I set about creating graphic artwork from an idea I have; often these are pretty straightforward and consist of producing a picture more or less the way one might a traditional painting, sketching in the components, arranging them so they’re balanced, then polishing and finishing them.

 

Other pictures seem to spring up almost on their own. I’m not sure exactly how the process works or whether it is the same every time (observing oneself without getting so distracted that the work suffers isn’t easy).

 

The computer art programs I use often seem to propel the creative process into areas I would not have ventured into had I been working in oils, pen and ink, or whatever. Additionally, the computer permits endless experimenting until an effect is achieved that is what I'm looking (yea, even hoping) for.

 

Sometimes the changes brought through computer modification are somewhat unexpected. These can also lead down avenues that would never have been discovered with traditional media.

 

Leonardo De Vinci suggested using ink spots, stains on walls, etc., for inspiration for pictures. I think some of this goes on with the computer and some of the more exotic “plugins” for graphics programs.

 

Of course this is an oversimplification of the process. Often the whole methodology is mystifying and a somewhat seat-of-the-pants operation. When I’m finished, I often marvel that I had anything to do with producing what’s there on the screen. Or I will return to an illustration and be somewhat amazed that my name is down there in the corner (but, of course, I’d rather have my name there than that of someone else).

 

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The following is an excerpt from a recent interview I did with a college student:

 

You are a writer as well as an artist - which talent did you discover you had first?

 

Well, I've been drawing since I was able to lift a pencil - my mom claims that, at an early age, I created some very nice “cave man” drawings on the family home’s walls. By first grade I was putting together “books” that I wrote and illustrated, much like what I'm doing now (and at the same level of expertise, my critics would most likely argue).

 

I often wonder if my profession was “in my blood.” It certainly seems so.

 

I haven't ever had any formal training except for a 3-hour course in college designed to teach elementary teachers how to teach children to color, cut paper, and other nonsense. That was perhaps worse than no art course at all.

 

Fortunately my dad was a skilled amateur artist who showed me how to do a lot and gave me some excellent books and magazines that got me started with oils and water colors in addition to my drawing.

 

There are holes in my technique, but not many, thanks to my more-or-less self taught skills obtained by reading a lot and observing what other good artists have done - the latter being similar to reverse engineering used in industry, I guess. I think if a person were really serious about artwork, they'd get a lot of formal training so they don't have to re-invent the wheel. If I were just starting out, I’d head to college.

 

Are there any artists that have influenced your work?

 

Many. I've tried to become familiar with the whole gamut of work from ancient sculptures and paintings up to the present. It seems there's always something to learn, a new way of looking at things to be learned, from studying the works of others. I think this is really key to becoming a good artist: You’re always observing and always learning new tricks.

 

Beginners (myself included in the past) always want to blaze a new trail and do something that is completely new and different. But that isn’t possible unless you want to invent a new medium and then can somehow manage to use it in a new way. That might have been possible in 5000 BC, but surely is not now, barring some new break-through in technology.

 

All good art (whether literature, music, or painting) is  built on the techniques and styles of the past.

 

We don’t remember the first guy to paint in oils; we remember the people who mastered the skill to create art that is treasured. The first guy to scrawl a drawing in pencil is forgotten; the artist that can create a memorable drawing is remembered - even though technically nothing “new” was created with the medium. I think that what I’ve learned and have had driven home to me is that the great artists aren't trail blazers but rather masters of technique which they can then exploit to present original ideas and views.

 

Since going to the medium of computer graphics, do you still use other methods, as in oils or watercolors?

 

I left oils to concentrate on pen and ink because it seemed more precise and was easier and faster to work with. The precision was essential for illustrating the technical subjects I was writing about (which included everything from firearms to how to write books). I packed up my oils and never got them out again (they still sit in a box on my desk at my parents’ home, collecting dust for over three decades now).

 

Several years ago I started using the computer for illustrating my writing projects. One day I realized I hadn’t even touched my pens and drawing tools for almost a year. Stealth obsolescence, I guess. I packed them up and put the box on the shelf and have only opened it once to retrieve a ruler for measuring a picture. Currently, the only time I use a pencil or pen is to jot a note at the phone or to sign a check or contract. I guess it is pretty weird when you think about how fully the computer has changed the process of creating art.

 

Actually, the whole change-over is a very strange event - rather like a child packing up his toys and never playing with them again. It is sad to think about, in a way - nostalgic, if that’s possible given the pain and agony of trying to correct a mistake made with pen or oil (no undo or deletes in the good old days). Yet this all seems like a normal progression. What I obtained with my “toys” of paint brush and pen is far inferior to what I can do on the computer (or, at least, the old media were much, much slower).

 

I don’t feel all the years with oils and ink were wasted, however. Many of the techniques I used are now employed with the computer artwork. The abilities gained with pencil, pen, and brush all go right into the strokes of the graphics pen.

 

Plugins and filters are useful tools, though care must be taken that they don't become an end to themselves rather than a tool. Sometimes when using these the computer almost becomes a graphic art “assistant,” generating ideas or layouts I would never have considered in working without the modifications the program generated. This dynamic element of the computer is something that has really made my graphics work “spread its wings” and venture into areas I would have been incapable of journeying to without the computer-assist. Ditto with “sprays” of pictures.

 

The best part of computer art, though, is that there're no turpentine fumes.

 

Which of your pieces of art is your favorite?

 

That's like asking a parent to pick their favorite child. I think my work that is dark and more abstract (though never totally abstract) tends to be my favorite, though some of my more realistic pieces I’m quite proud of.

 

My favorites aren’t always those of the viewer. I’ve found one big plus of the Internet is that there is now the space to display almost all of an artist’s work so people can see them. What I’ve found in doing this with my online galleries is that graphic art pieces that would otherwise never been seen by anyone because I wasn’t too crazy about them are sometimes the favorites of some viewers.

 

Bolstered by the favorable response from visitors to my site in the past, I now put more material on the Web and continue to be surprised at how people like some of the pieces that I thought were hardly worth saving. Since the computer makes it possible to create "sketches" relatively rapidly, it's possible to create far more pictures than there's any market for. In the past most of these surplus drawings would have been stored away on a CD and forgotten or even simply deleted. Now I can put them up on the WWW with little effort. In effect art that would never have been seen can now be enjoyed by viewers.

 

By the same token the numbers of viewers of my artwork is amazing, thanks to the Web. If I were trying to display my artwork locally, I’d be lucky if I had several hundred people view it. Today on the Internet, my main graphic art gallery has scored almost a million hits and my pictures have been viewed in even greater numbers. That order of magnitude is staggering.

 

I think eventually the web is going to give students, and those who appreciate art, a true wealth of material that has never been available in the history of the world. People will be able to sit in their home, school, or public library and have more art to enjoy than has ever been possible in the past, regardless of how wealthy you might have been. From the standpoint of art and culture, we are living better than royalty did in the recent past.

 

Do you have any  “words of wisdom” for young artists?

 

Go into another line of work.

 

I’m only half joking.

 

It’s a really hard task to make ends meet, especially when starting out, in any of the arts these days. Today some really talented writers, illustrators, and composers labor at the most horrid of jobs because they devoted their education and time to their art. I know the average writer in the US makes about $10,000 a year - and I suspect the average graphic artist or illustrator makes half that. Ditto for musicians, dancers, and such.

 

Unfortunately there are few if any real patrons these days who will hire innovative artists. And large corporations tend to see graphic arts as sources of expensive clip art only suitable for selling toothpaste or cars; such attitudes don’t bode well for serious artists who are viewed by too many employers as just a step above the janitorial staff.

 

My advice to budding artists: Don’t quit your day job and have another way to make a living. The arts seem to be headed toward hobby status.

 

What books have you written?

 

My nonfiction subjects include everything from a health manual to how-to books - including one about making a living as a freelance writer. Three of my manuals were used by the International Correspondence Schools (I think that group has since pulled up stakes and perhaps operates out of England - I'm not sure this is the same school).

 

Currently, I’m working to produce my own publishing company that will reprint some of my novels as well as print and ebook versions of original work.

 

It has been a weird career: Some of my firearms and chemical/biological warfare books are in the private libraries of the CIA, US Marines, FEMA, and other US agencies as well as the private library of at least one foreign embassy and the EPC (Emergency Planning, Canada).

 

Before becoming a full-time writer/illustrator, I secured an MA in music composition and have enjoyed working at a variety of jobs including rock musician (where I possibly earned a total of $330 over four years); private guitar teacher;  public school teacher; and a very, very short stint (one week, part time) as a mail carrier. Since I started writing, I  hosted my own talk radio program for about a year (mostly talking on the subject of firearms and politics).  Things have never been boring, except perhaps with the low balance in my checking account.

 

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Links of possible interest:

 

Duncan Long's Graphic Designs, Illustrations, and Graphic Artwork

 

Duncan's Free Ebooks and Publications

 

Duncan's Digital Music and MP3s

 

Duncan Long's Home Page

 

Contact Duncan Long

 

 

Copyright © 2008 by Duncan Long. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner of text, book cover illustrations, graphic artwork, or graphic designs on this page or the pages it links to is strictly prohibited without prior written approval from Duncan Long. All CD cover and book cover illustrations and graphic artwork have been created by Duncan Long.

Soli Deo Gloria

For Graphic Artist, Graphic Designer, and Illustrator Duncan Long.