Welcome to the Surrealist - Fantasy Art Gallery of  Howard David Johnson; his Surrealist Art Work depicts Fantastic Fantasy  Worlds filled with fantastic creatures, castles, dungeons, dragons, heroes, beautiful maidens, and fairies, mermaids, gods and monsters all in a style inspired by classic illustrators. David has spent a lifetime creating his photo realistic fantasy art in mixed media including oil paintings, colored pencils, inks, acrylics, pastels and photography among other media and now in the 21st century creates his fantasy art incorporating cutting edge digital artistry when the monsters, wild beasts, fearless heroes, and insanely gorgeous femme fatales shackled deep in his subconscious mind run free in his fantasy art.
FANTASY ART POSTERS  BOOK COVERS  ART BOOKS   PUBLISHING LICENSES   ORIGINAL FANTASY ART   ART INSTRUCTION  Welcome Fantasy lovers! Click the control key plus the + or - keys to zoom in and out or fit the page match to your monitor's settings.
Featuring Hyper Realistic Fantasy Illustrations  This gallery is dedicated to Frank Frazetta, the Great Grand Master of Fantasy Art...    Just what EXACTLY is Fantasy Art?      This question is not as readily answered as you might think since the term has been defined so loosely that it has ceased to have a distinctive meaning. It has been said that Science-fiction art &  fantasy art are two entirely different things. That Science- fiction is the improbable made possible and fantasy is the impossible made probable.     In general, Fantasy art refers to any kind of picture or sculpture that illustrates the fantastic, unreal or supernatural in a way that makes it seem real within its context.     Fantasy art can both be a term of praise and adulation or a term of derision and dismissal. Fantasy art is not taken seriously in the writings of many traditional art historians, which indicates a very different definition than what we see in common usage today, which would include obvious masters of fine art like Gustave Moreau and William Blake. While many writers dismiss it as popular culture, I contend that many of the greatest artists in history have at least dabbled in it and that this attitude is merely snobbism.  "The Dragon Slayer" New for 2010! MMX (Mixed Media)            While there are many elements of horror in fantasy art and almost any genre can blend with it, fantasy art remains a unique genre in its own right. Recently even religious paintings have been grouped with fantasy art, making it an even broader and more unmanageable category.   Fantasy Art has been with us since at least 25,000 years ago, when the first fantasy artist picked up a charred stick from the fire and scratched a picture out on the wall of his cave. By now, you'd think everything would have been tried, but we haven't even come close.       Exploring new mediums for fantasy art is just as exciting today, just as full of freshness and newness as it ever been. Coming from a background in traditional art media including oils pastels and colored pencils and then embracing today's leading edge digital media, I have other suggestions as well... Great Legends, Folklore and Mythology have always been the wellspring and the fountain head of my inspiration when creating all my various forms of  fantasy Art. Wagner's classic opera "The Twilight of the Gods" & Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" provided the inspiration for these next two pieces of contemporary fantasy Art.
Below, in "Elven Fairy Magic", Elements of surrealism and symbolism abound, especially in the women's faces in the evaporating mist flowing upward and merging with the forest.  In addition to theme and content, media is an important issue- this is A  Prismacolor "Painting" if you will, because this is not the kind of picture people think of when people hear the word "Drawing". Scroll down for examples of the same picture in digital media, Prismacolor colored pencils on paper and oil on canvas compared... The digital montage is a natural evolution of the preliminary photo collage David learned from great realistic artists like Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell. Of course copyright must be considered. Read David's essay for more. The U.S. Library of Congress Office of Copyright once asked him for permission to print excerpts from it...
	Many have written asking about publishing and collecting and the incompatible picture sizes, this poster design shape for "Elven Fairy Magic" ( left) is unsuitable for use as a book cover but is suitable for a standard frame opening. Custom framing can easily run up to $800-$900. USD (yikes!) or only $49.-$65.USD for a very similar standard 16x20" wide frame.      David loves to do custom Fantasy book covers, especially to help emerging Fantasy writers. Publishing calls for a different shape than traditional picture framing, basically more space at the top. Many of David's Fantasy Art posters can be modified to add that neutral space at the top with Adobe Photoshop (tm) Software. Printers also need neutral "chopping space". In the early days of David's career adding canvas space was as impossible as growing a second head... but now it is so easy he usually doesn't even charge extra to adapt them if its just skies or landscapes!  Looking for a cover? Most of the illustrations in this web are available for licensing at a very low cost and all new custom commissions are available too starting at only $500.00 USD. Here are examples of existing Johnson art that were adapted for use as Fantasy and Romance book covers below... Notice the upgrade on the spear point in the process. (below right)
And now back to the discussion of my Fantasy Art, regarding its content and themes...
My favorite fantasy illustrations as a boy were for the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs & Robert E. Howard by Fantasy Art Legend Frank Frazetta & collections of Arthur Rackham's myths and fairy tales. Their influence has shaped my artistic vision to this day. I began my career as a scientific illustrator and the methods I learned from the scientists to sort out the details I now apply to my fantasy art as well. Nothing - but nothing influenced me more than 19th century Victorian Fantasy Art. Among my contemporaries in the world of Fantasy Art I admire the work of Brian Froud, Alan Lee and Frank Frazetta."  ~H.D.J .
Along with the classic myths and legends that captivate my imagination and  serve as great fantasy art themes with all their beautiful maidens, mighty heroes, gods and monsters, I even turn to science and natural history for themes. I began my career in 1974 as a scientific illustrator drawing dinosaurs and had to keep my love of fantasy a secret...Of course simple Pin-ups and mild Erotic Art make up a great deal of Contemporary Fantasy Art and have always been among my favorites. I never really liked the ones with weak or helpless women dominated by musclemen though, I like the magical and powerful ladies.
Dragons have always been a mainstay of Fantasy Art. In fact, dragons were at times even conceived as beneficent powers - sharp eyed dwellers of the innermost portions of the Earth, wise to discover it's secrets and utter them in oracles, or powerful to invoke as guardian Genii. (Djinn) The Dragon has played an important part in the myths and religions of mankind since pre-historic times...
Although regarded as a sacred guardian by many of the ancient cults the dragon has been more commonly symbolic of the principle of evil though, and the slaying of a dragon the crowning achievement of heroes like the Nordic Siegfried (above right) from The Ring Cycle which inspired The Lord of The Rings.  The Classical Dragon is a magnificent mythical monster usually represented as a huge crested snake, with great bat wing- like extensions growing from it's back, clawed limbs, or both, but continues to evolve in contemporary Fantasy Art.
Fairies as Fantasy Art? Of all Shakespeare's plays A Midsummer Night's Dream has had the most compelling hold on the imagination of painters. William Blake made a series of watercolors in the early 1790's. By the mid 1800's a tradition developed among British and Scottish Painters that continues today. See more fairies in the Fantasy Art Gallery links.   FANTASY ART POSTERS  BOOK COVERS  ART BOOKS   PUBLISHING LICENSES   ORIGINAL FANTASY ART   ART INSTRUCTION
FANTASY ART POSTERS  BOOK COVERS ART BOOKS   PUBLISHING LICENSES   ORIGINAL FANTASY ART   ART INSTRUCTION
BOOK COVERS   FANTASY ART POSTERS   ART BOOKS   PUBLISHING LICENSES   ORIGINAL FANTASY ART   ART INSTRUCTION    Mermaids, Castles, Dungeons & Dragons are enduring fantasy art favorites... but can some pieces of Fantasy Art also qualify as Surrealism or Surrealistic Art? Of course they can...
Surrealism is a literary and artistic movement launched in 1924 by the French poet Andre' Breton proclaiming the radical transformation of all existing social, scientific, and philosophical values through the total liberation of the subconscious.
The most famous surrealist was the great Salvador Dali. His subconscious mind saw things that should be rigid as limp or melting and reflected it in his work with a sense of horror. Soon surrealism became synonymous with images of inappropriately limp or soft objects. (What would Sigmund Freud say about that I wonder?)

Melting things are not necessarily surrealistic & surrealism is as vast as the human psyche. Everyone has different things enslaved in their subconscious mind.   The monsters, wild beasts, fearless heroes, and insanely gorgeous femme fatales shackled deep in Howard David Johnson's subconscious mind run free in his fantasy art.
" I've often thought that some of the most fantastic creatures and visions in all of the literature of mankind were found in the sacred texts of active religions. Sensitive subject matter to say the least. Few artists in history have even dared to attempt to paint these symbolic visions because of the controversies surrounding them... While I've been studying legends, myths, and traditions of the ancient Orient for new illustration projects I've also been studying William Blake, Moreau, Rochegrosse, Delville, and the Symbolic artistic tradition. In my paintings, I have endeavored to realize decadent mythology and sacred religious texts in my contemporary 'Fantasy Art" with the same style of vision and reverence they showed in their works ." ~HDJ Some people would be deeply offended to call these pictures of Angels "Fantasy Art", but others would be offended if you didn't! So what is or is not Fantasy art can depend on your religious beliefs as well as your tastes. When you consider these things, how can anyone intelligently say that Fantasy Art is not REALLY Art? Fantasy Art is as viable a form of art as any other. Fantasy Art hangs in the halls of the world's greatest museums and yet is is often a term of derision. To make matters worse, art education has been almost completely removed from American Schools. Today, most American college graduates cannot name even one living artist. There is no way that mandating more math, requiring more reading, or scheduling more science will replace what we have lost as a culture.          MODERN MYTHOLOGY? ( "Goblin Fighter Halith" left 2010 digital) Was done for a Fantasy book cover. Chicks in chain mail? The warrior woman has emerged in recent times as ferocious and deadly as the mightiest male warriors of myth and history. The weaker sex? Not in these stories! The oddest part of this fun new phenomenon in fantasy art, cartoons, novels and movies is the eagerness of certain writers to pretend they always existed and to present historical figures in this light. Generals participating in battle plans? Yes! Judges and mayors? Yes! Battlefield combatants? No. Celtic Women were more like Warrior Queen Boudica (above right) and were more like cheerleaders on those days in history at the sites where the battles were actually fought. If their man was cowardly on the battlefield, they were eyewitnesses and you can rest assured he wished he was dead when he got home.   BOOK COVERS   FANTASY ART POSTERS   ART BOOKS   PUBLISHING LICENSES   ORIGINAL FANTASY ART   ART INSTRUCTION     Howard David Johnson works in a wide variety of media to create his Fantasy Art * Oil paintings * Acrylic Paintings * Prismacolor Paintings * Drawings * Chalk & Oil Pastel Paintings * Photography * and last but not least: Digital Artistry & Mixed Media *  Because of the use of photography in everything he does, even Johnson's all-oil paintings can be termed mixed media.* MANY PIECES OF ORIGINAL ART ON PAPER LIKE THESE ARE AVAILABLE: Many pieces are currently available, mostly 11x14-13x16 inch Prismacolor Paintings (like Helen of Troy) and pencil portraits (like Arriba #2) followed in number by Acrylic, Prismacolor and pastel mixed media all on #400 Strathmore Bristol Board ranging from $700.00-$1400. 00 USD and Oil Paintings on canvas ranging from $1999.00 USD and up.  Pieces that have never been rendered in oil can be commissioned in 16x20 inch size on canvas for 50% down and delivered in under 90 days with signed certificates of authenticity aka legal documents pledging never to render it in that size and media again to ensure premium collectability and investment potential. David can also do a completely new picture designed in digital media (for more on this visit his digital media page) and when we approve the photo-montage, he uses it as reference to render it in oil on canvas. No surprises.  Existing Artwork is shipped very well protected and go out to you immediately via Fed Ex or USPS Express mail upon receipt of payment at our expense. All new creations cost a bit more depending on what is involved. All new creations and rendering photo montages into art on paper are a LOT of fun with e-mail attachments and digital cameras.   POSTER ART   ART BOOKS   PUBLISHING LICENSES   BUY ORIGINAL ART   ART INSTRUCTION  ORIGINAL OIL PAINTINGS ON CANVAS LIKE THIS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE:   Almost all of Johnson's Mixed Media creations (above left) are available to be rendered in oil on canvas once like the 20x16 oil on canvas Faerie Guardians (above right). Each design will only be rendered in oil once at this size and can be delivered in as little as 90 days. Sadly, much of the subtlety, vibrance, lustre and impact of an original oil painting is lost when it is scanned and imported to digital media or even printed by a master printer. Nothing can compare to an original oil painting viewed in person in my opinion but the other painting media definitely look good in print and have their charms and distinct advantages. People have written asking me to tell them how to tell mixed media from prismacolors or oil. The very fact it is so hard to tell is my point! This new media looks very presentable and costs far less! ALL HALLOWS EVE was begun as a digital montage This is your guide: above far right is the digital composition...The question is, are you willing to pay tens of thousands to be old fashioned if only an art expert can tell the difference?       New for 2010! ALL HALLOWS EVE rendered in oil on 20x16 canvas (right) features the lovely Ann Bratton as Titania in this illustration from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Even when displayed at the same size the oil on canvas is clearly a superior illustration to the 2006 Prismacolor Painting on paper. (left). Considering many oil painters charge 60,000.00 USD and up my 2,000.00 USD prices are very low... New for 2010! Want to see your fantasy realized? David is now accepting commissions for Fantasy Portraits! e-mail for more details at info@howarddavidjohnson.com Thank you for Visiting... Your  business, letters, & links are always welcome. *****     FANTASY ART LESSONS, FREE TIPS, & PAID PERSONAL INSTRUCTION    Previews of art lessons are provided free of charge to aspiring artists. Click on Jungle Tales (Right)  for links to them. After you have seen them, if you would like to still learn more of his art techniques - personal instruction is available. Although portraiture is essential to quality realistic illustration, it is not the primary focus of our school, but rather to teach everything needed for you to produce good visual story telling art or dramatic illustrative portraits. Hence the name: The Brandywine School of ILLUSTRATIVE ART... Click on "Jungle Tales" for more...  info@howarddavidjohnson.com "Jungle Tales" (2001) Colored Pencils on Bristol Board Thank You for Visiting the Realistic Fantasy Art Gallery of Howard David Johnson Keep scrolling down for Info about Fantasy Art Books & Fantasy Art posters, licensing and more... All Fantasy Art & Text   copyright 2010 Howard David Johnson All rights reserved. ***** ON SALE NOW from BRANDYWINE PRESS!          These beautifully printed 11" x 8.5" 64 page hardcover and trade paperback versions feature 48 full page interior plates in full color starting at only $14.99 USD. Less than the price of a single poster! Featuring Realistic Mythological and Fairy Art created in a style inspired by Classic Illustrators by American Artist & Photographer Howard David Johnson. And new for 2010 - our GIANT sized 12 month Angel Art Calendar! Click on the covers to order the books from Lulu.com POSTER SIZE FANTASY ART REPRINTS Click on the CREDIT CARD logo  below to VISIT POD PUBLISHING FOR 114 DIFFERENT BEAUTIFUL POSTER SIZE REPRINTS  AND A VARIETY OF PAYMENT OPTIONS, SIZES, PAPERS, AND PRICES
BOOK COVERS   FANTASY ART POSTERS   ART BOOKS   PUBLISHING LICENSES   ORIGINAL FANTASY ART   ART INSTRUCTION

Enter a World of Beauty and Imagination...

If you enjoyed this site, try visiting these other Fantastical & Fantasy Art Galleries Main Art Gallery Greek Mythic Art Celtic Mythology Religious Art Art of Norse Myths Surreal Fantasy Art Art of Asian Myths Symbolist Art The Seven Wonders Art of Res Publica Historical Art Spartan Warriors Art Numérique Art Commissions Commercial Art History of Dragons More Fantasy Art Mythic goddess Art Fantasy Pin up Art Fantasy Art lessons Studio Photography Art Instruction Frauen Mit Blumen Realistic Paintings Fairy Fantasy Art Thumbelina full size Portrait Art I Portrait Art II Fantasy Wallpapers Pre-Raphaelite Art  Art of the Bible Mermaid Art  The Art of War  Business Center Legendary Women Paintings in Oils All Fantasy Art and text copyright 2006 by the author, Howard David Johnson. All Rights Reserved Worldwide FANTASY ART POSTERS   ART BOOKS   PUBLISHING LICENSES   ORIGINAL FANTASY ART   ART INSTRUCTION  We LOVE hearing from our customers, colleagues and friends: info@howarddavidjohnson.com Thank you for Visiting... Your  business, letters, & links are always welcome. *****   This Fantasy Art Gallery has been honored by more than 25,000,000 Unique Visitors  from the Four Corners of the Earth My Friends from around the world thus far :   England,   Canada,   Scotland,   Wales,   Ireland,   Germany,   France,   Monaco,   Andorra,   Italy,   The Vatican City State,  Greece,  Macedonia,  Cyprus,  Turkey,  Belgium,  Denmark,  The Faroe Islands,  Greenland,  Yugoslavia, Macedonia,  Croatia,  The Czech Republic,  Bosnia,  Herzegovina,  Slovakia,  Slovenia,  Luxembourg,  Latvia,  Estonia, Hungary,  Bulgaria,  Lithuania,  Poland,  Austria,  Romania,  Spain,  The Russian Federation,   Ukraine,   Kazakhstan, Moldova,  Malta,  Iceland,  Finland,  Norway,  Netherlands,  Switzerland,  Liechtenstein,  Sweden,  Portugal,  Albania, Armenia, Georgia,  Azerbaijan,  Belarus,  Kazakhstan,  Gibraltar,  Israel,  Palestinian Territories,   Egypt,   Libya,  Mali, Algeria,  Niger,  Saudi Arabia,  Oman,  The United Arab Emirates,  Kuwait,  Bahrain,  Qatar,  Yemen,  Iraq,  Iran,  Jordan, Syria,   Lebanon,   Morocco,   Ethiopia,   Eritrea,   Liberia,   The Republic of Congo,   Rwanda,   Kenya,  Angola,  Ghana, The Ivory Coast,   Zambia,   Zimbabwe,   Sudan,  Nigeria,  Namibia,  Uganda,   Kenya,  Eritrea,  Tanzania,  Botswana, Malawi,  Senegal,  Djibouti,  Cameroon,  Chad,  Gambia,  Mozambique,  Swaziland,  Lesotho,  South Africa,  Seychelles,   Viet Nam, Japan,  South Korea,  China,  Hong Kong,  Macau,  Mongolia,  Mauritius,  Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia,  Laos,   Myanmar,  Macau,  Malaysia,  Taiwan,  Nuie,  New Zealand,  Fiji,  Cook Islands,  New Caledonia,  Vanuatu,  American Samoa,  Australia,  Micronesia,  Polynesia,  Papua New Guinea,  The Heard and McDonald Islands,  The Philippines, Guam, Palau,  Cocos Island,  The Kingdom of Tonga,  Malaysia,   Brunei Darussalem,  India,   Pakistan,   Afghanistan, Bhutan,  Bangladesh,  Sri Lanka,  Chagos Islands,  The Republic of Maldives,  Turkmenistan,  Kyrgyzstan,  Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan,   Nepal,  Indonesia,  Chile,  Argentina,  Uruguay,  Paraguay,  Brazil,  Peru,   Aruba,  Venezuela,  Bolivia, Suriname,  Guyana,  Aruba,  The Dominican Republic,  Guatemala,  Costa Rica,  Colombia,  Trinidad and Tobago,   Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados,  The Virgin Islands,  Saint Lucia,   The Netherlands Antilles,  Panama,  Saint Vincent & Grenadines, Grenada, Ecuador,  Belize,   Nicaragua,   El Salvador,   Bermuda,  Cuba,  Jamaica,  Dominica,  Haiti,  Puerto Rico,  Cayman Islands,   Anguilla,    The Bahamas,   Honduras,   Mexico,    Madagascar, Central African Republic,   Gabon,   San Marino,  Saint Kitts & Nevis Anguilla,   Azerbaidjan,   Burkina Faso,   Equatorial Guinea,   Mauritania,   Burundi,   and my home, The Great Free State of Texas (USA)... I think that's everybody but, if your home is not listed here please e-mail and tell us where you're from... info@howarddavidjohnson.com We love hearing from you! Your business, letters & links are always welcome. E-mail for courteous service...

Who is Fantasy Artist and Photographer Howard David Johnson?

In David's invitation to the Florence Biennale Contemporary Art Exhibition, (a partner in the United Nations' Dialog among Nations), UN Secretary General Kofi Anon wrote: "Artists have a special role to play in the global struggle for peace. At their best, artists speak not only to people; they speak for them. Art is a weapon against ignorance and hatred and an agent of public awareness... Art opens new doors for learning, understanding, and peace among nations."

A portrait of the artist in his painting studio as he is today. This September 2009 photo was taken by his youngest son Erich.

     The various galleries linked to by the icons above show many examples of His Fantasy Art, and are grouped by theme rather than media. Since boyhood he has passionately copied the old masters. To create his Fantasy Art, he usually starts with a thematic concept  followed by a rough realistic pencil sketch, then followed by his photography, often traveling to find suitable scenes and locations and then working in his Photography studio with live models from his sketches. He then assembles a variety of elements which are realistic and original. As a boy he dedicated his life to Fantasy Art in 1960. From 1965- 1999 he used xeroxes and tracings to make his preliminary photo-collages. This is patterned after  the manner used by Maxfield Parrish and other 19th century notables. Beginning with a tracing, he now draws or paints his Fantasy Art from complex original Computer Photo Montages. Many of these are on display on this web and slated for future completion in a variety of realistic traditional art media. As this happens, the finished  art work is substituted in the exhibit. Recently he shot hundreds of aerial photos of clouds at marvelous angles and perspectives and also looking down on the mighty mountains, rivers, and deserts of the American west while flying from Texas to Oregon and back for dynamic source material for realistic flying scenes in upcoming fantasy art pieces.  

    His favourite medium for Fantasy art is colored pencil because of the high speed and low expense, and people began expressing difficulty in telling his colored pencil drawing from photographs in the early 1980's.  In the last 35 plus years he has also mastered Oils, Pastels, Acrylics, Watercolors, Inks, Scratchboard, Gouache, Photography, and the highly controversial digital media ( Art Numérica ) . As a commercial illustrator Johnson has not only used the computer to create fantasy Art but has been involved in the development of computer imaging software. 

      Working in a realistic style inspired by classic illustrators HDJ is deeply rooted and grounded in the Greco-Roman artistic tradition, Feeling that with all realistic art, the human form is the ultimate arena for artistic expression. His lifelong dream came true when his Traditional Realistic Art was exhibited in the British Museum in London England in 1996. His mixed media has also been displayed in numerous other ones since such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Having achieved international acclaim as a traditional visual artist he discovered digital media ( Art Numérica ) in 1999. Because of his passion for realistic art and photography he elected to embrace it and be a part of this historic era in the visual arts as a 21st century Fantasy artist.

     Since 1972 when he began his career as a scientific illustrator for the University of Texas he has earned his living illustrating all kinds of books, magazines, CD covers, and all sorts of games, greeting cards, calendars, portraits, murals and the like with his contemporary realistic art... HDJ's Fantasy Art has appeared in every major bookstore chain and fantasy gaming shop in The United States and has been used in educational texts and magazines all over the world. This site features Fantasy Art paintings & pictures for the twenty-first Century including some oil paintings, as well as lots of other exciting media such as colored pencil drawings, pastel paintings, acrylic paintings, gouache paintings, watercolor paintings, and pencil drawings, and also featuring studio,  field, & aerial photography,  digital painting and photo-montage and all these media mixed in an assortment of experimental combinations...Working in a wide variety of media to create his Fantasy art he offers his customers a host of payment and product options. He delivers the rights to these custom made copyright free fantasy art illustrations and old fashioned customer service when he does work-for-hire.

          HDJ's Fantasy Art creations take their inspiration from the realistic paintings of the old masters just as West Side Story came from Romeo and Juliet. Our shared cultural heritage, great works of art, literature, music and drama, cinema, folk tales and fairy tales are all drawn upon again and again by the creators of new works. These works in the public domain are both a catalyst and a wellspring for creativity and innovation. Where would Walt Disney be without the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, or Victor Hugo? Where would Aaron Copeland have been without American folk music? Thomas Nast's Santa Claus without traditional images of Father Christmas? Pablo Picasso without African art? Public domain appropriators, one and all. Johnson  accepts select commissions to paint custom oil paintings with down payments starting at only one thousand dollars. He grants permission for most educational purposes simply for the asking. To use his existing realistic art works outside the classroom he offers low cost license offers starting around $100.00.

Use the  e-mail links above or below to contact him...

info@howarddavidjohnson.com

With a background in traditional media including oils, pastels and colored pencils, David now embraces leading edge digital media in the creation of his depictions of fantasy art, folklore, mythology, legend, religion, and heroic history. He works in and mixes a wide variety of media * Oil paintings * Acrylic Paintings * Prismacolor Paintings * Drawings * Chalk & Oil Pastel Paintings * Photography * and last but not least: Digital Artistry & Mixed Media * 

*****

Bonus Section:

Personal Opinion Essays on Realistic & Fantasy Art yesterday and today by the artist.

What is your definition of Art?

Essay One: "THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME..."

(A Brief essay dealing with attitudes toward Traditional Realistic Paintings, Pastels, Colored Pencils and Art Numérique )

Pastel, Acrylics, and Colored Pencils combined

     Snobbism in the arts is nothing new. Some people will tell you that oils are the only valid medium for realistic paintings. That Colored Pencil, Digital, and other Realistic Painting and Drawing Media are not valid  for "real" art. Young artists, Don't let them bother you. Their forerunners used to condemn Pastels before they gained acceptance and called them "crayons" when Johann Alexander Thiele (1685-1752) invented them.  Mercilessly disrespectful  art critics of the time could not stop the Experimentalists no matter how viciously they attacked and derided them. "Crayon-painting" as it was called in England was practiced early on by persecuted pioneers in Switzerland and many other nations. What a debt we owe to these master artists who refused to knuckle under to the pressure of those short-sighted critics during those historic and experimental times. It took until 1870 with the founding of the "Societe` Des Pastellistes" in France that respect came  at last to these heroic & immortal visual artists.

        In England the liberation of the Pastellists from slight regard and undeserved disrespect came with the first exhibition of "The Pastel Society" at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880. Pastel Painters like Mary Cassat and others from America and other nations forever silenced  the snobs with their masterworks and gained recognition at long last for Thiele's invention as a valid art medium. I am persuaded that history will repeat itself.  Like Pastels, I believe these wonderful new colored pencils and even Digital Realistic Art Media will one day receive the recognition they deserve as powerful mediums of artistic expression just as pastel paintings did. What is your definition of art? Have you thought about it?

Mine is: "anything that makes you feel or think."

     Consider dancing... it can be a little skip in the step or rise to the level of the incomparable Russian Ballet. Did you know that just the materials alone for a single oil painting cost up to a thousand dollars these days? Even paying the artist less than minimum wage no one but the super rich can afford them anymore. Something's got to give. Realistic paintings in oil have been highly prized for centuries and the appeal and following of realistic art is undiminished to this day. Oil paintings featuring Abstract Art and Realistic Art are generally the most treasured form of all the visual art media and with good reason. But snobbish art critics  favoring abstract art have declared  that realistic paintings, fantasy art, or illustrations are not art for a century. With so many representationalist  paintings by so many immortal master artists hanging in the Louvre, the Hermitage, and the British Museum and others I think the disrespect for realistic illustrators that dominated the 20th century is academically ridiculous as well as vain and intolerant, insisting theirs is the only valid opinion. What is your definition of Art? I believe almost any form of human expression can be raised to the level of "high art" especially  visual art and Realistic illustration...

The detail reveals Realistic art and abstract art combined

       By my own definition of art, which is: "anything that makes you feel or think" most abstract paintings are not "real art" to me personally, because abstract paintings usually neither make me feel or think,  usually focusing obsessively on technique and avoiding any coherent content. I usually draw a complete blank mentally and emotionally when I look at them. In 1979 the Houston Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed a triptych of 3 giant   paintings they paid fifty thousand dollars for-  three blank white canvasses entitled "untitled". Then there was "The incredible new artistic Genius "with an I.Q. of 62 ...Congo the chimpanzee with his gala New York art exhibition...an elaborate prank played on the Snobbish American Art critics about a generation ago by research scientists in the field of primatology. Imagine how upset they were when he created one of his "ingenious masterpieces" right before their eyes.

( My Source for this is the Time Life Science Library volume entitled "The Primates". )

      Art education has been almost completely removed from American Schools as a result of generations of this kind of  fabulous nonsense contributing to America's cultural illiteracy crisis. Now, the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and other notables are being removed from school libraries.  After generations of this, most American college graduates today cannot name even one living visual artist, abstract or realistic.

There is no way that mandating more math, requiring more reading, or scheduling more science will replace what we have lost as a culture.    

What is your definition of Art?

~HDJ

*****

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The Rebirth of Realism

More thoughts on Realistic & Fantasy Art yesterday & today by the artist

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  "All art is ultimately some form of imitation, even if you are an expressionist painter imitating an abstract vision in your own mind. These new visual art creations of mine take their inspiration in part from the realistic paintings of the old masters just as The Lord of the Rings comes from The Ring of the Nibelung and European folklore, West Side Story came from Romeo and Juliet, which was in turn inspired by Antony and Cleopatra. Much as Rubens copied Titian, I copy Waterhouse and so on. Over the last 300 years, ideas about female beauty have drastically changed and this has caused many of the most wonderful paintings of the old masters to seem 'ugly' to youthful modern audiences. For example, in the days of Peter Paul Rubens, being forty to sixty pounds over-weight was considered not only attractive, but was a status symbol. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and tastes have clearly changed. I feel many classic themes need to be redone to preserve interest and appeal for future generations. This has happened many times before as artists like Aesop, The Brothers Grimm and Walt Disney have appropriated, modified, and re-defined elements of our culture to preserve it for future generations. The legality of such use today depends on whether or not the source is protected by copyright law. You can draw or paint Shakespeare's fairies for example and publish them without permission but not more modern intellectual properties like characters from Star Wars or Mickey Mouse who holds the oldest copyright dating from 1928.

Our shared cultural heritage, great works of art, literature, music and drama, cinema, folk tales and fairy tales are all drawn upon again and again by the creators of new works. These works in the public domain are both a catalyst and a wellspring for creativity and innovation. Even though all my Realistic Paintings are legally new works and protected under copyright law their inspiration sometimes comes in part from works in the public domain.

The public domain is a space where intellectual property protection ( copyright ) does not apply. When copyrights and patents expire, innovations and creative works fall into the public domain. They may then be used by anyone without permission and without the payment of a licensing fee. My sources have been transformed so much in the creation of these new works of art that they would not violate an existing copyright even if they were so protected. Publicly owned national parks are also considered by many to be public domain lands. Because of the recent extensions of the terms of both copyrights and patents, and the privatization of lands and other resources owned by the Federal Government, little is now entering the public domain. Look for new litigation and another time extension when Disney Corporation's Mickey Mouse copyright is due to expire in 2023. Where would Walt Disney be without the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, or Victor Hugo? Where would Aaron Copeland have been without American folk music? Thomas Nast's Santa Claus without traditional images of Father Christmas? Picasso without African art? These are artists who made names for themselves and even fortunes through Public Domain appropriation, one and all.

   Some people are actually outraged that there are some intellectual properties that corporations do not own. They feel appropriation is only appropriate if a corporation does it. Corporations created by public domain appropriation, now are the most powerful force on Earth trying to put a stop to new things entering the public domain forever through lawsuits. The public domain is a space where intellectual property protection ( copyright ) does not apply. It was set up by our founding fathers, who felt creativity needed to be rewarded on a personal level for a time, and when copyrights and patents expired, innovations and creative works would fall into the public domain. They may then be used by anyone without permission and without the payment of a licensing fee. Publicly owned national parks are also considered by many to be public domain lands. Because of the recent extensions of the terms of both copyrights and patents, and the privatization of lands and other resources owned by the Federal Government, little is now entering the public domain. Look for new litigation and another copyright law time extension when Mickey Mouse's copyright expires in 2023. This is least likely to hurt the motion picture companies who produce new works "in house" granting themselves permission, but the music industry which does not is being hit very hard already. If a new song release resembles an old one, now there is litigation.

Since the public domain is a treasure trove of information and resources to be used by future generations, many advocates are concerned that its stagnation will make it more and more difficult for future generations to find creative inspiration. Art Tradition and etiquette suggest the most influential should be mentioned at exhibits; these original Fantasy Art  pieces Shown in my exhibits take their inspiration in part from the paintings of Waterhouse, Alma-Tadema, Moreau, Bouguereau, Leighton, Ingres, Moore, Parrish, Rackham and others. They showcase some of my favorite models. As a student of fine art, copying is a great way to learn and create fine art, but as a professional fantasy illustrator things are very different. Works done by artists out of personal motivation belong to the artist who created them, and they can sell licenses for divers forms of publication. The law is clear and simple regarding illustration done for gainful employment. They are called "work-for-hire" under the law, and such works specifically commissioned and paid for belong exclusively to the customer and the artist must specifically ask permission to ever legally use their own work themselves.

My art is divided into two distinct groups; personal work partially copying the old masters and professional illustration applying these lessons to create totally original works. I start more often with a specific written request. This is the exact OPPOSITE approach to creating a picture from copying something that's there. Research comes first. In the case of the Greek Heroes to your left, there were no accurate sources in the public domain to copy correct Greek armor and weapons in combat poses from. Mostly I found scantily clad men standing around with the wrong helmets. Finding history books at the library with the accurate helmets, shield designs, weapons, and armor was essential to get an accurate depiction of a Greek Hoplite.  All the library had were stiff museum poses of anything. I hit the research jackpot with some very simplistic flat line drawings of great authentic Greek shield designs. All the elements must be found, gathered and assembled to create the dramatic action scene the client wanted. Next comes the layout. This is where the mathematics and geometric design come into the creative process. My wife, Virginia took a picture of me nearly twenty years ago on a carpentry project with the heroic Jack Kirby like pose I was looking for mixed with the texture and feel of a Frank Frazetta or Norman Rockwell painting. Naturally, in these cases I go to great lengths to make sure that my work looks nothing whatsoever like it's various inspirations and sources except in flavor and spirit. Of course, the characteristic old master's painting feel to the background most of my illustrations have was requested, and the picture was to have the flavor of a Howard Pyle painting.

With regards to use of mechanical aids to create my fantasy art: Did you know the old masters traced? To create his immortal "Mona Lisa" Leonardo Da Vinci used "Camera Obscura" which is  two mirrors set at 45 degree angles around the corner with parchment over it to trace onto. Michaelangelo used a similar technique for the Sistine Chapel. Think that makes it too quick and easy? You'll find once you've finally got that outline done right you're a long, long, way from being finished in any medium... if these men who set the standard for realistic excellence used them, why shouldn't those who come after them be permitted? Simple, because this is one of the most carefully guarded "secrets of the old masters" and most people don't know very much about art history...  When asked why I usually work from photos I like to re-tell Norman Rockwell's story about having to paint a chicken: He set it up on a stump in a barn and goes to painting. The chicken moves it's head. He moves it back. The chicken jumps down. He puts it back. He goes to paint. now the chicken decides to make a break for it... he chases it down clucking and screaming and puts it back. Now it knows he's going to have it for dinner and it goes completely berserk. The next day, he came in and set the chicken back, snapped it's picture, and the photo held nice and still." When asked why I usually work from photos I like to re-tell Norman Rockwell's story about having to paint a chicken: He set it up on a stump in a barn and goes to painting. The chicken moves it's head. He moves it back. The chicken jumps down. He puts it back. He goes to paint. now the chicken decides to make a break for it... he chases it down clucking and screaming and puts it back. Now it knows he's going to have it for dinner and it goes completely berserk. The next day, he came in, put the chicken back up and snapped it's picture, and the picture held completely still...

     I have built up an enormous library of original 35 mm source photos for use in my Fantasy Art. For decades I have been seeking out the most beautiful models and sometimes their boyfriends and bringing them in for sessions into my photography studio. Using a strategy employed by J. W. Waterhouse, my wistful and graceful female models cannot be underestimated in their contribution to the stunning beauty and the potential for lasting appeal of my work. I am always make sure to both pay them for their time and also the rights and with the exception of my closest friends and family who are always making cameo appearances I get a written contract. The law with regards to rights to photography is simple- if you own the negative you own the rights. This is the main reason I use my own photographs. With regards to using copyrighted material as a reference-  When you have to paint a wombat you can't fake it- you need a picture! The law understands this and automatically grants provision - within reasonable limits;   when using copyrighted sources for reference the source image must be sufficiently transformed in overall appearance in the translation so as not to be what the law calls "confusingly similar"... if it's newer than 1928 you can bet it's probably copyrighted- if it's newer than 1999 under the millennial copyright act it is automatically copyrighted without even filing. This new law is clear and easy to understand as well as great for creative artists and their estates, who will hold rights for one hundred years after the artists death."

~ Howard David Johnson  M M I V

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FANTASY ART LESSONS 

& PAID PERSONAL INSTRUCTION

David has four pages of free fantasy art lesson previews. Click on The Bride for links to them. After you have seen them, if you would like to still learn more of his design motifs and further details of his fantasy art techniques personal instruction is available for $199.00 U.S. dollars ( $14.00 per lesson )

Click on The Bride of Frankenstein for more information...

( These lessons are jam packed with unpublished huge - easy to study 11x17 images by the artist)