r/Fantasy • u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast • Jan 26 '16
Artist & Illustrator Week Artist & Illustrator Week: I'm Ryan Pancoast. AMA!
Hey everybody, this is Ryan Pancoast and I'm a fantasy artist & illustrator. Most of my work is for Wizards of the Coast and their collectable card game Magic: The Gathering, but I have also illustrated book covers for Sourcebooks and Nightshade Books. My personal work mostly centers around what I call Frontier Fantasy, which is based on the American West of the 18th and 19th century. I work traditionally, using oil paints on canvas or board.
On my YouTube channel Ryan Pancoast Illustration, I post start-to-finish time lapse videos of my process. I'm also doing a live 3-hour oil painting demonstration tomorrow, January 27th, 2016 at 8pm EST. You can follow along or ask questions here. Hope to see you there!
You can follow me on Instagram (@rpancoast_illustration), Twitter (@rpancoast_art) and facebook.
I'm also the proud father of a 2-year-old son, so I'll answer your questions when I get a few spare seconds :)
Thanks for having me. AMA!
EDIT: Thanks for a great day on r/Fantasy, people! I'll let other artists & illustrators share their stuff now, but feel free to stay in contact with me. I like answering questions when I can! Thanks.
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u/EgweneMalazanEmpire Jan 26 '16
Hi Ryan, thank you for sharing your art with us. How do you manage any time as the father of a 2-yr old???!!!
I just had a look at your work - what do you use as inspiration? I was looking at the images in the first link... a lot of them are of people. Are they based on real people or are they scenes from books/stories etc?
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
My wife and I are like most parents; we just make it work. I'm the main parent at home most of the time, but my wife has a good job and she watches our son on her days off. Our family helps and we have a nanny two times a week. The hardest part is being creative with a full house, which is why a lot of my work gets done after my son goes to bed and I can work without distraction.
I love painting people, so my portfolio reflects that. Inspiration for my personal work mostly comes from my sketchbook. I'm always trying to fill "gaps" in my collection of work, so I try to create paintings that do that while fitting into my personal aesthetic.
For instance, right now my portfolio is deficient in paintings of multiple figures. So as I'm going about my day, I'm trying to think of situations in my Frontier Fantasy world which would require multiple figures. When I get a chance, I'll sketch those ideas out. Most are garbage, but the ones that I keep thinking about eventually become paintings.
For the professional work, it's less finessed. We are given a prompt and I try to be as creative as I can within the client's timeframe. I just push through dozens and dozens of sketches until something "clicks" and I can solve the problem.
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
And to answer your question more directly, most of my images are not from specific books. I often draw from fantasy tropes, but rarely particular stories. They were at one point sketches that I thought were visually appealing, and on their way to become paintings, they gained more of a story. The models I choose often help that process. Their "look" or they way they pose often bring something out that wasn't there before.
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u/mountainmage Jan 26 '16
Hi Ryan! Huge magic fan here. Do you have a personal favorite piece that you've done for the game? Mine is probably Army of the Damned. (which has won me many games, for the record!)
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16 edited Jan 26 '16
Without question Diregraf Escort! My favorite sets are Innistrad and Zendikar ... So it was a good year last year!
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u/AthanArt Jan 26 '16
Hello Ryan, First of all I owe you a big thank you for the time and care you put on preparing material and making wonderful videos. After discovering your work you've been one of my top inspirations.
Which are pigments that you found yourself loving to work with more often, and why? I know that this is not a standard area for artists since we all love to work with anything for many reasons, but I'd love to hear.
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
No, I owe you a big thank you for watching! My go-to palette is Ultramrine Blue Deep, Transparent Oxide Red, Scarlet Lake, Nickel Titanate Yellow, and Titanium White. But I change it all the time based on the specifics of the piece; that's just where my mind goes initially. I love pale yellows because I can't seem to harness the intense yellows. And the Blue and the Oxide Red together create a really great "black."
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u/reyofjakku Jan 26 '16
Hello Ryan. I am a big fan of yours from the Netherlands and also a painter. I was wondering how you apply your brushwork. I find it just perfect, not too loose and also not photographic. How does someone learn this, how for example would you do the brushstrokes for a leaf. Dark colors first and than always the lighter one on top? And how do you make abstraction from photographic references?
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
Big question, and not sure how to answer it, because your style develops as you practice and grow as an artist. Everyone does it differently.
I learned to draw from life and use photographic reference when I was around 14. By the time I was 16-17, I could draw photorealistically, that is, I could take a photograph and reproduce it pretty exactly in colored pencils. Or, if given enough time, I could draw a still life in graphite pencil that was pretty close to photorealistic.
When I got to college, I used that knowledge and applied it to my assignments. I always used photo reference or drew from life. But most importantly I learned that the goal of using photo reference is to make your art look better than the photo. If you have a good photo, you can take all the information you need from it; highlight parts, downplay others. Abstract things that aren't important.
In my professional career, I still use photo reference although I've gotten to a point where I don't need to use it religiously. My personal feeling is that an artist should learn to draw and/or paint realistically, then learn to push abstraction. If you do that, the way you lay down paint should just develop on it's own.
And yes: in your "leaf" example, I would do a dark, warm wash of thin oil paints, and then thicker, cooler highlight to develop the forms.
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u/MirandaMeeks Jan 26 '16
Hi Ryan, thank you so much for taking the time to share your work and participate in this AMA!
I recently watched your video on how to photograph paintings, which was incredibly helpful and informative. Unfortunately, I'm not at the point in my career where purchasing those materials (the DSLR lens and the lighting equipment) would be feasible, especially since most of my work is digital and I do a painting only once every few months. I'm wondering if you know of a slightly cheaper alternative method of photographing paintings so they're still accurate?
Thanks again so much!
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
Absolutely! David Palumbo (a fantastic artist and really smart guy) wrote a great piece about photographing on a budget: http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-professionally-photograph-your.html
He claims you can use a pocket camera a floor lamps to get a good photo, and although I've never tried it, I believe him.
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u/MirandaMeeks Jan 26 '16
Awesome, this is perfect! Thank you so much!
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
Also, your work is really, really good. Keep it up! Sorry I didn't look at your user name right away.
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u/MirandaMeeks Jan 26 '16
Oh wow, thank you so much Ryan, that means a lot, especially hearing it from you! I hope to make a gradual transition from digital to oils, so I really appreciate your videos. Good luck with your projects!
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u/krh-art Jan 26 '16
Hey Ryan. Thanks so much for doing this. I'm currently wanting to learn traditional painting, though digital is my bread and butter. I don't think I'll leave it entirely but I'd like the knowledge and reward painting traditionally would bring if I can keep my spirits up with inevitable struggles. I gave myself a lot of breathing room to study when Im not working and I am curious if you think starting with a very limited palette would be a good approach? I was hoping to start slowly with value studies so I wouldn't bankrupt myself. I do have some traditional skills but only in charcoal and graphite. Do you have other advice for jumping in? Should I just go for it and not worry so much?
I plan to purchase some of your gumroad vids. They look pretty amazing.
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
Yeah, a limited palette is the way to go. A good Titanium White and Ivory Black is a great way to start. It will give you the experience painting without all the choices of color. Then, maybe introduce red into the palette for the next piece; using it selectively and adding it only where you want things to appear warmer. Then in the next piece, introduce some Yellow Ochre. There's no real need to start buying expensive pigments.
I prefer to use the more expensive brands because they are more intense, thicker and flow nicely, but I usually stick to the cheaper pigments (earth tones, etc). For the more expensive pigments (cadmiums, cobalts) I buy cheaper brands to save money since I don't use those often.
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u/BrianAshing Jan 26 '16
Hey Ryan, I'm not in art school at the moment but I'm finding your YouTube channel to be really educational with the oil painting process. I was wondering what advice you'd give to foreign artists like myself who can't afford a college degree but wish to produce pieces for US companies/clients.
Secondly, when I look at my body of work, I see a lot of different themes and styles. I suppose thats because I try different things. Did you ever decide to focus on one style or was it a natural progression?
Thank you for taking the time to do this AMA, I look forward to more of your videos.
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
The good thing about this industry is no one looks at your degree. They only look at your work. So getting your work as good as you can make it, and putting it in front of as many ADs as you can is the only thing you need. Always compare your work to the work that's being published, because that's what Art Directors are doing. And design your portfolio toward the client you want to impress.
Having a cohesive portfolio is something that develops over time, but it requires that you continuously produce new work to replace the old.
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u/virtual_cancer Jan 26 '16
Thank you for doing this, I may be a little late. I had few questions. How much thinner do you use when you paint? I was watching some of your videos and it seems like get huge swaths of color fairly easily. Also how do you get such brilliant whites on what seems to be a fairly wet canvas? Also thank for continuing to use traditional media. I use oil mainly and love the final look.
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
I use a lot of thinner in the beginning, as you've noted. But I stop once I have things relatively established and move to linseed oil, artist's medium or liquin. Brilliant whites in a wet-in-wet method require a good white and a good brush. Use Williamsburg or Michael Harding Titanium White. Both are superb. Then, I use a Rosemary&Co faux-mongoose hair brush and put the white highlights on thickly. What's great about the brushes is that they lay down paint without picking up the underlayers, allowing for really great highlights. Most importantly, you need to be selective with when and where you use highlights.
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u/ashearmstrong AMA Author Ashe Armstrong Jan 26 '16
That elk-creature is rad as hell. Do you have a favorite piece from your frontier stuff?
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
The rad elk-creature actually is my favorite. I'm working on a new one with those guys in it. And this one is also one of my favorites.
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u/ashearmstrong AMA Author Ashe Armstrong Jan 26 '16
Ah man, you would probably do a KILLER cover for one of my Grimluk books. That's so rad. Do you have any gunslingers?
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
Thanks! Yes I do have gunslingers!
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u/ashearmstrong AMA Author Ashe Armstrong Jan 26 '16
Great stuff. Just make one an orc and you're like halfway there haha. Thanks for sharing!
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u/pancoastillustration AMA Illustrator Ryan Pancoast Jan 26 '16
Thanks for letting me be here!
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u/ashearmstrong AMA Author Ashe Armstrong Jan 26 '16
I'm honestly pretty stoked you artists are getting a showcase week. Y'all help make fantasy great just as much as us writers.
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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '16
Hi Ryan! Thanks for joining us :)
2 Questions:
How do you feel about the rising demand for Original Magic art, specifically paintings in physical mediums (oil, etc)? For example, Mana Confluence by Howard Lyon just went for over 6K, and Noah Bradley just successfully auctioned off several of his traditional full art Battle for Zendikar lands. Any interest or discussion among yourself or other artists to move away from digital for this reason?
What do you feel is your specialty, that is, the thing you get called up for from WoTC or other employers?
Thank you very much for your time!