The art of Doug Kovacs : Fantasy , Mythology, Sci-Fi , the unreal : Paintings, drawings, Fine Art and Illustartionllustartion

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where do you get your ideas from?

This is a complicated question. I've answered it an number of different ways, I suspect; though some people have used the same words, they may be asking different questions.. Here's one answer: I don't know..... but it's not that interesting. Reading, looking at art, contemplation, and playing role-playing games have definitely conditioned my mind to come up with ideas. That's not much of a problem, but where do they come from? When I can, I like to try to make reference to other pieces of art from history, so that some pieces have their genesis in existing works of art. Illustrations usually have have their roots in the literature they accompany. There are more possible answers, but these seem enough for this context.

How long have you been drawing and painting?

I can't remember not drawing; with crayons or colored pencils or whatever. I started painting with watercolors around eleven or twelve. Oils and Acrylic came along in high school. I started using Egg Tempera just after college. It was chosen as an alternative to Oil due to an intolerance I believe I brought on myself by spending a summer in a basement . I painted in this basement and slept on the floor a few feet away from my easel. I do not recommend this, at least not when painting with Oils.

Why do most of your fairies have tails?

Fairy tales. If they didn't have tails they might be thought of as simply cute little creatures, benevolent and entirely acceptable. Though I might sometimes create art that is entirely palletable to one group or another, sometimes I think we may need to alienate some in order to enrich the experience for others. I don't think of faeries as immature or uncomplicated. I think of them as icons representative of females in general. There is a lot to this, and I don't think I can fully explain at this time in my life, and suspect I never will. Consider how Michelangelo regarded his "Pieta" as a manifestation of his mother.

Will we meet again in heaven?

No.

Who are your influences?

J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, Fritz Lieber, Jethro Tull (the band), Bad Religion (the band), Pablo Picaso, Norman Rockwell, Jeff Easley, Alan Lee, Patrick Woodroffe, Arthur Rackham, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Caravaggio, Albrect Durer, Heironomus Bosch, Sargent, Turner, Bruegel, Wyeth (both), Goya,...............

Biography

I was born in the United States in 1973. I grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, playing with Star Wars figures, then GI-Joe, and later graduating to Dungeons and Dragons (which I continue to play to this day). I drew my way through High School, avoiding involvement in most things but art class, where I cultivated a love for all forms of painting. In 1996 I received a BA from Columbia College Chicago. Since then I have worked on varied projects including, interior mural painting, collectable trading card illustration, role playing game illustration, conceptual art, and t-shirt design. Meanwhile, I continued to study landscape painting, figure drawing, and mastery of watercolors, acrylic, egg tempera, pen and ink, ink wash, pencils, and various digital forms of art.