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SALT LAKE CITY — Learning to be a great artist never ends, according to one Utah illustrator.
Although he studied art and illustration at BYU-Idaho, Lance Fry tried not to step out of his artistic comfort zone during his education. Recently he has come to recognize this as a mistake.
"My illustrations then were mostly inked drawings with watercolor," Fry said. "I took only one oil painting class in college and avoided the rather smelly medium, until recently when my fear for oils subsided. Oil painting is a great medium which I now have great respect for."
Since he was very young, Fry said he has had a hankering to re-create life by drawing it. He found that the positive reactions from family and friends became a major driving force in his formative years.
"In high school I would draw simple comic stories of my friends and I in fantastical situations," Fry said. "I continued to tell stories or jokes, in the form of comics as I worked as the resident cartoonist for the (BYU-Idaho) school paper, the Scroll. I created weekly comics and editorial cartoons. Some were pretty funny, some were not."
Fry's "day job" is creating artwork for Poptropica.com, an online video game for kids. At work, he uses Adobe Illustrator.
"Instead of pushing paint, I'm pushing pixels and vectors, creating digitally instead of traditionally," Fry said.
The rest of his work, including portraits and comics he posts online, are all done in his free time. Inspired by cartoons and video games, Fry said he enjoys getting a smile from his audience. His favorite things to create are story-based, mostly Web comics starring goofy characters.
"But I also love the recent figures in oils I did because painting or drawing the human figure is a challenge, and very rewarding when done right," Fry said. "Truth be told, I hated having to use photo reference in college, so I would make sure my style was loose and my image was simple. I realize now I was cheating myself of learning valuable skills that I'm only now learning, almost 10 years since I graduated college."
Fry said he no longer underestimates the power of daily practice — sketching and stretching his brain to try different kinds of art.
"I don't think I worked hard enough after college and quickly fell out of practice of certain skills," Fry said. "The more I learn, the more I realize how much I lack."
Fry doesn't sell his illustrations or comics, he makes them sheerly for his own enjoyment. In the event someone asks, he is happy to take commissions, but said he considers himself average in his abilities.
"I try not to take myself very serious so my art for the most part is light and somewhat humorous, when it can be," Fry said.
FOLLOW: https://twitter.com/Lance_Fry
Amanda is a writer and pop culture fanatic who studied journalism at BYU. She has written for a candy store, a US Senator, Deseret News, an art museum, Entertainment Weekly magazine, a beauty company, KSL and several artists and musicians. Find her on Twitter @amandataylor88.
