Interview Elmore 

     He's also a very affable, likable, and humble man... which is why we felt a little guilty asking him to meet with our resident interviewer, the Critical Kobold, who's not known for his manners, social graces, nor humility. But Mr. Elmore was quite cheerful about the whole thing, and so here's the account of the artist's chat with the Kobold. We find out what he likes for breakfast, why you shouldn't lend him your favorite D&D character, and why we're never, ever letting him be our designated driver...

Interview conducted Feb 2, 2006.

Above, Mr. Elmore poses with our Penderyn Campaign website's mascot, the indomitable Voodoo Orc. (Gen Con '05)

     With a brusque wave of his clawed hand, the Kobold indicated a worn lawn chair where Mr. Elmore could sit, dangerously close to the precipice of the garbage pit, and after a moment's hesitation offered the visitor one of the dead fish from his snack plate. The artist caught a whiff of the pungent aroma (from the trash, the fish, or his host, he didn't know), and politely declined the hors d'eouvre.

     Slurping one last fish head off the carcass of a trout, the interviewer chucked the rest of the fish down over the ledge, and turned to the illustrator, wiping fish guts off his lips with the sleeve of his corduroy tunic.

     We've spoken to you more than once, at conventions, and we know you're a humble and down-to-earth guy. However, you're still one of the most widely recognized fantasy artists on the planet, thanks in part to TSR for prominently displaying your work on their Dungeons & Dragons products for many years. Your work is known on every continent. (I'm willing to bet someone in Antarctica knows you.) Do you ever just stop and think to yourself, "Holy Flying Monkeys, I'm really  famous!" You're like a rock star, with a paintbrush. Does the fame freak you out?

     Nope, I never think that, because I just don’t believe it...or at least I can’t bring myself to believe it. If I really believed that I am as famous as people tell me I am, then it would probably scare the crap out of me.

     I live in a small town where both my wife and I grew up…we know just about everyone around, went to school with them, you know how a small town is. Well, most everyone knows me as me. Sometimes someone will ask me if I am still doing those crazy paintings, or if I still fool around with art. I always say, “Yeah, tryin’ to make a livin’…” and that’s about as far as it goes. I have a lot of family here and they never really talk about my work, and I don’t bring it up. I guess they just don’t really understand my occupation. In a small town in rural Kentucky, no one really thinks that I do work on an international level. If I told some of the folks what I did and where it all goes, they would think I was lying or just crazy.

     Well, I started drawing around 3 or 4, but I didn’t stop. I think I was gifted or I drew so much that I became gifted…I just wanted to get better. 

    During the first 9 years of my life, my father was very sick. He had gotten tuberculosis from World War Two…so he was in and out hospitals for months and sometimes a year at a time. So my mom and I lived in a little tiny house out in the country, under a hill, with no electricity or running water, a coal stove for heat in the winter and a wood stove for mom to cook on. That wasn’t too bad, because half the country people lived the same way. The only money we got came from the Veterans Administration, and it was just enough to survive on.  

     One of my dad’s or mom’s brothers would take us to get groceries, at an old general store, about once a month. Mom was around 19-20 years old, very beautiful and very afraid of us living alone, but she was a country girl and knew how to handle things. There were always some “hunters” stopping in to “check in “ on us (mom).  She would always tell them we were OK and she would send them on their way; she always kept an old 410 shotgun in the corner, but I don’t think she knew how to use it.  I could tell she was always scared when an incidence like that would happen. 

    Yep, we were poor like everyone else around,  therefore, I didn’t have drawing paper and I had only one old pencil. I would draw on the brown paper sacks that the groceries came in; there were always four big sacks and a box. Mom would cut the brown sacks so they would lay flat, and after I drew up both sides, then I would draw on every inch of the box…that would do me until we went to the general store again. Many times I would draw by lamp light…kerosene lamp!  Sounds like an Abraham Lincoln story.  

     Off and on, Dad would come in from the hospital for a few months, we would draw, go to the woods and explore. He knew the name of every tree and weed…we would sometimes find a clay bank, dig out a bucket full and carry the clay back home. We would sculpt farm animals, chickens and little eggs, then let them sun bake. I would play with them until they crumbled up, which was about a day!! People would visit, tell stories, play games, and make music…We may have been poor but I feel that those years gave me riches worth more than money. Times got better, Mom and Dad survived, and he just celebrated his 82^nd birthday. He still loves to tell the grandkids wild and crazy stories.

     I never stopped drawing, I eventually went to college and majored in art. After two years in the Army I got a job as an illustrator at Fort Knox, Kentucky (a large army base).  Finally, I was out of school, Army and everything else, [and] that is when I made a decision to take my dabbling in fantasy art seriously,  I knew deep inside that fantasy was the direction I was called to follow. Yes, it was and is a passion.

     I wanted to do a painting of a sexy chick slinking over some rocks, so I ask my wife to pose. She really looked hot, but she hated it. The next day she brought home a girl that she worked with, a tall leggy cute girl with long blond hair, she said, “Here’s Kathy, she wants to model for you…I don’t.” Well, Kathy worked out great, and from that point on I knew that it was ok with my wife for me to use models…although, there have been certain girls that my wife WOULD NOT let me use as models. She had her reasons, I knew better not to push the matter.     

     I tell my friends that photographing a cute sexy girl is one of the benefits I get for working so hard…

    Illustrating has been and still is a passion for me, perhaps an obsession is more like it.

     I have worked on more than one at once, but that is very rare. I like to get one done at a time.

     Nope,  I bet they don’t.  

     My most favorite breakfast goes back to when I was a kid, something that my grandmother made for my mother. I have found a few people around here that have heard of it, and it usually goes back to a grandmother or great grandmother. It was only fixed as a breakfast meal and it was a treat, not to be made but about once every two or three months. It was called chocolate gravy.

     I know that may sound like crap, but mom would fix hot biscuits and the chocolate gravy had a mild chocolate taste and about as thick as white gravy. It is not like chocolate pudding, it is something all its own. If you like chocolate, you would love it.  I have convinced people that had never heard of chocolate gravy to try it, and they ALL have loved it…and wanted more!! I made my wife learn how to make it from my mother. My kids grew up loving it, now their spouses love it too.

     Most things I do start with a plan, and sort of grow from there. SnarfQuest started with a plan: come up with a reason for some silly critter to travel around the land meeting other stupid critters or people, and get into trouble while trying to become a hero!!! That was the plan. I started with the first five pages and the strip came to life and wrote itself…I just seem to follow along and illustrate it. I would start in the morning by finding where the story left off in the last issue, then grab a sheet of paper, start writing the story and breaking it down into panels as I went. That would take around an hour, then clean it up to make it flow a little better, another 30 minutes, then start penciling.  I could get at least 2 pages penciled before going to bed. Next morning, I would pencil the third page, then start doing the hardest thing for me…lettering!

     That would take the rest of the day. I am horrible at lettering, because I would get carried away with the action and start lettering all over the place. The third day, I would ink all three pages.

     The Dungeons and Dragons movie…well, maybe it wasn’t the worst, but it was awful darn close!!

     In fact, the worst movie ever conceived by man was The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, followed very, very closely by The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension. But coming in a goblin's nose-hair short of those two is indeed the Dungeons & Dragons movie! I've had invasive surgery that was more pleasant to sit through than that flick.

     (Please feel free to read the Kobold's reviews linked above. Actually see these movies at your own risk!)

     Yes…and I hate doing that. If their work is good, then no problem, but if it sucks…well, do you be honest??

     I have never laughed out loud in front of the person, but later I have thought about it and laughed. I don’t believe in insulting people. When you do a piece of art, good or bad, it has some of you in it. If someone laughed at the art, then it really cuts the artist. Most artists, especially pros, have developed a thick skin and when people make comments, you just ignore it. But people that haven’t developed that thick skin can really get hurt. It would be like standing up in front of a crowd and singing the best you could, then when you were done, everyone laughed or yelled insults. You would be horrified. So, I look at peoples artwork, try to be honest, but never insulting.

LE:

     One of my favorites is “Avalyne the Life Giver”.  My favorite ones are usually the paintings I got to do for myself…or they were assignments that I only got a “vague suggestion” on what to paint.

(Right: "Avalyne the Life Giver" by Mr. Elmore)

    Which causes no end of ruckus if we happen to be in the middle of a convention or someplace.

     Yes, there have been lots of things that I HATED to paint. And it is stuff just like you mentioned above. I have had to paint some stupid stuff before. I don’t think it is the subject matter so much, it is how STUPID the painting is!!!

     Some idiot trying to paint with crayons!!!

     Nope, I am a pretty honest guy. I am the type that will let you know if you gave me back too much change.   

     I’m talking about easing out onto a lonely old back road, the pavement hot, the smell of 110 octane, the car is vibrating from the power, the sound is deafening. You roll to a stop straddling the yellow line (‘cause you need both lanes when launching), then ya kick it and in 7 seconds or less you hit over a 110 mph in a distance less than two football fields...but ya gotta fight it hard coming out of first or you could lose it. Then watch second gear; I have almost turned it over sideways before when hitting second. Third is not bad, then it just pulls and pulls until it scares the crap out of you or you run outta road!!!! Now that is fun. 

     Well, I have done that with poses, I have found that I will duplicate poses, especially if I am just making them up. I think there are certain poses that each artist likes. I have found that I sometimes pose models in the same poses, but the good thing is, each model with do the same pose a little differently.

     One day I had to take over and play another player's character for one game session, his character was a cleric. Well, I charged a Beholder and got the character vaporized…sort of pissed the player off the next day. I played it like my old dwarf fighter!