Artist steps up to the plate for hall of fame portraits
For some, to earn a living from your passion is like hitting a home run.
Christopher Brown combines his three loves — art, sports and teaching. To him, that’s like winning the World Series.
Brown is the lead art teacher and pitching coach at Keller’s Fossil Ridge High School near Fort Worth, Texas. And since 2009, he has been the artist for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (lasportshall. com) in Natchitoches, La.
As the hall of fame artist, he creates portraits of each year’s eight inductees and the winner of the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sport Leadership Award. Previously, a couple had been the hall of fame artists for 50 years. Brown was invited to submit samples for the competitive position by the hall of fame executive director, who attended a fundraiser where Brown had donated his artwork to his alma mater.
Before Brown, all the inductees’ pictures were head and shoulders. But when Freddie Spencer, a world champion motorcycle racer, became a 2009 inductee, there was no way Brown was going to portray Spencer’s sports career in a head and shoulders painting.
“My portraits tell a story. Even if you don’t recognize the face, you know something about their life,” Brown said. He portrays hall of famers in a variety of poses — action, reflective, full length or head shot with backgrounds as unique as the individual.
The sports figures select photos they like and, with Brown, they decide on the pose. He also talks to the individual or family to get more insight into them and their career.
“I use Prismacolor pencils on the figures and a wide range of mediums in the backgrounds,” said Brown. “I use Prismacolor pencils on the figures to get the details I need. I feel they are the best for what I’m trying to accomplish as an artist.” He may use 10-12 colors for a skin tone.
“I want more than just a face, so with each background I use a different technique. I want each piece to stand alone, be a quality piece that would be suitable in a gallery or a museum.”
For the background, he may use acrylic paint, watercolor or wood stain.
“I am always trying different mediums and I normally use a combination of different mediums to get the effects I am looking for. I find that I only get the look that I’m after when I combine different mediums that most artists wouldn’t.”
His portraits, which can be seen at chrisbrown sportsart.net, are an explosion of color. This from an artist who is colorblind. Brown said his vision is almost black and white.
He hid his colorblindness from his college instructors. He was “outed” after he was named the sports artist by his former college roommate who is now an eye doctor. The hall of fame was happy to publicize this quirk of their sports artist.
“The pencils I use have the name of the color on it and I sharpen both ends. I have learned processes to compensate over the years,” Brown said. “As for what colors items are, I do research a lot of times to find out what colors were used in such things as uniforms. I also have an app on my phone that tells me what color an item is if I point my phone at it. If I’m doing a portrait of someone, I always ask them what color their eyes and hair are no matter how obvious it may be. You’d be surprised how many people can’t pinpoint their own eye color when asked. I will also ask fellow artists what color they think items might be if all else fails.
“The interesting thing,” Brown continued, “is when mixing colors to match a certain tone of color, I may use colors that people wouldn’t normally think to try in order to get the result I’m after. Color is always going to be a battle for me, but I’ve learned to embrace how I don’t see things the way most people do and I run with it.”
Brown started drawing with pencils at age 4 to fill time after his brother started school. After he realized that his artwork “was not too bad,” he continued to pursue art, as well as baseball. He was on championship teams in high school and his baseball talent paid for college.
He earned an associate of arts degree from Cowley College in Arkansas City, Kan., and a bachelor’s degree in art education from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. He pitched for several independent minor league teams and in the Chicago Cubs minor league system.
While he knew art and sports would be important parts of his life, he also realized that good art and baseball instructors had made his junior and high school experiences enjoyable.
“After high school, I was thinking about what I was good at and I realized the importance of teachers in my life, and that influenced my direction,” Brown said.
In his art classes, “I want my students to get over the fear of failing. That frees them up to make a mistake and enables them to try different things. Someone has said that a teacher fails more times than a student even tries.”