Local StoriesJune 17, 2022

Conversations with Aaron Long

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Long.

Hi Aaron, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I think everyone is born an artist. From early childhood, we all scribble with crayons and markers and either hold on to it or leave it be. People ask me how long I’ve been an artist, and sometimes it’s difficult to answer. I’ve always been an artist, as we all have. Some people stop being artists as they age and forget the joy they found as children. I scribbled with colored pencils and markers and started learning to draw with my siblings. My favorite exercise growing up was for my two sisters and me to find a reference image online and draw it simultaneously and in our styles. We would draw animals, houses, and our favorite subject, dragons.

It wasn’t until late high school in 2013, when I was in art class (which I considered nap time class), that I found my love of painting. I didn’t take art seriously at this point in my life, and I spent most of this class period either napping or playing games on my phone. On this particular day, I was playing Flappy Bird, and my teacher told me she would take my phone away if I didn’t draw something. I reluctantly took a screenshot of my phone game and began drawing a little yellow bird flapping his way between big green pipes. It was here that I found that I loved creating art inspired by things that I enjoyed. I spent the rest of the school year painting scenes from my favorite movies, books, and video games.

In my first year or two, my art was not of the highest quality, but as the years went on, I practiced more and more, mainly following YouTube tutorials such as Bob Ross and other similar lesson style painting lessons. As I improved my skills, I began posting my artwork on social media and sharing my fanart in a few Facebook groups, where I had people reach out and ask me to paint pictures for them. I painted anything and everything, such as people’s video game characters, race cars, people’s grandmas, and lots of pet portraits. I took several breaks from my art over the next several years while I focused on graduating college, traveling overseas, and working multiple full-time jobs. I spent several years working full-time jobs and not focusing on art to the point where I felt empty and unfulfilled. While working a very stressful job that only left me a couple of hours during the weekend, I made my biggest step toward where I am today. I sat down with my wife, and we decided together that it wasn’t worth our mental health for me to continue working this job. I called my employer that day and informed him that I would be leaving that job. I spent the next month working on getting a license for another full-time job. In the meantime, I got back into painting and posting my art on Facebook and began having people reach out to me online and request custom commissioned paintings. During that month of unemployment, I made more income than I did while working my previous full-time job.

My wife and I had some big decisions: either take on the next full-time job that I was working towards and set up to start the following month or turn that job offer down and pursue art. We called several people who were wiser and had more life experience than us and received a lot of encouragement and support to leap into painting full-time. Since then, I have found an excellent part-time job where I only need to spend 8-10 hours a week and spend the rest of the day working on art. My wife and I now spend our full-time hours running an online print shop to sell our artwork and create new artwork for clients worldwide. We have a few long-term goals, such as buying our own home and taking in foster children, but as of right now, we are just enjoying spending our time doing what we love.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth?
It was a very long and tedious process to get where we are today. The main challenge, especially at the beginning of starting to paint full-time, was the uncertainty of our monthly income. Living in Kansas City is not cheap, and we spent a lot of hours writing out budgets and plans to make sure that we would be able to pay all of our bills. We questioned many times throughout the first year whether or not I would need to go out and get a consistently paying job again. However, we were pleasantly surprised month after month when something would come through, and we would sell a big original painting or get a big load of print orders right in time to pay the bills. Another struggle many people face when they switch from painting as a hobby to painting as a main source of income is feeling uninspired to create new work. I felt this a few times, especially when painting custom commissions for people’s pets or houses. These paintings brought the money in, but they were challenging for me to enjoy because they were subjects I would not have chosen to paint on my own. This issue gradually faded as I brought in more followers online that enjoyed my original fantasy artwork, and people began to buy more fantasy paintings rather than custom work. I still do the occasional commission, but I am to the point that I am financially stable enough that I can pick and choose projects that I take on. Before I took on any project within reason, no matter the subject, because it was guaranteed income, but now my wife and I can both paint what we enjoy, and they almost always sell eventually.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am most well-known for my fantasy artwork, especially pieces that show fantastical landscapes and scenery. My wife paints with me, and we love painting dragons, knights, and wizards. A lot of the artwork that people see the most online are the pieces inspired by pop culture fantasy, as well as paintings that are loosely inspired by subjects that people are familiar with from pop culture. As much as I love painting fanart, I also love painting my original pieces directly from my imagination. From dragons to castles to epic battles between warriors and beasts, I love creating scenes that leave viewers wondering what the story is behind the piece. I am no storyteller; instead, I leave the storytelling up to the viewer to decide what is happening in each painting.

Alright, before we go, can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
As a full-time artist, my primary connections are all online. My wife and I both sell our artwork on Etsy and post our artwork on every social media I access. Our business name is “Painted Dragon Studios,” We post our paintings on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter, all under that name. If anyone feels that they have a painting that they would like to commission either my wife or me to paint, please reach out to us on any of those platforms. We have paintings hung in homes and businesses worldwide and have experience painting murals as well. We would love to paint a canvas or mural for any local Kansas City businesses or surrounding cities.

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