Since early childhood Armando showed a great interest in art, together with a fascination with the tools of a painter. Morales’ skill for drawing did not go unnoticed by his teachers. One of them in particular, who taught arithmetic, grammar and painting, frequently praised his paintings while turning a blind eye to his laziness in other subjects. By this time, he was not only painting at school but also at home. Around 1938, he painted some imaginary landscapes which Morales regards as the true beginning of his artistic career.

He attended the The School of Fine Arts of Managua and in 1956, he participated in the Central American Painting Contest “15 de Septiembre” held in Guatemala, winning first prize with his painting "Spook-Tree". This painting was later bought buy the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1957, the exhibition “Six Nicaraguan Artists” was inaugurated in Washington D.C.

In 1964 he received another international award: the “J.L. Hudson & Co.” prize at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh. In 1966 he won the “Industrial Tandil” Prize at the III American Biennial in Cordoba Argentina.

In 1970 he painted lush and sensual fruits, heavy and voluptuous apple and pears that evoked the softness of human skin, from which there was the obvious transition to the painting of nudes. In his 1971 exhibition at the Galería Bonino in New York, he showed a series of stunning nudes; the fine detail of every muscle, every inch of skin revealing an unsurpassed sensuality.

Morales returned to Central America in 1976, intending to live in his own country, but political turbulence obliged him to move to Costa Rica. In 1977, he resumed working with lithographs, having made several editions in New York and Berlin. He produced a series in black & white for Herbert Kassner of Lithographic Editions at the Kryon Editions Workshop Mexico City.

In 1982, Morales Traveled to Nicaragua where the Sandinista government awarded him the order of Ruben Dario. That same year, he moved to Paris.  The Nicaraguan government named him an Alternative Delegate to UNESCO.

In 1993, he completed a portfolio of lithographs titled The Saga of Sandino at the workshop of Artegrafias Limitadas, S.A. in Mexico City. Sandino was a Nicaraguan national hero whom Morales remembered seeing in Managua during his childhood. While in Mexico City, he also finished a portrait of Gabriel García Márquez.  A year later, the lithographs were exhibited at the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City and at the Institute of Graphic Arts in Oaxaca.