Saturday, August 1, 2009

Woodstock 5: Putting It All Together

For the final day of the creature design workshop, we took our studies, sketches, maquettes and photos and put them together into the final paintings, which we started and discussed. It was fun working together in the beautiful north-lit studio spaces of the Woodstock School of Art.

Having all seen real goats and goat skulls up close, we all have an affection for satyrs. Heinrich Kley (above) was one of many artists we looked at through the course of the week.

At the end, we didn't quite have a full-on bacchanale, but we had a nice pizza party before everyone had to drive home. Thanks to Billy (foreground), Maureen Rogers, Mike Marrocco, Christina Neno, Lester Yocum, Shawn Fields, David Troncoso, Eric Millen, and Jeanette and thanks to the WSA for letting us make the studios our home for the week. And for those who missed this one, maybe I'll see you at another workshop in the future.

6 comments:

Steve said...

Looks like a fantastic week. Hope we get to see some of the finished paintings in the future. It was great to see Kley featured in the post. He's one of my long-time inspirations. Like A.B. Frost, he had a wickedly accurate line and sense of humor.

James Gurney said...

Thanks, Steve. We all agreed to wait two weeks so that everyone can work on their paintings. So I'll post those images on the blog later in the month.

Yes, Kley and Frost are awesome. I never get tired of looking again and again at their drawings.

Aaron Miller said...

looks like a fun and intimate environment to really grasp the assignment. And it was a good surprise to see Lester in those pictures. I hadn't seen him since the last class we had together. Quite and inquisitive guy. Keep up the good work!

Lester Yocum said...

Hey, Aaron, great to hear from you again. I'm excited to hear that James will be teaching at Illustration Master Class next year. This was an exceptional week. Seeing the master's work up close and getting first hand observation of his techniques was awesome. James is just as humble, talented and hard-working in person as he sounds in his blog. (Okay, I'm sounding like an acolyte. Sheesh!)

Super Villain said...

is that big lester up there above me, haha, great meeting you les.

i have to agree with everything les says. james is unbelivably generous.

he brought in tons of art and sculpture, which was amazing to see. and amazingly we were able to get as close as we wanted and were even able to handle a lot of the orignial dionotopia maqette sculptures (which was the highlight of my week!)

the personal time james gave with each artist was amazing!

if you get the chance to attend a class or workshop or lecture by james gurney drop everything your doing and go! it is a must.

thanks again james and jeanette for the great week!

Shawn Escott said...

These are wonderful posts! I love visiting your blog, you always challenge me to learn or try new things, thank you! You've inspired my to try my hand at creature design: http://escott.blogspot.com/2009/08/2-for-1-creature-designs.html