Tuesday, February 9, 2010

SideBar Interview


Speaking of audio for the studio, Sidebar is a fun way to learn about the artists whose works you've been looking at. Dwight Clark and Swain Hunt do extended interviews with the likes of James Jean, Adam Hughes, Peter de Sève, Brad Holland, Paolo Rivera, Berni Wrightson, and a million others in their "Barchives".

Well, they had a slow day recently, and, having pretty much exhausted the A-list, they dug down to the bottom of the potato barrel and found me! So if you don't have anything else to do or you need something to amuse yourself while you clean brushes or cut mats, check out this link to the official Sidebar Gurney interview!.

Thanks, guys! You do a very thoughtful interview, and it's a real honor. Above, watercolor sketching in Yellowstone, photo by Mr. Fujimoto.

8 comments:

Lorna said...

I enjoyed listening to you.

Daroo said...

Great interview -- those guys do a good job. Their enthusiasm is infectious.

I didn't realize you took time off from ALL your paying work to do Dinotopia: ALAFT. Its a really hard decision to invest in yourself but obviously, for you, it paid off.

Rob Fullmer said...

Ah, now you're being modest! I was really excited to see this one uploading to my iPod yesterday morning. Great interview!! Always fascinating to hear your thoughts on illustration ...and I too would love to have Thanksgiving dinner with Norman Rockwell.

Now off to listen to it a second time as I know I missed a bunch of stuff in the first listen-through!

Ray Lederer said...

Just finished listening to your interview and I very much enjoyed your discussion of Fire and Ice. That was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. Now I have to go back and watch it again just to check out the formative years of Gurney's Journey! haha! Anyway it was a real pleasure and speaking as a 1st year alumni of the Illustration Master Class you are going to have a wonderful time. It was a life altering experience for all. Have a great time!

Mark Heng said...

Nice! It was cool to hear the full career story- Great inspiration for us tryers...

tracey clarke said...

James, your on my artist A-list (and I'm sure that is true for a lot of other people as well). Here's the reason.

Way back, and this must be almost 20 years now, I first saw your work in a very small Midlands (UK) based art gallery. I found myself surrounded by the most wonderful (very large) illustrations from Dinotopia. They stole my breath away and I wanted them all, but being a student that wasn't an option. However, I did manage to convince the manager to give me one of the promotional brochures (which I still have and treasure).

You see, I'd had the artist knocked out of me by my art teacher. He considered the area of fantasy art a waste of time, not real art and refused to grade my work. So for a long time I stopped drawing.

Seeing your work made me realise my art teach was 100% wrong! So, to me you're a AAA-list artist.

Sam G said...

I've got downloaded so I can listen at work. Love Sidebar...one of my favorite podcasts!

James Gurney said...

Thanks everybody--D and S are fun guys to talk to, and they love fantasy and comics as much as the rest of us geeks, which is why I can't get enough of their podcasts.

Rayford, I can't wait for Illustration Master Class. From what I hear, the instructors learn as much from the students as vice-versa.

Tracey, your story is echoed by a lot of others I've heard, and it's a good reminder to parents and teachers not to nip good things in the bud. I was talking to an art teacher yesterday who said one of the hardest lessons he had to learn to be a good professor was to not impose his taste on people but rather to figure out what his students want to do and help them do it as well as possible.