"This is the book that started it all" —Patrick O'Brien, MICA
James Gurney
This weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.
You can write me at: James Gurney PO Box 693 Rhinebeck, NY 12572
or by email: gurneyjourney (at) gmail.com Sorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.
Permissions
All images and text are copyright 2020 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.
However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.
Sometimes I search far and wide for an exotic or "artistic" motif to paint. But I end up having the most fun painting a humdrum, ordinary subject that was sitting next to me all along.
Great little study, Jim. Makes me want to go out and paint my 6 cu. ft. model -- whose wood handles are different colors due to a years-ago replacement. Also makes me think of how Wyeth used worn, everyday objects to symbolize the humans who used them. You didn't happen to do this on Yupo paper, did you? The green wash on the left kind of looks like it, but the control in the main area suggests maybe not.
Thanks, Steve. Yes, I was thinking of Wyeth. The paper is from a red clothbound watercolor sketchbook from France, made by Sennelier. What's Yupo paper?
Yupo is a synthetic, non-absorbent "paper" that some of my friends like for the way watercolor behaves on it. The area of green to the left of your wheelbarrow resembles the kind of effect it produces. I haven't tried it, I'm not attracted to it. Here's a link:
http://www.yupousa.com/paper/index.php
One last thing. The way old tools evoke human spirit as you've done in this painting -- and Wyeth did so often -- feels like the visual equivalent of what Seamus Heaney does with words in poems such as "Digging."
5 comments:
Great little study, Jim. Makes me want to go out and paint my 6 cu. ft. model -- whose wood handles are different colors due to a years-ago replacement. Also makes me think of how Wyeth used worn, everyday objects to symbolize the humans who used them. You didn't happen to do this on Yupo paper, did you? The green wash on the left kind of looks like it, but the control in the main area suggests maybe not.
Thanks, Steve. Yes, I was thinking of Wyeth. The paper is from a red clothbound watercolor sketchbook from France, made by Sennelier. What's Yupo paper?
Its reminds me an illustration I did for the poem red-wheel barrow.
(http://parkillustration.blogspot.com/2010/04/red-wheelbarrow.html)
Thank you for great posting all the time, it inspires me a lot!
Yupo is a synthetic, non-absorbent "paper" that some of my friends like for the way watercolor behaves on it. The area of green to the left of your wheelbarrow resembles the kind of effect it produces. I haven't tried it, I'm not attracted to it. Here's a link:
http://www.yupousa.com/paper/index.php
One last thing. The way old tools evoke human spirit as you've done in this painting -- and Wyeth did so often -- feels like the visual equivalent of what Seamus Heaney does with words in poems such as "Digging."
Where are the chickens?
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
Post a Comment