Life Lessons from Dinosaurs
Art from Dinotopia plus whimsical wisdom
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.
Blog Index
- Academic Painters (609)
- Animals (323)
- Animation (135)
- Architecture (37)
- Art By Committee (44)
- Art Podcasts (3)
- Art Schools (105)
- Audio (35)
- Book reviews (82)
- Casein Painting (91)
- Catskill Mountains (11)
- Clementoons (12)
- Color (248)
- Color and Light Book (83)
- Comics/Cartooning (169)
- Composition (105)
- Computer Graphics (107)
- Dinosaurs (112)
- Dinotopia (231)
- Effects/Phenomena (44)
- Elementary Schools (10)
- Figure Drawing (65)
- GJ Book Club (7)
- Golden Age Illustration (329)
- Gouache (229)
- Hudson River School (59)
- Illustrated Books (35)
- Imaginative Realism (53)
- Journey to Chandara (138)
- Lettering (42)
- Lighting (139)
- Living Sketchbook (11)
- Miniatures (79)
- Models Posing (55)
- Movie Studios (15)
- Museum Visits (213)
- Paint Technique (249)
- Painting Gear (89)
- Pen and Ink (81)
- Pencil Sketching (279)
- Perspective (28)
- Photography (66)
- Plein Air Painting (220)
- Portraits (341)
- Preliminary Sketches (75)
- Printmaking (12)
- Puppets (3)
- Rabbit Trails (119)
- Ranger Rick (10)
- road tour (63)
- Sculpture (22)
- Toys (16)
- Video (200)
- Visual Perception (153)
- Watercolor Painting (355)
- Writing (68)
Blog Archive
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2010
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July
(35)
- Solving a Puzzle
- Donkey Portrait
- “Hard Times” Exhibit
- Restoring Art Programs
- Slit Pupils and Intorsion/Extorsion
- Rotating Eyeballs
- Draw-Through
- Tool People Report
- Rackham on Photo Illustration
- Nephroid Caustics
- Caustic Reflections
- The Cal Arts Story
- Skybax Maquette
- Influential Lion
- Critix Redux
- Norton Museum Video
- Monkey King
- Indigo Fading
- Realistic Dinosaur Suits
- Stout’s Hallucinations
- Totentanz
- A. Wyeth at the Hyde Collecton
- Hofner Copy
- Making Gargoyles
- Gérôme’s Critics
- The Flying Car
- Cellphone Tour
- How to Refill a Fountain Pen
- Color Correcting
- Cadaver on the Cross
- No title
- Arnold Friberg Dies at 96
- Rising Stars Search
- Draperyman
- Undertones and Tints
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July
(35)
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Color and Light Book
Classic textbook on a universal topic
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Contact
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.
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.
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.
18 comments:
The Final Exam is an apocryphal JG story. Nice mask! It's great to see some photos and hear it from the Ape's side. Thanks for sharing the photos, and happy 4th, Jim!
As a professor I would have completely loved that!
That is all just *so* funny! Wonderful!
Beth
Wonderful story and pictures!
"When I was in college I made a gorilla mask out of cast latex." Can you say a little more about that for those of us who haven't done it? Somehow, you had access to a gorilla head to use as a form, yes?
Jimmy G., yew da Gorilla mah dreemz!
Happy Birthday America!! (and don't forget to clean-up the mess when the party's over)-RQ
With that security guard uniform, you look like one of the characters in the final scene of the "Planet of the Apes" 2001 remake (except those characters were heavier - do gorillas eat donuts?? =:o)
HAHA! Awesome story! The bygone days of youth... :D
Bwahahahahahaha!!!! :D
Nice!
Have a happy 4th!
;)
He he great story!
Very awesome. Always entertaining when people dress up in costumes to interrupt the flow of things. I'm also guilty of this behavior.
I love you! (In a very decent and respectful way!)
The most devious thing I did in an exam was to draw on the test paper...
Ahahahaha! Excellent.
You were quite the rebel.
Every time you post anything, you get a million times more awesome. Especially in this case.
I might never have known that you rock at maskmaking and unicycling.
That would have been very sad.
I fail to see the relavance of this post.
There is nothing abnormal about this behaviour.
My favorite aspect to this post is that James doesn't take himself too seriously. Being able to publicly poke gentle fun at yourself says great things about you. FWIW.
Draig, my professors got a good laugh, too, thank goodness. They could easily have given me a zero for disrupting the class.
Steve, I didn't have any information on how to make a realistic mask, so I probably did it the hard way:
1. Life mask with plaster soaked bandages.
2. Fiberclass cast of my head.
3. Clay sculpt of gorilla face.
4. Plaster piece mold.
5. Cast in latex, reinforced with stockings.
6. Fake fur and hair inserted hair by hair.
7. Jaws made separately.
All in all, a lot of time, when I really should have been studying!
Oh wow, this is one of the greatest stories I've ever heard! Thank you! :)
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