This is the last week of the Dinotopia exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach Florida. This coming Sunday, September 5 is the last day.
U.S.A. customers can order a signed, official museum poster for $20.00 plus $3.50 for postage/handling. Payment should be by check payable to “The Dinotopia Store” PO Box 693, Rhinebeck, NY 12572. If you like, download an order form here.
Who took a bite out of my sketch of Billy yesterday?
It was Lucky, caught in the act!
But there were some gems among them. For example: "Animation" (#26) and “How to Animate Film Cartoons” (#190) by Disney veteran Preston Blair, who gave millions of budding animators the basics of walk cycles, squash and stretch, and overlapping action. As a kid I was spellbound by the series of drawings of the dancing alligator from Fantasia. 
Note the squarish planes around the cheekbone and the forehead in this detail by Tom Lovell. The treatment gives the feeling of a roughly carved wood sculpture.
This painting, called “Vladimirka Road” has plenty of abstract beauty. We can appreciate the close values of the clouds in the sky, the rough texture of the road in the foreground, the thin tendrils of the trails, and the small accents of the man-made objects.
The association between the two artists wasn’t exactly master and pupil. The two masters met briefly at the Drexel Institute, where Pyle was teaching an illustration course.
The shapes are often studied by candlelight, where they may appear as fish, birds, angels or demons. Such images spring to mind by means of a shape-conjuring process known as pareidolia.
There will be a quick draw, a wagon ride for artists to scout motifs, an auction, cash prizes, and various social events. Art buyers will be able to acquire some fine works in various media. I’ll be there as a judge, but I’ll be painting as well.Thursday, September 9 at 4:00. Imaginative Realism. Behind-the-scenes view of the creation of Dinotopia and other realistic fantasies. Location: Historic Park McCullough. Geared for both artists and family audiences (bring the kids!). Book signing to follow. 802-442-5441.
Thursday evening, September 9 at 8:00 Plein-Air Pioneers. History and modern practice of outdoor painting. Location: Deane Carriage Barn on the campus of Bennington College. Book signing to follow.
ADDENDUM. The answer is James M. Whistler, who attended West Point and did this drawing that appeared in Century magazine. Winner is Dave Lebow--way to go, Dave!
"This exhibit features artwork from an eclectic array of talented artists, both human and non-human, including paintings and drawings, as well as bronze, synthetic, and paper sculpture.
Among the artists represented in the exhibit are painter William Stout, the exhibit’s guest co-curator, whose accurate reconstructions of prehistoric creatures inspired the novel Jurassic Park; noted sculptor and painter Charles Marion Russell, whose esteemed body of work helped define the American West, Steven R. Kutcher, an “insect wrangler” for motion pictures who will exhibit his collection of insect footprint art, and Rosie, a Bornean Orangutan and long time resident of the Los Angeles Zoo.
Additional artists include Drew Struzan, Peter Brooke, Iain McCaig, Andreas Deja, Antoine Louis Barye, Paul Bransom, Charles Livingston Bull, Marc Davis, Henri Deluermoz, Edward Detmold, Pete Graziano, Doris Hardoon, Louis Paul Jonas, Leon Joosen, Paul Jouve, Charles R. Knight, Harry Rountree, John Sibbick, Tyrus Wong and Sirio Tofanari."
What struck me about the formation was that it looked like an old man’s craggy face. In this case, I wasn’t interested in a literal interpretation. I wanted to exaggerate the forms just a bit to make my idea come across. Note the changes:
But it was impossible to paint the scene on location for a simple reason: The only place to set my stool was a busy sidewalk that was only two feet wide. 
Because the road was so narrow, and because it was the main thoroughfare for the coastal route out of Bantry, huge trucks were forced ride up onto the sidewalks to allow other vehicles to pass. 
I did this little sketch while having a cup of tea at an outdoor cafe in Ennis. 
This is my fourth trip to Ireland. The first was 16 years ago. We revisited some of the same places we were acquainted with before, and they haven’t changed too much, other than a small “suburban-style” development on the fringes, a cell tower here and there, and a few new windfarms. 
We stopped in the middle of a farmyard inhabited by chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and a teenager with a weed whacker. Bunches of willow withys were soaking in metal troughs. A man hailed us from inside the open doorway of a stone barn, where he sat inside making baskets.
I sketched a quick portrait as we talked. His name is Martin O’Flynn. He is one of only ten master basket makers in all of Ireland. The knowledge almost died out in the 1980s, when cheap plastic ware came in, but he was able to learn from a few of the older men.
IF YOU GO
The thing I found the most challenging was the perspective drawing. Here’s the scene as it looked to the camera. I knew all those buildings have different vanishing points from each other. And the road has its own set of vanishing points below eye level. And I expected I would be tricked by those building fronts, which were extremely foreshortened. 
Here’s how the line drawing looked after about three hours of measuring, erasing, and redrawing. I used a regular #2 pencil and I didn’t use straightedges. I tried to pin down some measurements using the central pole as a fixed unit of length. 
Just to remind myself how much I need to improve, here’s the line drawing superimposed over the photo, after the fact. I made the yellow building on the right too big, and misplaced the windows and doors on the gray building on the far left. What would have cured a lot of these errors would be to measure across the scene, holding up a level pencil in front of me to judge relative heights—and I’ll do that next time. 
Here’s the final painting, after two sittings on location, and about five hours work. I did make a few conscious changes, such as eliminating the wires, and raising the value of the illuminated roof on the red building in the middle distance. 
Most shop fronts in Ireland still have hand-painted signs.
John Herrick’s sign shop in Galway is down an alley next door to an instrument maker. Like most sign painters, he is also an artist and he offers art lessons.
Ma Murphy’s pub in Bantry shows the architectural setting—a fairly typical Irish facade, framed with pilasters, scroll corbels, and a dentillated cornice. 
Curving baselines, shadow lettering, and Nouveau flourishes give distinctive touches set this sign apart from cheap computer-generated plastic signs.
The illusion of dimensional lettering on a flat surface is often created with five premixed tones: light side, shadow side, dark accent, highlight, and cast shadow. Such work takes specialized brushes and brush skills, and it’s a dying art in many other countries.
May I ask the Group Mind: Can you help me identify these common roadside wildflowers from County Cork, Ireland?
The standing stone of Leitrim Beg perches atop a hill overlooking Bantry Bay. Yesterday, Jeanette and I scrambled over a stile and waded through holly, heather, and gorse until we found the monument. We set up our tripod stools and pulled out the watercolor gear.
The road was created by a fellow named Godson, who wanted to provide a convenient route for customers to get to his hotel in the town below. 
The article includes both cutting-edge science and practical applications:
At the corner of Eyre and Woodquay, the shops don’t cater as much to the visiting trade, and appearances aren’t kept up too carefully. 
De Dannan co-founder Dolores Keane sat by Dan’s side and thrilled us all with her rendition of “Galway Bay,” with Dan accompanying on his Paolo Soprani accordion. 
Mr. Anderson writes:"James Perry Wilson loved to paint. He loved to paint dioramas, architectural subjects, and more than anything else, he loved painting outdoors en plein air.
"In sharp contrast to his diorama painting or architectural work however, Wilson painted other works in a single day on transportable 8"X10" mahogany panels or 12"X16" canvasboards."These small works, done apparently for the sheer love and challenge of painting, reflect the same skill and intelligence seen in his diorama work with the addition of a working spontaneity. They guide us directly to the heart of James Perry Wilson and where his passion lay.
"There is a palpable quality of joy in Wilson’s paintings. He expresses his awe of nature through paint. This is a meticulously observed landscape that emanates his love of color in nature and his depiction of light and atmosphere."
For the full chapter, follow this link to JPW's Plein-Air Painting. I highly recommend this link, and be sure to scroll down a little past halfway to read JPW's notes on atmospheric colors. This is like a whole textbook on plein air practice by a painter who thought more probingly about light and color than almost anyone.
According to A. L. Baldry, who watched him work, he often “lays the whole thing in at once, sometimes in colours which are not by any means those he sees in nature,” thinking ahead to the colors he wants to add later when finishing.
