Tuesday, December 18, 2012
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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.
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Blog Archive
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2012
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December
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- Scott Waddell Video
- Mass in C
- IFX Review: Dinotopia: The World Beneath
- Steampunk Miyazaki
- Image Parsing
- To the Salon
- Vangobot
- Welcome new blog readers
- Merry Christmas
- Titles for Paintings, Part 3
- Titles of Painting, Part 2
- Titles for Paintings, Part 1
- Central American Artifacts
- Lost Art of Heinrich Kley
- Frozen Niagara Falls
- The Unknown Woman
- Image of the Week
- Video Guy
- Alaska Artist Residency Sign-up
- Your Favorite Art Magazines
- Houding
- Baby Chihuahua
- American Artist, 1937-2012
- Speed of Perception
- Scientific American Interview
- Festival of Lights
- What color is smoke?
- Ty Wong Documentary
- Handel's Messiah
- Hawley and Kley in Illustration Magazine
- Ladies Dressed as Appliances
- Attic Scene Auctioned
- Stone Church Graveyard
- Palette Clamp
- Elvgren's Pin-up Reference
- Oil Head Study
- Anamorphic Illusion Video
- Alien Creatures of the Deep
- White Cloud Worlds 2
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December
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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.
12 comments:
Both this and the chihuahua have nice deep blacks in them. Do you do any adjustments in Photoshop? I'm curious because I have a devil of a time getting graphite to scan or photograph well. It's always got some glare to it.
Do you have any advice for drawing folks "out in the wilderness"? It feels like a whole different beast compared to figure drawing sessions, where you have plenty of time to make careful measurements and observations.
The Video Guy is very vividly portrayed.
Another enjoyable entry.
Great lines as usual. Interesting lighting. Even the camera seems to have a personality. - mp
Joshua, I shoot all my work outdoors with a digital SLR camera (or a pocket camera if that's all I've got). I usually adjust Levels or Curves or the automatic "Adjust Levels" to correct white balance and bring out the range of tones. Sometimes I edit the whites to pure white to give the feeling of a vignette on white paper.
Thanks, mp and Rich.
Anon 1: Yes, in "the wild" I can't do the length or slope measurements that I might do in a model session. And of course my subject will surely move and depart after a while. I love the sense of urgency that gives my drawings.
People dealing with technology, especially cell phones or laptops in cafes, are great subjects because they hold poses for a long time.
One tip: wear a pleasant expression rather than the grim Concentration Face in case they happen to look over. And if they do look over, hold up your book with the page toward them and smile or walk over if you can and explain what you're doing.
Two questions: 1) Did the "Video Guy" film the "Sketcher Guy" and, 2) What kind of camera is he using?
red camera
http://www.red.com/
:)
My first reaction was "He's smoking indoors?!?!"
Great drawing James!
Anonymous:
1. No, the V.G. didn't notice that the S.G. was looking at him.
2. Don't know the kind of camera. The sketch was from almost 10 years ago, so digital cameras have come a long way since then.
Qitsune, It was a big tent with open sides, and the rules were a little looser about smoking back then, so I don't think anyone complained.
I know some video folks. To get the full picture, so to speak, you have to be around for the tech build, where they are setting up the control area, laying the cables that will provide the feeds, siting the cameras that will shoot the action, and later doing the all important tech rehearsal where they do a run through with those who will be filmed to get the schedules down and the cues set so that everyone is on the same page about what will happen when. It's live, and you don't get to do a retake if there's a flub. It has to be right the first time.
And since it's not just video, the sound folks are in the mix as well, placing mikes and adjusting levels at the mixing board so people will be heard as well as seen, and the lighting folks are doing hang and focus and setting up the light plots in their controllers, putting in the cues that will let them change lighting with the touch of a button at the appropriate moment. (The staging folks have already built the risers and the framework from which lights will be hung.)
It's Putting On A Show, and I know a lot of folks who do other things for a living, but do stuff like this because it's fun. (And do it, often, better than those who do it for a living.)
But it's not man vs tech unless there's a glitch. Usually it's man and tech, and the tech is an extension of the people using it.
Great sketch, though: the video guy is totally focused on getting the shot, and it will be right.
DMcCunney, thanks for the insider's perspective. I guess it's only Man vs. Tech when I'm trying to operate the camera.
It would be the same for me if I were confronted by a brush and oils. It's not my tech, and hasn't become an extension of me.
Your challenge is to get the image right in your head. Once you know what you _want_ to paint, you won't have an issue actually doing it, because you've mastered your craft.
It's true of any endeavor.
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