Article on Vehicle Maquettes

The new edition of International Artist magazine, on the newsstands now, has a special article that I wrote about building materials for scratchbuilding vehicle maquettes.

I show several examples made from polymer clay (Sculpey), cardboard, and kitbashed plastic model parts.

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More kitbashed models by Juliano Redigolo

International Artist magazine

Caricaturing Conan

(Video link) In this video produced by the National Portrait Gallery, artist John Kascht shares the thinking behind his caricature of Conan O' Brien.

"I don't think about caricature as distortion. It's magnification. There's a big difference. It's precisely because I am going to amplify someone's features that I do care about clarity."

Thanks, Peaceartist.

Maquette Magic

(Video link) Here's a new video which features some of the original reference maquettes that I've built for Dinotopia. I shot them so that they line up with the final paintings.

Many of these maquettes—and the resulting paintings—can be seen in the Lyman Allyn Art Museum exhibition, which opens today in New London, Connecticut.

Photos of the maquettes also appear in the behind-the-scenes supplement that's part of the new edition of Dinotopia: The World Beneath, published this month by Dover/Calla.

The long pull-back shot was done with the motorized Lego dolly on an 8-foot run of PVC pipes.

I'll be at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum on October 13. The exhibition will continue through February 2, 2013. Preview more art from the show at the blogs Lines and Colors or Underpaintings.

You can order a signed copy of The World Beneath at jamesgurney.com
Previous book trailer about writing with dip pens.

Kids Riding Dinosaurs

In 1996, Storyworks magazine sponsored a national poster contest inviting school kids to portray an answer to the question "If the residents of Dinotopia came to your hometown, how would you welcome them?"

I selected the six winning posters out of hundreds that were submitted. The grand prize winners, it turned out, came from all across the USA.



The prize for each of the six winners was not only a signed book, but a chance to pose for a new Dinotopia painting. My original idea was to show the six kids riding around in a dinosaur version of a merry-go-round or carousel, maybe flying through the air with a blue sky background. That's my concept sketch above.

From the beginning, I knew that the logistics of transporting each of the winners and their parents to my studio would be impossible, so I would have to take the risk of working from reference that they provided.

I asked them to find a parent or helper to set them up with a "Dinotopian" costume and to take a few dozen photos, facing to the right, and not looking at the camera. The photos were even better than I expected, and the costumes and expressions were really fun to work from.


It dawned on me, though, that it made more sense to show them on real dinosaurs instead of on a carousel. So I switched the concept when I did the final painting, a large oil panorama.

• Read about the experience of Kathryn Noel of Utah, who appears on the left
• Some of the reference photos, as well as the final painting will be part of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum exhibition "Dinotopia: Art, Science, and Imagination" http://www.lymanallyn.org/exhibitions.htmlopening on September 22.
• More about the exhibition on the blogs Lines and Colors and Underpaintings

• The final painting appears in Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara

• The art also appeared as an accordion-fold greeting card, but I'll show that in a future post.

Nina's Alaska Sketchbook

Earlier this year, Nina Khashchina read on this blog about a unique artist residency opportunity in the Alaskan wilderness.

Her application was accepted —Go Nina!— and she undertook the adventure earlier this month. She sketched from sea kayaks, hiked on remote trails, and braved hungry mosquitoes and pounding rain for rapturous visual encounters with bears, salmon, and wild forests.

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Nina Khashchina's Alaska sketchbook on Flickr

Voice of the Wilderness opportunity -- Nine days in Alaska

Plein Air Painter Brian Stewart

(Video link) Brian Stewart of Minnesota left a career in advertising to focus on plein-air painting and guitar playing. The short video is by Steve Niedorf, part of a series he's doing called "By Hand," about people who do things with their hands.

Via, PleinAir magazine
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If you live in Georgia, I'll be speaking at SCAD Atlanta today (Thursday, 9-20). The illustrated talk is at 11am, Event Space 4-C

Lectures in Atlanta

If you live near Atlanta, Georgia, please come to my free lecture and demo today at Kennesaw State University at 1:00. And tomorrow I'll be at SCAD Atlanta.

ImagineFX on Sketching Buildings

The new ImagineFX magazine is on the newsstands in Britain, and soon will be in the States. It has an article that I wrote on sketching architecture on location.

Since ImagineFX specializes in fantasy, science fiction, and concept art, I emphasized how on-the-spot work fits into my imaginative painting, and how I sometimes give a surrealistic twist to what I observe.

The article has quite a few images that haven't been published before, and I hope it will be inspiring both to digital and traditional artists, whether you do fantasy or not.

The magazine includes work by the 2011 Rising Stars winners, Marta Nael, Jean-Sebastien Rossbach, David Gaillet, Eric Deschamps. And one more extra: The magazine comes with a free DVD with one of my painting videos on it. By the way, when you're at the bookstore or newsstand, look for the magazine in the computer section, not in the art section.
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ImagineFX magazine
Video produced by IFX about the entire issue,

Savannah Sketchers

Blog reader Cale says: "If you have time to do any watercolor sketches please post them. I'd love to see your rendition of Savannah, also I have questions on pushing value range in wc!"

Here you go, Cale!

Jeanette and I walked through Forsyth Park and saw the mermen fountain, and I also sketched the Daniel Chester French statue in Chippewa Square. Then we set up on the corner of Bull Street and West Park Alley.

The sun was setting just to the left of the alley. As far as pushing values, I saved darkest and lightest accents to the end. There are some white, blue, and brown watercolor-pencil touches, and a few gouache touches here and there.

Hope to see you today at 5:00 at the SCAD Museum of Art Theater.

Technique for Atmospheric Maquettes

How do you suppose this landscape image was created?


Kim Keever sculpts miniature scenes, immerses them in a 200 gallon tank, disperses pigment in the water, and lights them with colored lights.
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Thanks, Stephen Henderson-Grady.
From DesignBoom.
Kim Keever's Website