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 2015 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.
Illustration Magazine (Issue 49) usually has two big features. In this issue, one is about Pulp artist John Newton Howitt, and the other is Stevan Dohanos, the illustrator who produced 125 Saturday Evening Post Covers and was one of the founding instructors of the Famous Artist's School.
The article on Dohanos follows his life story from his start in 1907 in an Ohio mill town to his death in 1994. His Post covers captured stories of American small town life with humor, affection, and lots of detail.
Getting a Post cover idea approved wasn't easy. Dohanos estimated that for every cover idea that got the green light, there were four other sketches that were rejected.
Dohanos painted primarily in gouache, a medium that lends itself to speed, clarity, and detail, and one that he learned during his early days as an advertising and layout artist. The article by Illustration Magazine founder Dan Zimmer has over 30 pictures by Dohanos, most of them reproduced from the original.
---- Illustration Magazine Issue 49
Volume 2 of Dan Zimmer's popular "The Golden Age: Masterworks from the Golden Age of Illustration" is still available, but it's selling out fast.
You might not think of podcasting as a visual medium, but it uses the mind's eye in a way that is suited to a graphic novel, and this non-fiction approach to the subject is surprisingly revealing.
Jessica Abel has a long association with podcasting, having collaborated with "This American Life's" Ira Glass many years ago to create a handbook about the making of the show that they could give to supporters.
That handbook grew in scope to explore the difficult process of creating narrative-driven audio documentaries. In the course of the book you meet the people behind favorite programs such as 99% Invisible, This American Life, Radiolab,Invisibilia,
Woven throughout the presentation, there's useful information about how to record and arrange sound clips, how to use music, and how to edit the spoken word, even down to individual breaths.
One of my favorite parts of the book is about story structure. Abel presents a basic story template that many podcasters use, called the "focus sentence":
"Somebody does something because __________(a motivation for doing that thing) but __________(a challenge to overcome.)"
In other words, "A character sets out to accomplish something as a result of some motivating reason, but he has to face various obstacles along the way to that goal."
This focus sentence could be used by artists in any narrative medium to help them define their story.
Taking more than ten hours of sound clips and boiling them down to a ten minute segment that has a logical flow—and then adding voiceover and music—isn't always obvious. It often leads podcasters into what they call the "German forest," a zone of confusion that they have to work their way out of, generally with the combined brainpower of small committee meetings.
If you've been experimenting with gouache, you'll want to pick up the brand new issue of International Artist Magazine (#105 Oct/Nov).
I chose my top ten tips for success and illustrated them with 10 examples, and included QR codes so that you can use your phone to go behind the scenes of the paintings and watch them being made on video.
Yesterday I painted this study of Main Street in New Paltz, New York.
I used casein with a limited palette of cobalt blue, yellow ochre, light red, and white. I kept the sky nearly white and flooded cool skylight across the small forms that crossed into the sky. The rest of the scene explores contrasts of warm and cool at a fairly high key.
Jeanette and I set up at standing height on the sidewalk beside our friend Garin Baker. We kept to the shadow side of the street to avoid working in the glaring sunlight.
The first issue of the new academic publication called Journal of Illustration has been published online.
In the opening editorial, Desdemona of the McCannon Manchester School of Art notes that there hasn't been much academic scrutiny of illustration.
She participated in a committee to create "an international forum for scholarly research and investigation of a range of cultural, political,
philosophical, historical and contemporary issues in relation to illustration....We hope that the journal over time will extend critical discourse and methodologies for the interdisciplinary
study of illustration, exploring issues surrounding illustration as a visual text, the poetics
of illustration and the relationship between word and image."
The articles in the first issue are free on Intellect, and they include:
Brent Smith is a sculptor from a small town on the Arkansas-Oklahoma border who makes dinosaurs out of mahogany.
According to blog reader Judy Maurer, "Each piece is carved from wood and then assembled. There is a steel cable that runs through the vertebrae that is slightly flexible but not visible."
"He is a completely off the grid artist and (according to his wife) this is the first time the work has been out of their den." fayettevilleunderground.com.
Top row from left: Pat Capozzi, Jack Ozark, A (Unknown), Sue Shigida, B, Mitch Rochon, C, John Sparey, Steve Gordon, Bruce Woodside, James Gurney, D, Tom Tataranowicz, Jan Cummings, Thomas Kinkade. Bottom Row: Bill Recinos, Debbie Hayes, Mike Svayko, Tim Callahan, Mauro Maressa, Ralph Bakshi, Frank Frazetta, E.
Ralph Bakshi Productions crew photo in 1981, during the production of the animated film "Fire and Ice."
A new exhibition of my original art has just opened at the museum of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The Art of James Gurney includes more than 25 oil paintings from the Dinotopia books, as well as natural science illustrations, preliminary sketches, and maquettes.
One of the featured images is "Waterfall City: Afternoon Light" from Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara. This is the only image that overlaps from the Delaware Art Museum exhibition a few years ago; the rest are all different.
The Art of James Gurney will be on view at the The Richard C. von Hess Gallery of Illustration at 333 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA through November 16.
In connection with the exhibition, I'll be doing a public presentation on Thursday, October 29 at 1:00 pm at Levitt Auditorium, with a reception following.
In last month's Outdoor Market Challenge I asked you to paint a market on location using just three colors of gouache plus white.
We had many inspiring responses from artists around the world, ranging from seasoned professionals to people just starting out on the adventure of painting. In this post I want to spotlight a few of the results that I thought made the most of the opportunity, but I was impressed with everyone's effort, and grateful to all who participated.
It was really hard to select the winners, but I would like to give the Grand Prize to Jesse Winchester Schmidt, who painted "Sunrise Market." He says, "Sunrise is a well known market in downtown Vancouver. Always vibrant, buzzing with diversity." The striking color scheme came from using Indigo blue, Cadmium yellow, Permanent Alizarin Crimson and White.
Jesse painted the main piece in over four sessions, but he also produced more than a dozen preliminary sketches and paintings to help him warm up to the challenge.
Next up is Finalist Jared Cullum of Richmond, Virginia, who painted Virginia's Historic 17th Street Farmer's Market. He used Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Cobalt Blue & White. The perspective is very carefully drawn, the colors are muted, and the values are well grouped, making the piece look like it was done by a 19th century master.
He said his rig blew over four times because of that big wind-catching umbrella. Jared also said, "This is posted with a little bit of melancholy. As I was painting someone working the market came and sat with me and asked, "Trying to get it down before they tear it down?" Then he proceeded to tell me about how tomorrow they will be tearing this down to build a "shopping square" in it's place. No idea what that means for the farmers working but it's sad to see a historic thing go." (Link to new story about demolition.)
The next Finalist is Clay Brooks of Denver, Colorado. He used Venetian Red, Oxide of Chromium, and Cadmium Yellow Pale, plus white. Those colors led to a harmonious and unified color statement, with the darks related to the tints.
I also like the way he handled the figures with just a few color planes stated very directly, since the figures must not have stood there long.
Clay said, "I was a little upset with my color choices in the beginning because it was impossible to get darker than 2 or 3 on the value scale. Also, subbing green for blue was interesting."
Architectural illustrator Jeff Simutis is another Finalist. He painted the Marin Farmers Market in San Rafael, California using Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Yellow, and white. I love the way he echoes the colors and shapes throughout the picture and captures the bustle and energy of the whole scene.
This photo captures the busy scene that Jeff was facing on his standing tripod easel. You just know he must have had a million people coming up to him and offering comments, or saying "Paint me in! Har har!"
First up in the Honorable Mention category is Christian Schlierkamp of Berlin, Germany. He used Cyan, Magenta and White on a yellow priming and watersoluble pencils in a Moleskine Watercolour book. I like the light and airy feeling that he achieved, letting the yellow color come through here and there, and allowing the line work to show.
Here's the view back toward Christian from the stand. Christian says, "The market stand shown is of my friend Horst Siegeris where I buy all of our fruits and veggies."
The next Honorable Mention is Michael Mrak, painting the Ort Family Farmstead Near Chester, New Jersey. He chose an interesting view looking in the corner doorway and up under the eaves.
The palette was Yellow Ochre, Ultramarine Blue and Venetian Red. Mike says, "It has been maybe 20 years since I limited my palette like that."
David Auden Nash painted this study using Vermilion, Sepia, and Ultramarine with an acrylic underpainting. The color statement is very exciting indeed.
Here's David Auden Nash in front of De Streekmarkt at Mariaplaats in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Charley Parker painted the Swarthmore Farmer's Market in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.
The painting is 5"x7" and is painted in W&N gouache (Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Perylene Maroon, Permanent White) on a Stillman & Birn Zeta Series sketchbook.
Charley says, "I frequently use a limited palette, but one that includes at least four colors — usually Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Alazarin Crimson and a "helper color" like Burnt Sienna or Viridian. I didn't realize how much I depend on that helper color, which for a subject like this would have been Burnt Sienna. I would use it primarily to combine with Ultramarine to make grays and browns and to dull the bright yellow into ochre-like tones."
He continues, "I usually paint more natural landscape forms as opposed to cityscapes and artificial structures, and I'm not a particularly fast painter. I soon realized I'd taken on more than I could paint in a single session. Fortunately the weather cooperated and I was able to return to the same location under similar light conditions."
Sherry Schmidt painted the South Pasadena farmer's market in California with W&N Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, Lemon Yellow, and white, on cold press watercolor paper.
She says, "I taped over the other colors in my gouache palette so I wouldn't make a mistake! I enjoyed trying this and finally felt more comfortable as I got used to mixing with the three colors."
Finally, I'd like to spotlight the work of Matt Sterbenz of Arizona. I like the way he focused on a smaller detail of the scene, and did a nice job capturing the flickering light and shadows. He used lemon yellow, burnt sienna, ivory black, and white.
Matt says, "A couple friends and I went to a Scottsdale nursery this morning. They have lots of benches and tables set up throughout the garden. The shelving there was made from old pallets and cinder blocks. Hiding from the sun in the shade, I painted this display of small bushes with Holbein gouache."
Finally, check out Dietmar Stiller's video of his painting experience. Link to YouTube
Have a look at the Facebook Event page where all the entries are posted. My compliments to everyone who joined in, and hats off to those of you who bravely painted outside for the first time, or painted in gouache for the first time.
Jesse, Jared, Jeff, and Clay, please contact me to let me know where to send your official "Department of Art" patch as your prize.
Sketches of the draft horses at the county fair. Gouache, watercolor, and fountain pen, 5 x 8 inches.
These horses didn't pose, even though they always had handlers, because they were getting ready for their events. That's why I kept the sketches small and started several of them in different poses.
" takes a fresh look behind the scenes at what goes into the making of your favorite NPR podcasts.
