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.
Here's a fun color experiment: dull-reddish orange over a lime green underpainting. Very weird combination, a bit unlike anything I've tried before. (Link to YouTube)
I wanted to keep the shadow values up around 50% to get that look of an old photo. I also lightened the values of the illuminated areas to be all close in value.
You'll see the sighting grid in action again, and I'll do a whole video on how to make and use that device in the future.
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Own the 72-minute feature "Gouache in the Wild"
• HD MP4 Download at Gumroad $14.95
• or HD MP4 Download at Sellfy (for Paypal customers) $14.95
• DVD at Purchase at Kunaki.com (Region 1 encoded NTSC video) $24.50
On a recent post about Swedish artist Anders Zorn, blog reader Tyler J observed: "Beautiful work but there is a photographic quality about some of it. I couldn't find anything about his methods in the internets but I'm wondering if anyone knows what his workflow was like?"
Tyler, there are a few direct examples of paintings that have reference photos associated with them. Like most artists of his period, Zorn was fascinated by the visual effects of photography.
However, these examples date from early in his career, and the overwhelming impression I've gotten is that Zorn very rarely painted directly from photos, and went to great lengths to paint from living models on location.
Read More:
There's a fuller discussion of Zorn's use of photography at the blog of Leo Mancini-Hresko, and that's where I got these scans.
Brazilian sculptor Juliana LePine creates a tiny figural portrait of singer Freddie Mercury. She builds the forms from the inside out: putting teeth on the skull, flesh on the bones, and clothing over the flesh. (Link to YouTube)
Juliana has a whole series of tutorial videos grouped into playlists. You can get her supplies from the JLS Store, including plastic vitrox (PV) clay, skeletons, and eyes. You can even get molds for making your own skulls and figures.
----- Juliana's website
Photographer Levon Biss came up with a way to photograph insects in extremely high resolution.
Biss teamed up with the Oxford University Museum of Natural History to record some of the best specimens from their collection.
The process overcomes the problem of shallow depth of field inherent in all macrophotography by taking thousands of exposures as the camera moves in tiny increments through the Z dimension. The focused layers are then stacked digitally in the computer.
In addition, the insect is shot in as many as 30 sections, with different lighting setups for each section.
Insects are covered with finely textured microstructures, and the function of those tiny structures is still not completely understood.
According to Dr James Hogan of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, “It’s thought that microscopic structures alter the properties of an insect’s surface in different ways, reflecting sunlight, shedding water, or trapping air. The evolutionary process of natural selection should account for all this wonderful diversity of microstructures, but for many species their specific adaptive function is still unknown. By observing insects in the wild, studying museum collections, and developing new imaging techniques we will surely learn more about these fascinating creatures and close the gaps in our current understanding.”
A free online tool lets you create a 3D reconstruction of a face from a single image.
Van Dyck's Portrait of Cornelis Van Der Geest in 3D
You can input a single photo or a painting. After it processes and outputs, you can drag the 3D model around with your mouse and see it in a variety of angles.
It's fun to try it out on a familiar face that's usually seen only from one angle, like Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman.
The tool was created by computer vision scientists at the University of Nottingham using machine-learning software called a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN).
"Our CNN works with just a single 2D facial image, does not require accurate alignment nor establishes dense correspondence between images, works for arbitrary facial poses and expressions, and can be used to reconstruct the whole 3D facial geometry (including the non-visible parts of the face) bypassing the construction (during training) and fitting (during testing) of a 3D Morphable Model." ------
In the November issue of ImagineFX magazine, I'm happy to share pages in an article called "The Joy of Sketch" with Tony DiTerlizzi, Robh Ruppel, Olly Lawson, Miles Johnson, and Terryl Whitlatch.
Each of us has different reasons for sketching and we use different tools, but we're all sketching fanatics.
Here are three 3 DIY gadgets from inexpensive materials you can build to improve the light on your plein-air easel. (Direct link to YouTube video)
The side diffuser keeps the direct sunlight off your work. The last thing you want is cast shadows across your work.
This reflector mounts onto an extra tripod behind you. The purpose is to bounce light into your work when you're painting contre-jour. The slight angle doubles the amount of light that it bounces.
It's also great for lighting a backlit subject if you're a solo-shooting stills or video.
For more about the basic "Gurney Sketch Easel" shown in the video, check out my full tutorial at Sellfy and Gumroad. My videos are also available as DVDs at the manufacturer Kunaki.
UPDATE: I have released a video showing how to make the sketch easel plus four different diffuser designs. It explains what tools and materials you'll need, and demonstrates all the steps.
The HD download of "How to Make a Sketch Easel" is more than an hour long and costs only $14.95.
In addition to perfecting the art of animation, Disney Studios mastered the art of the behind-the-scenes film. (Link to YouTube)
In this glimpse into the making of the 1955 feature Lady and the Tramp, animator Frank Thomas demonstrates lip synch and the pencil test. After that, Milt Kahl runs through some character sketches for Tramp, and flips through the scene introducing Tramp.
The live action camera moves in and out of their workspaces and smoothly cuts to the filmed tests, some of which have been cleaned up and given a hint of background and flicker especially for this presentation.
Even though the view of the process is slightly contrived, it gives a good layman's introduction to how animated films were made.
Walt Disney recognized the power of television as a vehicle for sharing the process and the history of his art form. His television program, which began in 1954 on ABC, presented "The Story of the Animated Drawing.
Disney wasn't the first to create behind-the-scenes documentaries, though. Winsor McCay did it decades earlier (Link to YouTube), with whimsical exaggeration.
Behind-the-scenes features have become a staple of movie marketing and fan-building today, given the powerful window that YouTube now affords. Even hotly anticipated movies with a lot of carefully guarded surprises, such as Blade Runner 2049, give a few peeks behind the curtain before the movie is released.
