Focus on Nature Exhibition

"Focus on Nature XI: Natural History Illustration opens April 12 at the New York State Museum, showcasing world-class, juried artwork by top illustrators from 13 countries," says the official press release.

"This exhibition, open through October 31 in the Photography Gallery, will feature 93 natural history illustrations, representing the work of 73 illustrators from the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. The subjects represented are diverse, ranging from those only found in the artists’ home country to those that have a worldwide distribution.

"They include the Short-beaked Echidna, the Platypus, and the Leadbeater’s Possum, all mammals found only in Australia, and the Red Andreaea, a plant endemic to the Agulhas Negras Mountains of Brazil. Also represented are many birds familiar in the northeastern U.S. such as the Peregrine Falcon, Barred Owl, Connecticut Warbler, House Sparrow, and one of the world’s most widespread -- the Barn Owl. There also are illustrations of an African Dung Beetle, along with the producer of its nourishment -- an African elephant. Also included are recreations of extinct organisms such as the Apatosaurus (a dinosaur), Deinosuchus (an ancient crocodile), Odontochelys (the ancestor of turtles) and Titanoboa (shown above)."

Due to New York State budget woes, there won’t be a formal opening event, so I may not be able to be there on the first day.
--------
More at the Focus on Nature website.

List of selected artists.
Guild of Natural Science Illustration (GNSI), a related organization.
Message from founder and juror Patricia Kernan.
Previously on GurneyJourney: Titanoboa (giant snake).

An online catalog with images and statements by the artists, as well as the names of Jury Award winners, will be available on this website after April 13. An interactive with this information also will be in the exhibition gallery.

Dinotopia Themed Caskets

One of the most thoughtful gifts that you can give to a deceased relative is a themed casket, which makes it possible for them to travel into the hereafter with the dream that they cherished most dearly in life.

Families of departed Star Trek fans can choose from Photon Torpedo model casket, based on the Wrath of Khan movie.

Many colleges and universities now offer tastefully styled alumni caskets.



In that well-established tradition, we are proud to announce the availability of Dinotopia caskets for that special person who lived their life in the “land apart from time.”

We have worked closely with Timeless Funeral Products, U.S.A.’s leading supplier of custom caskets and coffins for burial and cremation. All of the designs are carefully applied by hand, and all the materials are environmentally friendly with no animal by-products. Even the “Saurian Skin” model is made from recycled plant-based cellulose.

The “Paleo” style comes with a custom stainless-steel museum mount and identification label so that your loved one can be easily excavated and correctly displayed by paleontologists of the future.

To learn more, please visit a showroom for a free personal consultation with an expert designer. Dinotopia caskets, coffins, and urns are available exclusively through funeral directors.
-------
Timeless Funeral Products
------
Addendum: Howard Lyon sent me a sketch of his ideal Dinotopia casket design, which he calls "Rex in Peace." Thanks, Howard, and happy April 1 to all!

Modern Stone Age Furries

Last weekend I drew the t-shirt design for Anthrocon. This year’s theme is “Modern Stone-Age Furries.”


I'll be giving three digital slide lectures and a technique demo.

But the big event will be the fursuit parade. This is one of the largest events of its kind, with over 600 participants. All the costumers don their fursuits, which are handmade and often very elaborate. They’re mostly based on anthropomorphic cartoon animals.


According to an insider's description:

"Fursuits, similar to what athletic team mascots wear, are constructed of fabric, not fur or animal skins. While in a fursuit, a furry walks upright.

Some furries superimpose human clothing on the fursuit; for example, a snow leopard diva may wear a red cocktail dress and a big yellow dog may wear blue jeans.”

Anthrocon Official Site
What is Furry?
Wikipedia on Furry Fandom

Formative Years

Glenn Kim is an artist at Pixar who has shaped the look of many of their films. In addition to that, he teaches art classes at Sienna Ranch.

He is especially devoted to helping high school age kids get the early experience and guidance they need. He says:

"I believe early experiences that spark a child’s imagination can influence their lives forever. I want to teach kids what I might have wanted when I was a kid, and also as a teen, when I seriously started considering what I wanted to do with my life, and I knew it was ‘art something’, but had no idea as to even what kind of artist I wanted to be."

Glenn just launched a new series on his blog GlennzArt called "Art School, I'm confident I can get there." He'll be interviewing artists working in various fields, and I was honored to be his first victim. Read Glenn's interview with me here.

Art copyright Disney/Pixar, from Sienna Ranch website.

A Lucky Pose

How do you get a goat to pose for his portrait?

It sure helps when some of the kids from the farm keep him interested with a few handfuls of grain. This is Lucky. He shares the stall with Billy, who you met last summer.

Vermeer’s Pigments

Artists didn’t have hundreds of available pigments, as we do today. Paint samples scraped from the edges of Vermeer’s artwork show that he commonly used just seven pigments:

1. white lead, 2. yellow ochre, 3. vermillion, 4. red madder, 5, green earth, 6. raw umber and 7. ivory black.

In total, he may have used as many as seventeen, though many of them were rarely empoyed:
azurite
carmine
charcoal black
green earth
indigo
ivory black
lead white
lead-tin yellow
madder lake
red ocher
smalt
ultramarine
umber
weld
verdigris
vermillion
yellow ocher

The source for this information is an excellent website called Essential Vermeer. Thanks Walt Morton!

Fixler's Plane Head

Fred Fixler was a great art teacher from southern California who died Jan 21, 2010. He was a student of Frank Reilly, and brought much of his teaching as well as his own experience of illustration to his students.


On his official website is more about him, and some of the notes and handouts that he generously gave his students. One of them is a nice plane analysis of a head. If you wanted to sculpt a little 3D reference maquette of this head, it would be a good one to use for reference.

Fred Fixler
Thanks, Steve Kloepfer

Previously on GurneyJourney: Plane Heads, Character Maquettes, Reilly and Beyond

Boldini at the Clark Art Institute

The nineteenth-century painter Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) is best known for his dazzling society portraits.

But before he found that groove, he painted landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes and genre pieces, blending his academic and impressionist instincts into an formidable bunch of paintings and drawings now on exhibit at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.


The early influence of Meissonier shows up in “The Dispatch Rider”, where an equestrian soldier digs a letter out of his bag, clenching another letter between his teeth. The recipient stands on the wet sidewalk he has just been cleaning. If you look closely at the original, you can see the building across the street reflected in the shiny helmet, which is no bigger than a quarter.

“Place Clichy” shows a street scene bustling with figures, some the size of sunflower seeds. It’s a joyous exploration of the human anthill, painted with tiny brushes. He cuts loose in the sky above, painting some of the clouds with six-inch strokes.

The contrast between delicate, tiny details and large dynamic gestures is typical of Boldini. His Jekyll-and-Hyde painterly instincts range from watchmaker miniaturist to unrestrained big-stroke action painter.

In “Nocturne in Montmartre” (Horses at Night), c. 1883, he uses deft strokes the size of housepainter’s brushes to convey the confused frenzy of horses and carriages at an intersection, partially glimpsed in the gaslight. In an age of impressionism, no other artist dared to capture such a fleeting and powerful visual experience.

“The Pont des Saints-Pères”, c. 1881–86 seems influenced by the burgeoning revolution of photography. He stages a scene of terrible action: A mother grabs her son out of the way of an oncoming team of horses. All that survives from this experiment was a semi-abstract concept sketch and two large fragments cut out of the original bedsheet-size canvas.

Throughout the exhibition are scattered a few samples of contempory artists who influenced him: Sargent, Meissonier ,Pissarro, Manet, Renoir, and Degas.
Adolphe von Menzel is conspicuously lacking, as is the incredible portrait that Boldini did of him.

Boldini gives the impression of an artist flexing his muscles, trying everything, reaching in a lot of directions, restlessly experimenting. The show chronicles the track of a artistic comet strewn across seventy canvases. He finally connected with portraiture in a small portrait of an artist friend. High society took notice. The orders streamed in, and the rest is the Boldini most of us know.

What his portraits and landscapes may sometimes lack in psychological penetration or lyrical power, they more than make up for in unadulterated brio.

The museum has free admission during the winter months. Don’t miss a visit to the library, open to visitors. It’s one of the finest collections of art books in the northeast. The Boldini show will be on view through April 25, 2010. The hardcover catalog is comprehensive and nicely printed. It contains 232 pages with 134 color illustrations ($45 at the show, $43 on Amazon).
----------------

P.S. Shout-out to blog reader Martha who came up and said hi at the show!

Official museum website about the exhibition

Berkshire review
Sample of Audio Tour

The Old Drawing Table

I’ve updated quite a few things in my studio, but I hang onto a few old relics for sentimental reasons.

The drawing table dates back to my high school years. I took it to college at UC Berkeley. The wood is full of pinholes, and the wing nuts are always loose, a tightener crank busted off so I use a C-clamp, and it wobbles.

But I can’t bring myself to replace it. It’s like an old friend. All my dreams have flowed through it.

I’m not the only one who feels loyal to an old drawing table. The dark fantasy master Brom has kept his drawing table since he was fourteen (photo courtesy ImagineFX magazine).

What’s the oldest studio item that you keep on using? Do you use something that you inherited from a mentor or ancestor?

Please vote in the poll at left. I’d love to hear your stories in the comments.

David

Here’s a sketch of David, working in our creature design class last summer. He’s one of the regulars at the Grand Central Academy in New York. The sketch about 3 x 4 inches, drawn with water soluble colored pencils.

David told us his hat is made out of material from discarded couches.