2024-04-22 21:21
J.C. Leyendecker, during his student days in Paris, wrote home to Chicago describing the work he was doing in the Académie Julian under Benjamin-Constant, Lefebvre, Bouguereau, and La… Read More
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This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney for illustrators, comic artists, plein-air painters, sketchers, animators and art students, with insights into the making of Dinotopia.
2024-04-19 12:51
I painted this dead van in Greenport, Long Island using watercolor and gouache. You can watch the YouTube premiere today at noon NY time.Stage 1. MeasuringI establish a unit of len… Read More
2024-04-17 19:47
There are two roads for building an art career online. View this post on Instagram A post shared by James Gurney (@jamesgurneyart)
Watch the public premiere of the… Read More
2024-04-12 13:09
Feeling stuck? Need a fresh approach to your creative practice?Dürer's Melencolia IHere are four tips to help overcome creative melancholy:1. Set up a different workstation. For most pe… Read More
2024-04-07 13:34
Not all head paintings are intended as portraits of specific individuals.Joos van Craesbeeck, 1605/6-1660/1 The SmokerSometimes the goal is to capture a facial expression, a chara… Read More
2024-04-03 09:52
All of the films by Laika Animation have "Art of" books available, including Paranorman, Boxtrolls, and Kubo. But their first film, Coraline, doesn't. Much of the concept art had… Read More
2024-03-31 14:00
Frederic Edwin Church had the ability, even in a small field study, to capture a lot of convincing detail and texture, working quickly over a pencil line drawing in a single pass of oil pain… Read More
2024-03-28 10:13
Donkeys are very friendly and sweet, but it’s hard to sketch when you’re in there with them Read More
2024-03-25 15:57
Cell phones occupy so much of people’s attention that they hold still and they don’t notice you sketching them.I paint this guy in a New York City park. He is talking into his e… Read More
2024-03-20 15:02
When light comes from the farther, foreshortened, or “short” side of the face it's called "short" lighting. It’s still three-quarter lighting if the tell-tale li… Read More
2024-03-15 22:37
In today's Substack post I paint a street scene where the goal is to capture the feeling of objects against a bright sky. The technique uses watercolor and gouache over casein. I… Read More
2024-03-14 22:02
Getting the best light on your artwork while sketching outdoors makes a huge difference. Ideally you want soft, diffused white sunlight at a level close to the brightness of the scene… Read More
2024-03-12 20:22
Lilias Trotter’s mentor, John Ruskin, said that if she stuck with it, she could become the “greatest living painter” and create immortal works.She did stick with it, but he… Read More
2024-03-08 17:18
Let’s consider three essential factors: Aptitude, Interest, and Market, which you can remember with the word “AIM.*AIM diagram by James GurneyHere are three overlapping circles… Read More
2024-03-06 15:16
My Dinotopia books are intended for all ages, but my favorite readers are between ages 8 and 18. That’s the age where their brains are almost fully wired but they’re not yet lock… Read More
2024-03-04 23:30
Contre-jour lighting is a type of backlighting where you place the subject right in front of a bright, sunny sky. It's a mysterious effect that makes your paintings glow.More toda… Read More
2024-03-01 18:27
I just put part 2 of the Dinotopia Audio Adventure on Substack.So anyone (psst, you don’t even have to give your email) can escape this world for an hour of free listening. Part 2… Read More
2024-02-28 17:13
The story begins with the wreck of the Venturer.We follow Will and Arthur Denison as they try to figure out this place where people live alongside intelligent saurians.Link to free 14 minute… Read More
2024-02-26 14:29
Artist and teacher George Pratt is featured in an exhibition at the Ringling College Museum of Art in Florida. The show is called “Carnet de Voyage: Maroc,” and it’s based… Read More
2024-02-23 21:42
When Frank Vincent Dumond (1865-1951) taught at the Art Students League, he said that the center of interest or focal point of the work could be in any of the four quadrants of the canvas bu… Read More
2024-02-21 17:20
How do you build an art career online? Today's Substack post is a deep dive on managing social media and narrowcasting to dedicated fan networks Read More
2024-02-19 20:34
Balancing art with family can be a challenge. We artists owe a lot to those around us for their long-suffering patience. Jeanette Reading, oil, 8 x 12"I understand how some artists need… Read More
2024-02-17 18:16
Here’s what it looks like when I’m premixing oil colors on a palette made from a roll of freezer paper.🎨 The goal is to premix a “string” of four o… Read More
2024-02-15 15:41
Ilya Repin (1844-1930) had mixed feelings about impressionism when he visited Paris. He knew it was the future of painting, but he was turned off by “the incredible number of awful, sl… Read More
2024-02-14 17:57
When I was just starting out on my journey to learn about painting, I recorded some readings from books that inspired me. I'm just starting to post these readings in my Substack archive… Read More
2024-02-10 15:21
Link to YouTube Here's a practical method for isolating a living plant so that you can paint an accurate portrait of it on location. Roadside Weeds, casein, 14 x 18"Most landscape… Read More
2024-02-07 14:58
Eliot Hodgkin (1905-1987) was an English botanical artist who switched from oil to tempera in 1937. He said he liked opaque, water-based paints because: "It is the only way in which I c… Read More
2024-02-06 18:37
The appearance of dark objects reflected in water depends on three factors:1. The amount of silt or sediment in the water2. The amount of light shining into the water3. The shallowness of th… Read More
2024-02-04 14:06
Wow, what a nice surprise from the wonderful blog BoingBoing.Thanks to Bob Knetzger for mentioning my new Substack page. Read More
2024-02-02 14:17
Edward Catich demonstrated that the Roman letters on Trajan's Column were created with a brush, not a chisel. His research challenged the long-held assumption that the inscriptions were sol… Read More
2024-02-01 19:52
Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki says: • Do not paint stickily and paint after wiping the extra paint and water off. • Don't paint with too much pigment and wat… Read More
2024-01-31 23:42
Here's the short answer: It’s not easy to create an adaptation of the first two books that preserves the utopian appeal of the world, but also introduces enough conflict to make it wor… Read More
2024-01-30 21:06
One of the challenges of my career has been how to channel all my crazy vocations and avocations. Which is why I laughed when the editor of Watercolor Artist Magazine (Spring 2024)… Read More
2024-01-29 17:00
James Gurney's Newsletter "Paint Here" on Substck Read More
2024-01-28 16:00
If you draw in line, there’s a principle called line weight hierarchy. Thicker lines seem closer and more important, while thinner lines float to the background.Examples by Charles Dan… Read More
2024-01-27 22:52
Jeanette custom-made this vest with the v-neck a bit lower so that I can get to my shirt pocket, which always has reading glasses, fountain pen, and pencils in it, for drawing emergencies.Th… Read More
2024-01-24 21:35
Before he was the Painter of Light, and before I was the creator of Dinotopia, Tom Kinkade and I were two unknown and penniless art students.We had grown weary of sitting in windowless class… Read More
2024-01-23 22:40
If you want to paint an imaginary scene that’s lit by believable outdoor light, set up the maquette outdoors.Set it up against a simple backdrop. Spin it around and try lighting it fro… Read More
2024-01-22 21:43
There are various options for painting reference maquettes. Should you paint it white, gray, or polychrome?Read the free post on Substack Read More
2024-01-21 20:54
Although most of his studio paintings were painted in oil, Thomas Moran preferred water media when he was traveling and sketching. He also occasionally produced small watercolor and gouache… Read More
2024-01-18 18:21
I've got a lot of new things coming your way in 2024: new books, upcoming videos, and my new forum on Substack. It's all in this video on YouTube:
This will be a year of growth… Read More
2024-01-15 19:17
Skies are a major source of light, and they should generally be painted lighter than they appear.A wash of very light, cool, color is often enough to convey the feeling of a blue sky. Any sm… Read More
2024-01-14 17:54
“Typography is the craft of endowing human language with durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence. Its heartwood is calligraphy — the dance, on a tiny st… Read More
2024-01-12 21:06
The Sleepy Knitter asks: Why [would] an artist would choose casein over gouache OR gouache over casein in an individual painting scenario? If I were you and preparing my plein-air kit f… Read More
2024-01-11 15:47
Question: "What were some of your inspirations behind the style of clothing seen in Dinotopia?"One day when I was just starting on Dinotopia I got a phone call from an artist friend in New Y… Read More
2024-01-09 22:40
Norwegian painter Karl Sundt-Hansen depicted a somber scene aboard a ship after the death of a sailor.Karl Sundt-Hansen (1841-1907) Burial at Sea, 1890A foreshortened body lie… Read More
2024-01-07 19:35
You can improve your eyesight by exposing your eyes to three minutes of pure red light. According to Medical News Today, exposure to 3 minutes of deep red light once per week may improv… Read More
2024-01-06 09:00
Paul Meyerheim chose an unusual subject for this painting: Paul Friedrich Meyerheim (1842-1915) The Remains of the Mealoil on canvas 138.7 x 176.3 cm, 1879An outdoor meal that was… Read More
2024-01-01 22:05
Did any of you make a New Year’s resolution to go out sketching or life drawing on a regular basis? Read More
2023-12-31 19:04
Cornelius Mazurka once conducted a seventy-five-piece consort of brassmen and hadros in Ruhmsburg. For many years he lived in a partially collapsed tower of the ruined bridge over the Jubila… Read More
2023-12-29 13:00
Naturalist Joe Hutto, who raised a flock of imprinted turkeys, says that they are extremely smart and aware communicators.“But their ability to understand the world goes much further t… Read More
2023-12-28 17:02
Dinotopians enjoy a mini parade to celebrate a new hatchling.It was done as a comp for a possible FAO Schwarz toy catalog cover, but never went beyond this stage Read More
2023-12-27 17:37
How they found out Carlson was drinking on the job in Solar Corp’s Quad 28. View this post on Instagram A post shared by James Gurney (@jamesgurneyart) He's drinking… Read More
2023-12-26 15:33
This background painting is from the Ralph Bakshi / Frank Frazetta animated movie “Fire and Ice.” The left hand side of the composition is painted on an… Read More
2023-12-25 10:22
To create the painting “Thermala: Alpine Hideaway” I needed some reference for the lighting. I made a rough base from styrofoam, then draped some plaster-impregnated burlap… Read More
2023-12-22 14:41
Look at the little black cross at the center of this soft color field. Try not to move your eyes. Notice what happens to your perception of the colors in the rest of the area.Did the colors… Read More
2023-12-21 14:35
Thomas Cole, Youth, from Voyage of Life, oil on canvasThomas Cole (1801-1848) lived less than a decade after the invention of photography, but he already recognized what a game changer it wo… Read More
2023-12-20 14:12
Ray tracing and path tracing are both techniques used in computer graphics to simulate the behavior of light. Ray tracing is a rendering technique that simulates the behavior of light b… Read More
2023-12-19 15:11
Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) was a Polish symbolist painter.One of his most famous works is a troubling, dreamlike image called "Melancholia," (1890-94). The painting depicts a chaotic scene… Read More
2023-12-18 19:43
When Seafood Fights Back, gouache on board, 11x14”This leviathan is a variation of my larger sea monster painting. In this one I wanted the viewer to see the head of the creature first… Read More
2023-12-16 15:13
The Famous Artist School marketed its correspondence course with print ads and direct mail, but also with these video ads in the 1950s.
The presentation may seem stilted and corny, but what… Read More
2023-12-15 22:44
This yawning maw is the entrance to Nekron’s glacier kingdom.It's an establishing shot from the Bakshi / Frazetta’s animated film Fire and Ice, cel vinyl paint, 11x14&r&hell…Read More
2023-12-14 20:12
In 1983 I did this oil study of the sculpture of Menelaus Carrying the Body of Patroclus (also known as Ajax Carrying the Body of Achilles). This sort of grisaille copy is fairly commonplace… Read More
2023-12-14 03:18
Warrior Woman, an oil painting for a paperback cover, plus one of the tone paper studies I did for it. Read More
2023-12-11 18:18
Playing a little here with lightening and unifying the tree masses to make that dark shadow shape stand out. Gouache, 5 x 7 inches. Read More
2023-12-11 01:17
Verdi's Otello, sketched from Parterre Box 27, Seat 1 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York Read More
2023-12-08 21:41
Here's a background painting from the 1983 animated movie Fire and Ice, painted with cel vinyl on board. The round hole and the twin horizontal holes are for aligning the acetate animat… Read More
2023-12-06 23:31
In Thomas Couture's 1873 painting "The Thorny Path," four men struggle to pull a cart driven by an angelic figure.According to the Philadelphia Art Museum, the image is Couture's satire on t… Read More
2023-12-06 01:53
When I need a model, I set up a mirror and some charcoal paper, and I draw.With a wig and a costume and a scowl, I can be anybody—in my imagination at least.During a break I forget to… Read More
2023-12-03 15:58
For the retro enthusiast, cassettes are the best way to listen to a audio dramatization because they're so portable and fun to use, and they remember where you left off. They're a great… Read More
2023-12-01 14:01
Am I listening to the sermon? Well, sort of. I'm monitoring the droning sound with half an ear. But really, most of my conscious attention is devoted to understanding the amazing weaving of… Read More
2023-11-29 13:13
Look what came up in my YouTube feed: a nice introduction and overview of my work. Thanks to the folks who put this together. There are a lot of artists out there deserving of attentio… Read More
2023-11-28 14:42
…and Leonardo said, “Water is the driving force of all nature.” Read More
2023-11-26 13:56
Henry Rice (1853-1934) started out as a carriage painter like his father before becoming an artist. He studied under Ross Sterling Turner, specializing in genre art, landscapes, and mar… Read More
2023-11-25 21:00
Erik Ludvig Henningsen (1855-1930) was a Danish painter and illustrator known for his Social Realist paintings depicting the poor and exposed groups in the 1880s and 1890s. Born in Copenhage… Read More
2023-11-25 03:12
Sea Monster study, gouache, 9x12 inchesAn experiment in biomechanics spirals out of control, and the leviathan slips out to sea Read More
2023-11-22 14:19
In this new video on the Proko channel, Disney-trained animator Aaron Blaise demonstrates the new animation software called Procreate Dreams, which is released today.Aaron beg… Read More
2023-11-21 20:45
The goal here is to simplify. I'm interested in the truck but not the setting. I ignore the fence in front of it. Extracting the truck and putting it against white lets me focus on… Read More
2023-11-19 22:41
Tone paper sketch of a ship in the harbor in Los Angeles. View this post on Instagram A post shared by James Gurney (@jamesgurneyart) Read More
2023-11-17 20:52
Ketchup, sugar, cream, and napkin holder: a scene in the diner. Read More
2023-11-17 13:41
A little later today, Heritage Auctions will conduct a sale of American art that includes landscapes by Bierstadt and Homer Dodge Martin, and illustrations by the likes of J.C. Leyendecker (… Read More
2023-11-15 19:48
How does a sci-fi manuscript become a cover? After reading the manuscript I produce lots and lots of thumbnail sketches.Then I make more comprehensive sketches (not shown here), an… Read More
2023-11-14 23:06
Streamside in the Catskills, oil, 9x16" "The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art." —Gustave C… Read More
2023-11-13 19:41
To interact with this fortune-telling homunculus, ask it a yes/no question and press down on one of the hands.Inside the body is a robust internal escapement mechanism, with a flywheel and c… Read More
2023-11-12 17:49
DreamWorks Animation co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg made himself unpopular in the animation industry when he predicted a few days ago that AI would make feature film production ten times… Read More
2023-11-11 11:50
William James Stillman - Study on Upper Saranac Lake - Museum of Fine Arts“Much may be learned about drawing by reference to a good photograph, that even a man of quick natural percept… Read More
2023-11-09 16:16
Casein is the topic for my new article in the December/January issue of International Artist Magazine. View this post on Instagram A post shared by James Gurney (@jamesg… Read More
2023-11-08 08:23
Pausing streamside so that the Triceratops can have a little drink. Read More
2023-11-06 13:48
Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865-1926) was a German painter and illustrator known for his depictions of wildlife, particularly African animals. Born in Oppeln, Germany, Kuhnert showed an early passion… Read More
2023-11-05 14:52
Menzel's charcoal portraits began with the stump work. The face emerged from a cloud of softness. Adolph von Menzel (German, 1815-1905), Head of an old man, his eyes raised, 1895… Read More
2023-11-05 00:02
Here's a video that takes you into the detais of creating the colossal Super Mario character at Lightbox Expo. (Direct link to YouTube) Read More
2023-11-03 21:45
Jimmy Cao is one of the Warrior Painters.The Warrior Painters are an artist community based in Los Angeles that are passionate about plein-air painting and entertainment art. They organize i… Read More
2023-11-01 08:47
Birdman, like any evil mastermind, needs an assistant. The little guy's pale eyes are wide open, and his long, bony fingers timidly hold the magic lantern.I planned this character first in… Read More
2023-10-30 09:26
N.C. Wyeth once said: “Every illustration or painting that I have made in the last thirty years has been done from the imagination or the memory.”Wyeth quoted a teacher of his, C… Read More
2023-10-29 14:04
Noah on Instagram said: "Imma need to see that Sonic the hedgehog one up close too."Here you go, Noah. I painted Sonic in this baseball-card size preliminary sketch in casein before we… Read More
2023-10-29 09:38
Supreme Mario, 8x10 inches, gouache Leading up to Lightbox Expo this weekend, 250+ artists from all around the world got together to create plein-air imaginative art of Colossal Charact… Read More
2023-10-27 10:38
Super Duper Mario made his appearance in southern California at a workshop I gave for Blizzard Entertainment artists in Irvine yesterday.After a half hour chat on materials and setup, I did… Read More
2023-10-25 15:56
A random couple and sits at a table, perfect subject for a little gouache sketch.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by James Gurney (@jamesgurneyart) Read More
2023-10-24 17:41
Albert Sterner (1863-1946) was a British/American painter, printmaker, and illustrator. He is best known for his portraits, figurative works, and illustrations for magazines and books.S… Read More
2023-10-22 18:33
Ivan Shishkin, a renowned Russian landscape painter, used preliminary drawings to develop his studio compositions. He typically established a grid for enlarging the drawing to the final canv… Read More
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