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This daily weblog by James Gurney is for illustrators, comic artists, plein-air painters, sketchers, animators, art students, and writers.
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By: James Gurney,
on 5/19/2016
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A lot of you have asked me questions about gouache, so I've gathered up the answers here for the benefit of everybody:
Carlos says, "After watching Gouache in the Wild, I'm finally going to buy some gouache tubes. I was wondering if the same colors list you posted on the Watercolor in the Wild post serves as a guide to build my first set."
Carlos, those colors would serve you well. Basically a high-chroma yellow (such as a
Permanent Arylide Yellow), a bright red (such as
Flame red), and then earth color versions of yellow and red, such as yellow ochre and burnt sienna or
Venetian red.
Then you'd want to get a couple of blues. I like cobalt, ultramarine, Prussian, and cerulean, but I rarely take more than two of them at a time into the field. I also like having Viridian and a brilliant purple. Again, these are mainly for limited palettes, or if for some reason I need high chroma (saturation). And of course you'll need white. And black, especially if you ever want to paint in pure black/white grisaille.
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Concept sketches for Scientific American "Ascent of Mammals." Watercolor, gouache, and water-soluble colored pencils. |
Mary says, "I sketch in watercolor with a minimal kit (Maria's tiny card-sized kit) and would love to be able to bypass colored pencils if possible. Do you think it's possible to sketch as quickly and realistically without them?"The answer is yes, definitely. Painting with pure watercolor is totally fine and you can get any effect you want with a brush alone. You might want to use the brush both wet and dry -- the drier brush, splayed out, will give you all the textural effects you might otherwise get with a pencil. The only problem with those extremely tiny kits is that you can't mix generous washes of either transparent or opaque watercolor for skies or other large areas.
Vodka Fashion says, "I just stared implementing gouache in my paintings. My question is, do you travel with the actual tubes, or have you made a gouache travel kit? I tried making a travel kit, but the paints dried out."I travel with a small set of tubes in a plastic bag, anywhere from two tubes (black and white) to about eight or 10 tubes. Sometimes I carry just a limited palette of three colors plus white. That forces me to do what I can with those colors. Although you can squeeze them into a watercolor-type palette, in advance, let them dry, and then rewet them, they don't reconstitute into the smooth consistency that they had when they came out of the tube. And there's the problem of them breaking up. If you just want to solve that breakup problem, you can mix them with more of the water-soluble glue-like binder
gum arabic, which you can get in liquid or powdered form.
Suzy Powell says: "So you just rewet? Where I live we have 00000% humidity. Haha (West Texas)No, I don't rewet dry gouache except as a last resort. I've used gouache in low humidity and it does dry quickly. It can get very frustrating on a hot day in the sunshine in a desert, in which case oil would be a better medium. But for gouache, using a damp paper towel under the paint you squeeze from the tube will help it last longer. You can also extend the time by misting your palette with a little water from a spray bottle. But once it's totally dry or used up it's best to reset the palette by cleaning it off and starting with freshly squeezed paint. Don't keep dabbing at the spot where the paint used to be.
Matt Urbanowicz says: "I wanted to ask about the colours bleeding: I have a problem that while painting in gouache or poster colours when adding layers I tend to pick up and smudge the colours from the layer underneath, even when it's dry. Am I doing something wrong?Matt, yes, gouache will tend to pick up if you put a wet layer over a previous layer, especially if you work it with the brush at all. The fact that the surface can be reactivated can be a good thing if you want to soften edges after the fact. But if you don't want those previous layers to come up, there are two remedies. The first is to lay down every stroke quickly and without any extra brushing. Make it your motto to "Make every stroke count." Or "Think twice, touch once."
If that doesn't work, you can use
Acryla Gouache or
Casein, which have a closed surface when they dry.
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By: James Gurney,
on 5/18/2016
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Who remembers NBA2K on the PS2?
By: James Gurney,
on 5/17/2016
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For the cover of the magazine, we needed a dynamic image that showed how capable and specialized some mammals were. So we decided to show the flying squirrel-like Volaticotherium.
There were a lot of choices for the inside spread. Mesozoic mammals weren't all little shrews and mice. There were all sorts of amazing forms. I sketched up a lot of options in thumbnail form using watercolor and colored pencils.
One of my favorites was the badger-like Repenomamus. The fossil was found with the bones of a baby dinosaur inside its rib cage. Here are some black and white gouache sketches to help work out the composition.
I documented the making of the artwork in a free
YouTube video called "The Mammal that Ate Dinosaurs. I also produced a comprehensive 35-minute digital download that you can
get from Gumroad.
I show all the development stages, including thumbnail sketches, color comps, maquettes, field research, and the final painting in oil. My voiceover explains all the methods in practical terms, along with the thinking behind them.This video reinforces some of the concepts and methods in previous videos, but it also includes new material, such as:
• The use of an
air-dry clay for quick maquette building
• Techniques for rendering fur textures
• Ways to suggest rainy day conditions
• How to render whiskers and veins on an oil painting.
The production is packed with useful information that will interest not only the dinosaur artist, but anyone who paints creatures of any kind. The edit is fast-paced and entertaining enough to be worth watching again and again.
The
Scientific American article appears in the June issue, but
you can purchase it online now.
The Mammal that Ate Dinosaurs: Behind the Art 35:51 minutes run time, downloadable 1080p HD mp4 file.
For more info about how you can own the full video, follow the links below:
By: James Gurney,
on 5/16/2016
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Al Jaffee invented "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" for Mad Magazine
He also came up with the popular "Fold-In" feature. He's is 95 years old and still going strong. In fact he was recently honored as having the longest working career of any cartoonist ever. Here's a video profile from the Gothamist. (
Link to YouTube video)
By: James Gurney,
on 5/15/2016
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We spent about an hour studying the exhibition of American Impressionism curated by Dr. Linda S. Ferber, including inspiring pieces by Sargent, Chase, Twachtman, Hassam, and Dewing.
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Garden Walk by James Gurney, oil on canvas mounted to board, 12 x 16 in. You can see the original on display in the gift shop. |
I painted a view toward the Conservatory. The walkers strolling along a peony border were based on five models who were kind enough to pose for me.
One of my models was
Michael W. Haar. He practices the old-school art of barbering, and he's one of a bunch of people in New York City who wear vintage clothes and live a retro lifestyle 365 days a year.
That square white panel above me is a new windproof diffuser design that I've been perfecting, and I'll share how to build it on a future video.
As I painted, I had fun meeting the many members and guests of the Gardens who passed through.
The exhibition,
Impressionism: American Gardens on Canvas, which brings together the two living traditions of flower gardening and outdoor painting, will be up through September 11. They encourage artists, beginning and experienced, to come and make art. If you forget your art supplies, they'll even provide some for you.
By: James Gurney,
on 5/14/2016
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For some reason I was able to hypnotize this rooster by making a bird call, and that made him cooperate and pose.
By: James Gurney,
on 5/13/2016
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The New York Botanical Garden opens its Impressionism theme this weekend, with lots of fun events. I'll be there painting on Saturday, the day of the public opening.
Here's a list of events for this weekend.
May 14 & 15
10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Conservatory
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Garden guides highlight parts of the permanent collection and special exhibition to add insight to your experience of Impressionism.
Live Music
Visitor Center
12:30, 1:30 & 2 p.m.
Michael Arenella’s Brass Trio makes sure you will be tapping your toes to tunes from the turn of the century—from traditional Sousa marches to ragtime bits.
Tap Dance PerformancesRoss Hall
1:30, 2:15 & 3 p.m.
Professional tap dancers from
Apartment 33 interpret this uniquely American art form—as vibrant today as it was at the turn of the century! Learn more about the performers below.
Living Tableaus: Leisure in the Garden
12–4 p.m.
Actors recreate scenes of famous Impressionist paintings within the Garden’s collections. Period props are available for visitors to recreate the scenes themselves and pose for pictures to share!
Meet the Artist in Residence
Seasonal Border & Peony Collection
May 14; 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Renowned painter James Gurney sets up his easel at special locations around the Garden, and offers insights into the joys and challenges of painting out of doors. Watch him create inspired works of art from blank canvas to finished masterpiece during the course of the day. He interacts with visitors as he works, sharing inspiration and information on this particular genre.
Cake Contest
May 15; 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
In the Conservatory Plaza, the finest New York bakeries display their most beautiful nature-themed cakes to honor the Garden’s 125th Anniversary. Check out the entries and vote for your favorites, then stop by at 3 p.m. for the cake cutting ceremony and enjoy a complimentary sampling. View a list of participating bakeries below.
Plein Air Painting
Along the Seasonal Walk
12–5 p.m.
Pick up some materials (pencils, charcoal, or pastels) and create your own souvenir of the Garden to take home!
Fascinator & Boutonniere Crafting
Conservatory
11 a.m.–2 p.m.
Make a fascinator hair piece or boutonniere and don the styles of then and now.
Tap Dance PerformancesApartment 33, created by Chloe Arnold, is an eclectic group of tap dancers that moved to NYC from all over the world to pursue their tap dreams. Home to professional tap dancers Chloe & Maud Arnold, Apartment 33 has literally acted as a creative hub and often home for these artists, where the natural dynamic at play has led to the mentoring and development of diverse talents with a common passion. From Broadway to touring and even national television, these success stories are joining forces to celebrate the art that has brought them together: TAP! Pieces performed at NYBG are prepared by Artistic Director and Choreographer Chloe Arnold and Assistant Choreographer Jenna Roe.
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I'll also be back to the Gardens in June 4, 5, and 19.
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By: James Gurney,
on 5/12/2016
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Commonly called "telephone poles," utility poles carry a lot more than just phone service.
They also conduct electrical power, street lights, internet, cable TV, signs, surveillance cameras, traffic signals, pedestrian signals, and seasonal decorations.
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Anatomy of a Utility Pole |
Things to Look for:
• Functions are stratified by height, like life in a rain forest. Electric power at the highest voltage is carried on the top. In the USA, there are typically three uninsulated aluminum wires (each about 1/2 inch thick) spaced across the top crossbar, held up with three insulators.
• For every few houses or businesses, there's a set of transformers—three big cylinders. These lower the voltage from the Primary Distribution Zone to the Secondary Distribution Zone below. Inside the transformer typically there's a coil of copper wire wrapped around a steel core, all bathed in oil. These generally don't explode in storms; there's a cigar-sized fuse that's designed to blow.
• Secondary distribution lines are also in threes just below the transformer level. The primary and secondary zones together comprise the "supply space."
• Street lights, yard lights, and traffic signals are wired to the Secondary Zone. Sodium vapor street lights are rapidly being replaced by LED lights, changing the color of the urban night from yellow to cool white.
• The twisted wires running off to buildings from below the transformers carry electrical power. Commercial businesses with high energy demands require thicker bundles.
• The Communications Zone is the bottom level. It includes both fiber optic and coaxial cables with junction boxes and repeaters. These are usually the thickest cables. They serve internet, cable TV, police and fire alarm systems, and telephone.
• There's normally more space between the Secondary and Communication zones than there is in the pole I drew at the top of this post. This space is called the the "Safety Zone," and its purpose is to protect telecom workers from high voltages.
• Telephone cables often can't support their own weight, so they hang from, or are lashed to, a thinner, uninsulated support strand, and they droop below that strand for stretches. There are various methods (such as loops) used to relieve stress or to store excess cable. Fiber optic cables sometimes have U-turns to store a longer section of cable without cutting it or breaking it.
• Horizontal rectangular boxes are junction boxes or splice boxes, giving access to the telephone connections. They also hang from the support strand.
• You'll see thin wires connecting to buildings for the phone service from this level.
• The public or yard sale area is at the bottom. It includes posters and notices that people post on the pole. There are also numbers near the base that identify the pole.
• Poles are black at the bottom from creosote (or a modern substitute) to protect the pole from rotting.
• Support cables run down on a diagonal and attach to a stake in the ground. Draw these lines straight because they are under tension. They keep poles upright by opposing lateral forces. Those lateral forces may come from 1) Turns in the road, 2) Systems of heavy cables branching off to the side, or 3) Dead ends.
• All hanging wires follow a
catenary curve between the points of support. These can generally be best drawn with the artwork turned upside down.
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If there are utility service professionals reading this post who can help me correct any errors, please let me know in the comments.
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Read more:
A highly visual book that I recommend:
By: James Gurney,
on 5/12/2016
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At long last, Montreal-based artist J.B. Monge is offering a collectable book version of his charming Celtic Faeries universe. For many years Monge's artwork has only been available in expensive French imports, but now it will come out in a slipcased book, with lots of new artwork and an English translation. The campaign has already funded in little over a day!
(Link to Kickstarter)
By: James Gurney,
on 5/11/2016
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Yesterday I painted a bakery case in watercolor. (Link to YouTube)
The challenge was to paint the pastries seen through the glass as well as the reflection of the skylights.
This is difficult because the brain can't see these two overlapping realms at the same time. The camera does it more easily because it's monocular.
At the pencil stage I laid out the perspective and also the shapes of the reflection areas. Within the area of each light reflection, I raised the values to a higher tint. Since it was transparent watercolor, I had to do this without resorting to opaque gouache.
By: James Gurney,
on 5/10/2016
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Each of the old mansions along Hudson River had a gatehouse.
Here's the gatehouse for the Ferncliff estate, once owned by the Astor family. It was designed in a Second-Empire style by architect L.A. Ehlers in 1877.
It was abandoned when I first saw it, and it seemed an ideal setting for a story of the supernatural. I sketched it using pencil and gray wash, because I felt color would have taken away more than it would have added.
By: James Gurney,
on 5/9/2016
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Tom Lopez produced the Dinotopia Audio Adventures. They are very faithful adaptations, which translate the visual story into an acoustic one that plays out like a movie in your imagination.
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Tom Lopez, aka "Meatball Fulton" of ZBS. Photo by John Kalish for NPR |
His production company called
ZBS Productions has made a variety of acoustically rich and thematically mind-expanding radio stories about characters like Jack Flanders and Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe.
Yesterday, he was profiled on National Public Radio (
This link takes you to the NPR story—it's a great listen).
Free PodcastsMeatball's Meatballs (list of assorted podcasts where he tells the ZBS story)
Meatball Fulton's behind-the-scenes making of DinotopiaMeatball Fulton plays interviews with Jerry Garcia, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Mel Blanc, Syd Barrett, Eric Idle and more.
Audio Programs for Paid DownloadDinotopia Audio Adventure (full cast audio dramatization)
Meatball visits my studio for an in-depth interview
By: James Gurney,
on 5/8/2016
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Jeanette and Dan in 1987 |
Today I send my gratitude and admiration to my wife Jeanette, to my departed mother and grandmother, and to Moms everywhere for their patience and unconditional love.
As Felicia Hemans said, "There is in all this cold and hollow world no fount of deep, strong, deathless love, save that within a mother's heart."
By: James Gurney,
on 5/7/2016
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London's National Portrait Gallery is exhibiting famous Russian portraits of artists and composers in an exhibit called Russia and the Arts: The Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky.
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Valentin Serov, Maria Ermolova, 1905 |
The portraits, borrowed from the State Tretyakov Gallery, document the turbulent years of Russian history that produced composers such as Tchaikovksy, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov and writers such as Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. The artists include Repin, Serov, and Kramskoi.
The portrait of Mussorgsky by Repin,
profiled earlier on this blog, is included.
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Valentin Serov, Ivan Morozov, 1910 |
The Telegraph says, "This relatively small show provides not only a vivid and intimate survey of an extraordinary period, but a kind of advert for the virtues of the painted portrait itself, a form that is in abeyance in our own time."
Ivan Kramskoi (1883
Ivan Kramskoi, one of the leaders of the
Peredvizhniki or "Wanderers," painted the actor Aleksander Lensky in the role of Petruchio in Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' by (1883).
A detail shows the delicate strokes he used to achieve both definition and softness in the paint handling.
The brooding intensity of the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky is captured by Nikolai Kuznetsov in 1883.
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Pyotr Tchaikovsky by Nikolai Kuznetsov (detail) |
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Dostoyevsky by Perov (detail) |
By: James Gurney,
on 5/6/2016
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Welcome to the GJ Book Club. Today we'll cover pages 227-237 of the chapter on "Materials," from Harold Speed's 1924 art instruction book Oil Painting Techniques and Materials.
I'll present Speed's main points in boldface type either verbatim or paraphrased, followed by my comments. If you want to add a comment, please use the numbered points to refer to the relevant section of the chapter.
In this section of the chapter, Speed discusses the pigments available to artists in his day.
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Portrait by Harold Speed |
1. Permanency: "The oils and mediums used, and repainting before the under coat is thoroughly dry are much more the usual causes of lack of permanency [than the pigments] in modern painting." I hadn't heard this before. Also, when he talks about permanency, I wonder if he means lightfastness or stability/cracking of the emulsion.
2. "The fewest colors possible should always be used."This in contradiction to the usual advice to have a warm and cool red, warm and cool blue, plus earth colors, etc. Speed goes on to say: "The more brilliant colours have a fascination for the young students. Prone to messy handling and dirty brushes, they rush to the brighter pigments in the hope of getting themselves out of a mess; whereas with cleaner handling what is wanted could better be got by simple earth colours, the use of which gives one an excellent training in clean handling. The fine, dignified colouring of a Titian, or, among the moderns, a Watts, is greatly due to their extensive use of earth colours."
3. Flake (lead) white: more crisp, better body than zinc. Blackens when exposed to sulpheretted hydrogen" from gaslight. Zinc White: shower at drying.Speed describes titanium white as a "new white, said to be permanent, that has recently been discovered."
4. Earth colors are permanent with good body. He says: "Always do as much as you can with earth colors, especially early in the early stages of a picture."I agree. Best to stay restrained in chroma and value in the underpainting, and save punch for final painting.
5. Ivory blackSafe, but slow drier. You can use an accelerator like copal to speed it up. Use for rich shadows. Good to have a blue-black to and to use warm and cool blacks.
6. Notes on specific pigmentsYellow ochre. Useful. Can mix with cadmium to brighten.
Terra vert. Olive green, good permanency, poor body. Good for modifying reds in flesh. Used by early painters for underpaintings.
Cadmium Yellows. He raises permanence issues, but I believe they have been settled in the pigments' favor according to modern manufacturing standards.
Emerald Oxide of Chromium. Speed recommends care because it's dangerous in the sense of being a strong acid color that can overpower a painting.
Madder reds. Again Speed cautions against intense red pigments in inexperienced hands, and he hadn't even seen the quinacridones and the naphthols invented after his day.
Alizarins. Modern substitutes are more permanent.
Rose doré. Good tinting strength.
Vermilion. He recognizes that the traditional pigment turns black (and is toxic).
Cobalt blue. "most useful blue on the palette."
French ultramarine. Best for dark shadows. Permanent. Not as opaque as cobalt.
Cyanine blue. Mixture of cobalt and Prussian.
Cobalt green. "beautiful opaque blue-green."
Cerulean blue. "opaque blue of lighter tone." Good in tints.
Lemon Yellow. "pale brilliant yellow of very light tone."
By: James Gurney,
on 5/6/2016
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There's a new article posted on my work in
Fine Art Connoisseur's online magazine. "Windows to a Forgotten World."
By: James Gurney,
on 5/5/2016
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How would you like a private look into the creative journals of all your favorite concept artists and fantasy painters? Award-winning art director Jon Schindehette is kickstarting an art book with work by artists from a variety of backgrounds.
Each artist gets a spread, and they can combine words and images any way they want. Here's the spread by Spectrum Grand Master Gerald Brom.
This one is by John Harris. The goal is to give everyone a chance to lure the viewer into their own creative vortex.
My spread has the sketches and ideas that led up to the giant robot painting "Aftermath."
Participating artists include
Iain McCaig,
Allen Williams,
Laurie Lee Brom,
Gerald Brom,
Sean Murray,
Karla Ortiz,
Sterling Hundley,
Craig Elliott Bill Carman,
Jon Foster Ron Lemen Vanessa Lemen Mark A. Nelson Tony DiTerlizzi Filippo Vanzo,
John-Paul Balmet Petar Meseldzija,
Rob Rey Stephanie Law Reiko Murakami John Picacio Kinuko Craft, Alyssa Winans, Andrea Sipl, John Harris, Bastien Lecouffe Deharme, Bud Cook, Chuck Lucacs, Elizabeth Leggett, Eva Widermann, Filippo Vanzo,
Galen Dara Smith, Grahame Baker Smith,
George Pratt, Henrik Uldalen, Ian Miller, J.A.W. Cooper, Jessica Shirley, Kelly McKernan, Micah Epstein, Mike Yamada, Nekro, Richard Anderson, Rob Rey, Rovina Cai,
Samuel Araya, Sho Murase, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Tommy Arnold, Tooba Rezaei, Tracy Lewis,
Tuna Bora, Yukari Masuike, and me—and that's not even everybody.
Jon is doing this to benefit the artists and to give the backers a thing of true beauty and mystery.
This is the kick-ass campaign that you'll be glad you kickstarted, and if you miss out, you'll kick yourself later.
ArtOrder Invitational on Kickstarter
By: James Gurney,
on 5/4/2016
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A while back I'm sketching on the street in San Juan, Puerto Rico, not far from a fancy hotel. A guy wearing old clothes comes up and sits quietly near me.
We don't talk much at first. But after a while he tells me he's an artist, too. I ask if I can sketch him, and he says, sure. He says he played bass in all the jazz clubs from New York to New Orleans.
This is the kind of spontaneous encounter that I'll be documenting in my next video called "Portraits in the Wild," which should be finished in a month or so.
By: James Gurney,
on 5/3/2016
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Fidelia Bridges (1834-1923) was one of the few commercially successful female artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was a student of William Trost Richards, who encouraged her to paint detailed views of nature.
Her sensibilities resonated with the newly emerging technology of color printing, called chromolithography, published in the form of album cards and greeting cards by
Louis Prang.
Album cards were treasured color images intended to be glued into a scrap book.
Bridges was influenced by Pre-Raphaelite art and Japanese prints. Often the scenes included a foreground bush or tree with a couple of birds, with a landscape view visible beyond.
These prints were immensely popular, and made her famous and well compensated, though some people in the day complained of the prints being overly saturated with color.
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Previous posts
By: James Gurney,
on 5/2/2016
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Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier The Smoker (A Man of the First Empire), 1873. Watercolor and gouache on paper. Overall: 13 7/8 x 8 5/8 in. (35.2 x 22 cm |
In this small painting, Meissonier shows an approach to water media that would make sense to an oil painter.
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Meissonier. Approximately actual size |
The lights are built up over a warm middle tone paper. The light tones are scumbled over the background, leaving little pits of darker tone. The face and hands are carefully modeled. You can feel the bones underneath the skin. The edges of the lapel and the hat are grease-stained and frayed, as befits an old outmoded soldier from Bonaparte's era.
The highlights on the pipe are very small, considering that the whole painting is the size of a piece of legal-size paper. Watercolor with gouache can be precise and highly descriptive if you take your time.
Download the large size file of the painting
By: James Gurney,
on 5/1/2016
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I don't mind being marooned somewhere, as long as I've got my paints. That's the subject of my new article in International Artist.
I don't know why, but the less choice I have in selecting a motif, the more successful I am. Maybe it comes of being forced to improvise.
By: James Gurney,
on 4/30/2016
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Yesterday I visited the advanced-placement art students in Millburn, New Jersey. Under the guidance of teacher and artist
Kathleen Harte-Gilsenan, they built maquettes of a variety of creatures.
When I got there, they lit and shot them and used them to inspire sketches in black and white gouache.
I did a demo in gouache, painting from a dinosaur maquette. I showed them lots of originals, and took them through some case histories of paleoart jobs, all the way from first thumbnail sketches to maquettes and comps to finished oil paintings.
We were lucky to have a surprise guest:
Michael Mrak, gouache painter and Design Director for
Scientific American. He brought in some originals from his collection, and he talked about visual communication from the perspective of magazine publishing.
You can watch a brief video clip of these scenes on my
Instagram page,
Twitter feed, or
Facebook page. While you're there, please subscribe to follow my feed.
By: James Gurney,
on 4/18/2016
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Do you recognize these two people? In both photographs, the eyebrows have been removed.
Here are the photos of the same faces. Is it easier to recognize them this way? This time the eyes have been digitally removed instead of the eyebrows. (Hint: one is a politician, and the other an actor)
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Richard Nixon and Winona Ryder |
Scientists have done facial recognition experiments where subjects were presented with many faces altered to have either the eyebrows or the eyes removed. It turns out that subjects perform better on faces with no eyes, compared to faces with no eyebrows.
As the authors put it, "The absence of eyebrows in familiar faces leads to a very large and significant disruption in recognition performance."
This came as a surprise to me, since I have always assumed that the eyes were the most important elements to help us recognize and remember a face, with the mouth being perhaps second most important.
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Anselm van Hulle, 1649. Anna Margareta |
It's remarkable that humans of both sexes have these patches of hair on our faces, compared to primates who generally have more facial hair. The muscles controlling their movement are sophisticated and largely unconscious. We express much about our emotional state to others, even at long distances away. This central role as a social signaler may be related to why eyebrows are also so important for recognition.
The authors of the paper note that:
"During the 18th century, in fact, in Western Europe full eyebrows were considered so essential to facial beauty that some upper-class women and courtiers would affix mouse hide to their foreheads. The perceived importance of the eyebrows for enhancing beauty has not waned to this day. Currently, it is relatively common cosmetic practice to use tweezers or depilatories to narrow and accentuate the arch of the eyebrows, as well as to remove any hair at the bridge of the nose. Cosmetics may also be used to alter the color (especially the darkness) and exaggerate the shape and length of the eyebrows."
Sir John Leighton, the Director-General of the Scottish National Gallery, served as both painter's model and keynote speaker at the Portrait Society's annual conference yesterday.
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Sir John Leighton by James Gurney, black and white gouache, 3 x 3 inches |
He was on the grand ballroom stage posing for a demo by
Michael Shane Neal. I was far back in the audience watching the demo, looking at a video image projected on a big screen. Above is a 30-minute gouache sketch I did from my seat.
Mr. Neal lit him with a
two-source lighting scheme inspired by
Anders Zorn (Swedish, 1860-1920). The lighting scheme produces a shadow core in the center of the form and often puts the eyes in shadow.
In the case of this Zorn, those dark accents in the face float in the middle of a sea of creamy white, the reverse of the usual tonal scheme of a portrait.
Watch a 15-second video clip of my sketch in context on my
Instagram,
Twitter, or
Facebook page.
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Related posts:
Zorn's
Two-Source LightingSplit lighting
By: James Gurney,
on 4/16/2016
Blog:
Gurney Journey
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If you weren't able catch my portrait demo at the
Portrait Society of America conference in Washington, no worries! Here's a front row seat, complete with super-speed action, blow-by-blow narration, and cheat-sheet notes. (
Link to YouTube)
The original is available for silent-auction sale—if you're interested in it, maybe a friend of yours at the convention can put a bid on it for you. (Check
Facebook or #artoftheportrait2016 on Twitter or Instagram.)
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