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awww very nice jw... love it!

Love your buildings

yeah those buildings are great. nice use of space and color jw.

love this.. really well executed!

Good Work !!! Good Colors !!!

This blew me away! I'm about to start work on a deck I got for an upcoming show and this is inspiring to say the least. Well done!

Great work and a worthy cause.

i'd never thought of using maquettes for reference until reading your blog. brilliant idea! i do portraits and often times including children's bare feet, but my reference photos are not always ideal. sculpting a small foot and placing it in the needed light situation would be very helpful. thanks again!

I would love to see the maquette. Do you keep them or just recycle the clay?

Sorry, Beatric, the elf alien maquette got sucked back into the creative vortex.

He now sits on the shelf as a featureless lump of clay, though he moves around a bit and mumbles when UFOs hover low over the house.

James,
Fantastic Blog,...
awesome art and great information!

I've reently begun modeling both characters and enviorments digitally, so it's somewhat like using maquettes. I find that I get alot of use out of them as i can re-render the objects from diffrent angles, it's also a fantastic way to keep your perspective in check.

-cgy

If your camera is largely for reference purposes, why haven't you gone digital and saved yourself the cost and processing time of film?

Assuming your current camera is a 35mm, then if it's Nikon or Canon you can just get one of their DSLR bodies and use your existing lenses; for all the shooting you do, you'll probably make back the cost in a short time. If your current isn't a Canon or Nikon, then the Canon has a couple of very good, quite cheap lenses that should happily fulfill your needs.

Photo.net is a good place to look for professional reviews of DSLR systems, but honestly, if you get a Canon XTi and a Sigma lense, you've got everything you need at almost the same quality level as film, and the work cycle is far faster.

Justin, you're absolutely right about digital photography speeding up the work cycle. I should have mentioned that I painted the elf alien before digital photography was invented, so I had to depend on the one-hour-photo processing.

Now I use a Canon Digital Rebel, and find that a digital SLR on a tripod gives me the best control of depth of field for shooting maquettes.

That's an excellent camera--I just sold mine to my sister to upgrade to the Rebel XTi.

Can I ask what lens you typically use? I've limited myself to shooting with the Sigma 30mm/1.4, which (with the digital focal length conversion) comes out to be 48mm, which roughly matches the apparent focal length of the human eye. Do you stick to a 'human eye' focal length for reference work, or use a telephoto to adjust the length depending upon where in the painting the model will appear?

Justin:
I use the zoom lens that came with the camera. The zoom helps me to frame up the subject when the camera is on the tripod, but also I like to vary the focal length depending on whether I want to make the painting's POV look like a human perspective or to simulate the look of a photographic close-up or telephoto angle.

Your ability to organize is impressive. How did you organize the blog? Did you use something similar to the storyboard process?

Non-sequitur...

I just saw your interview on NW Cable News. :)

I notice they brought up again what to call your book-style. I'd still have to vote for 'Sequential Art'. I think it describes both the quality of image and storytelling aspects.

Welcome to the Northwest.

I can't tell you enough how helpful your blog is. I'm working on a long-form-storybook myself, and it is an inspiration and guide to see the way that a master like yourself does it. Every time I start to get frustrated with the illustrations or storyline, I hop on over to your blog and feel encouraged.

Thanks so much for sharing! It is muchly-appreciated.

Thanks, Paul. Yes, I like the term "sequential art" too, or "visual novel," because as the host pointed out, "picture book" makes you think of a little kid's book.

The new Dinotopia book has turned up in different sections of the bookstores: children's classics, dinosaurs, art, science fiction, and mythology.

Dan, I'm sure you know that my blog isn't organized or planned! I wish I could say I have a master scheme or a team of writers, editors, and researchers, but it's just me with my little Mac laptop huddled in a booth poaching Wi-Fi at a cafe.

Like you, I have lots of ideas for future posts (including some requests), and have a dozen or so at various stages of development.

I very much like your storyboards. James, on a side subject do you have any thoughts on painting ground foliage, especially low ground floral foliage?

I think my class in college was the last one to use wax paste-up methods. (I get quite envious of current students upon hearing about the illustration programs you are visiting around the country).

It was delightful meeting you in person last night. You are incredibly gracious and a most entertaining presenter. Thankyou!

Absolutely incredible!

Considering Pyle didn't leave behind anything 'systematic', is there one or more central 'sources' that you do refer to for his art theories and instruction?

(your miniature moleskin paintings are amazing).

Hi, Tara,
Yes, there are a couple of collection of classroom notes written by his students. They're full of memorable quotes. I don't know if they're published online, but if not, perhaps I can share a few of them in a future post.

Fantastic work, thank you.
good luck

He went right to the finished painting after these? I've been spending the last four days doing the drawings for one picture. His work is so amazing, I wonder if artists lose someting by over drawing. Or if some artists need to do more preliminary drawings.

Hello again! This is Jay..I was at your presentation at Ringling today. Just wanted to thank you once more for a very inspiring talk! I'll be definetly be keeping up with your blog. :) Your stuff is incredible!