Covering a Knicks game with sketchbook on location.
James Gurney Art
@jamesgurneyart.bsky.social
Creator of Dinotopia and artist/author of Color and Light and Imaginative Realism.
At the peak of their influence around 1970, illustrators charged huge fees and drove Ferraris. The right half of the chart tells a grim story, and that’s even before AI enters the room. Is the party completely over, or is there a tiny glimmer of hope? jamesgurney.substack.com/p/when-illus...
Between 1900 and now, illustrators used a changing set of painting media. Oil dominated at first. Gouache and casein had their heyday mid-century. Acrylic gradually replaced casein. But by the year 2000 digital trounced them all. jamesgurney.substack.com/p/which-medi...
An experiment with writing (and speaking) backwards. jamesgurney.substack.com/p/backwards-...
This original oil, "Brachio Barn" from "Dinotopia: The World Beneath" is coming up for sale on Tuesday from @heritageauctions , link fineart.ha.com/itm/pulp-pul...
STUDIO UPDATE: I've been hand-designing and writing my next book, "Gouache in the Wild"....plus keeping my commitment to writing for International Artist Magazine and my Substack blog "Paint Here." Like with the Dinotopia books, design comes before writing!
My kids and their friends posed for a lot of the kids in Dinotopia. More: jamesgurney.substack.com/p/q-and-a-su...
Q&A Sunday: Making the Impossible Seem Inevitable
Questions about separatism, pacifism, subcreation, retro-tech, and fantasy tropes
jamesgurney.substack.com
British painter Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) hung out with travelers for six weeks during hop-picking season and did some of his best plein-air paintings. open.substack.com/pub/jamesgur...
Substack post: "Art schools in the age of AI." Image: "Market Day" 1907 by Frank Calderon, who wrote a book and ran a school for painting animals. open.substack.com/pub/jamesgur...
For every human on earth, there are about three chickens.
I was halfway into a sketch of a chicken when a kid ran through the barn whacking every cage. The birds all panicked. A girl saw my distress and offered to hypnotize it. She got it into a trance for 8 minutes—just enough time to finish. open.substack.com/pub/jamesgur...
We were blowing the Himalayan horn around the bonfire in the full moonlight, and Smooth, the husky, started howling as if something deep was speaking through him. More on my Substack post: "Forgotten Dreams."https://jamesgurney.substack.com/p/forgotten-dreams
Is there a Santa Claus in Dinotopia? Not exactly. Nibor Dooh is more of a reverse brigand. He takes everything you’ve got and gives you what he took from the last person. open.substack.com/pub/jamesgur...
Is There a Santa Claus in Dinotopia?
[Via Instagram] Graham, Never heard of such sightings, but if there were, it would be all the tavern-talk of Thermala.
open.substack.com
I was a happy kid, but I came from an unhappy home. My mom was a chain-smoking alcoholic, prone to unexpected outbursts. Learning to draw was my way out. I did this pen and ink drawing from observation of a rocking chair when I was 13 years old. More on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/jamesgur...
You, too? Music by Kevin MacLeod. Sketchbook by Talens. Assorted fountain, parallel, calligraphy, and flex pens.
Far and away the greatest concern people have right now is lazy brain syndrome caused by AI. More on my Substack. jamesgurney.substack.com/p/questions-...
On Substack today, the story of how I acquired a human skull. "It came in the mail the other day. It was wrapped in about 15 layers of packing material, which intensified the suspense. The box said on the outside, ‘FRAGILE HUMAN SKELETAL MATERIAL.'" jamesgurney.substack.com/p/the-story-...
Are people noticing lately a lot of errors (such as lost payments, crazy accounting, etc.) from business associates (such as payment processors, distributors, etc.) who are using AI?
The first page of a sketchbook can be a bit daunting, even for experienced sketchers. So what I do is start on page 2. I can always come back later and do a knockout first page. open.substack.com/pub/jamesgur...
Children come into awarenesses that are brand new and highly charged. Emotions overtake them. Relationships emerge and develop. They stagger into the light of life with openness and expectation. More about childhood at my Substack: open.substack.com/pub/jamesgur...
Where My Vision of Childhood Came From
.The roots of Dinotopia and my love of Wordsworth
open.substack.com
(Left, my breakfast doodle. Right: Gemini takes a crack at it.) On Substack, I share 10 concerns about using AI as a creative collaborator. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Milt Kahl used contour blends in this drawing of an adolescent Bambi. What's a "contour blend?" Answer here: open.substack.com/pub/jamesgur...
Marty Owings on YouTube: "If you read the book it will unlock many secrets to being a better sketcher." youtu.be/G3hhyFvCHEA?...
Quick sketch of a lady taking a photo on the ferry. When I look again, she's gone.
Lettering is one of my secret joys, and I was so happy when Dover agreed to republish the book that inspired me at age 12. You can find it at my website: jamesgurney.com/products/art...
Lettering is one of my secret joys, and I was so happy when Dover agreed to republish the book that inspired me at age 12. You can find it at my website, jamesgurney dot com.
Mixing time lapse and real time in the same shot.