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Episode 11 of the Dinotopia Podcast is here. You can listen by clicking on the Soundcloud play button below, or by following this link.
Levka Gambo shows Will a map of the caverns below Dinotopia, where is father is exploring.
Then a sky galley arrives and takes them on a wild ride.
The Podcast Series
This acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez of the
ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
The final episode, #12 arrives in a week. Each 10-minute episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will disappear.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download.
----
You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's a great New Year's gift for the imaginative person in your life. (Ships via Media Mail within 24 hours of your order. US orders only for the book, please).
The Dinotopia book is also available from Amazon
.
----
There will be an exhibit of
Dinotopia originals at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut from February 14 - May 25, 2015. I'll be giving an illustrated lecture there on Sunday, March 1, 2015 at 1:00.
Episode 10 of the Dinotopia Podcast is here. You can listen to the audio adventure by pressing the play button below, or by following this link to SoundCloud file.
After his father Arthur left to explore the system of caverns underground, Will Denison picks up the journal to describe his ascent into the mountains.
He and Sylvia meet Levka Gambo in the Tentpole of the Sky.
I built this whole segment of the story around this painting, "Tentpole of the Sky," which I painted in 1989, before I came up with the idea of a dinosaur utopia.
The Podcast SeriesThis acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez of the
ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
Episode 11 arrives in a week. Each 10-minute episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will disappear.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download.
----
You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's a great New Year's gift for the imaginative person in your life. (Ships via Media Mail within 24 hours of your order. US orders only for the book, please).
The Dinotopia book is also available from Amazon.
----
There will be an exhibit of
Dinotopia originals at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut from February 14 - May 25, 2015. I'll be giving an illustrated lecture there on Sunday, March 1, 2015 at 1:00 (Note that the date is different from what we first announced.)
It's Tuesday, time for Episode Nine of the serialized podcast of Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time. To listen, click the orange play button below, or follow the link to the SoundCloud file.
In this episode, Arthur and Will Denison travel to Canyon City, the world of the big pterosaurs.
On his way to becoming a skybax rider, Will learns about the giant Quetzalcoatlus from Oolu, the head of the flights school.
On an expedition deep into the canyon, Arthur discovers evidence of a much older civilization.
They find out what happens with dead dinosaurs as they see Pteranodons dismembering huge dinosaur carcasses.
This is a good episode to listen to with headphones. The soundscapes are very immersive as they encounter the caves and canyons.
The Podcast SeriesThis acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the
ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
Episode 10 arrives in a week. Each short episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will disappear.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download.
----
You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's a great New Year's gift for the imaginative person in your life. (Ships via Media Mail within 24 hours of your order. US orders only for the book, please).
The Dinotopia book is also available from Amazon.
----
There will be an exhibit of
Dinotopia originals at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut from February 14 - May 25, 2015. I'll be giving an illustrated lecture there on Sunday, February 22.
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By: James Gurney,
on 12/30/2014
Blog:
Gurney Journey
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It's Tuesday, time for Episode Eight of the serialized podcast of Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time. To listen, click the orange play button below, or follow the link to the SoundCloud file.
The episode begins with Will Denison waking up in the sleeping barns of the giant sauropod, which brings him with strange dreams.
Melanie takes Arthur on a tour of the exotic plants that grow near Treetown.
Will and his young companions learn to take care of the dinosaurs...
And then they take part in the ring riding event of the Dinosaur Olympics.
The Podcast SeriesThis acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the
ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
Episode 9 arrives in a week. Each short episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will disappear.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download.
----
You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's a great New Year's gift for the imaginative person in your life. (Ships via Media Mail within 24 hours of your order. US orders only for the book, please).
The Dinotopia book is also available from Amazon.
----
There will be an exhibit of
Dinotopia originals at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut from February 14 - May 25, 2015. I'll be giving an illustrated lecture there on Sunday, February 22.
The technique that I have used for most the illustrations in Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time is an oil wash method that's quite fast and versatile.
I do a quick pencil drawing on heavyweight illustration board and fix it with workable fixative
. Then I seal the surface with acrylic matte medium
, applied quickly overall with a housepainting brush. While it's wet, I squeegee the matte medium to a whisper-thin layer using a scrap of cardboard dragged along the surface. Here's a video showing how that step looks.
When that layer is dry, I scrub in the oil colors with a bristle brush, thinning them with a combination of odorless mineral spirits
and alkyd painting medium
. The resulting layers take a couple of hours to dry to the touch, and they're dry enough overnight to permit additional layers.
What I like about the method is that you can use it entirely transparently, as I did in the painting above, or you can paint semi-opaque or fully-opaque passages, and bridge into a more conventional oil painting technique.
-----
Book: Dinotopia, A Land Apart from Time (on Amazon).
Book: Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time (signed from my web store U.S. only)
More about Dinotopia techniques and methods in my book: Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist
Listen to the latest episode of the Dinotopia audio podcast.
There will be an exhibit of Dinotopia originals at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut from February 14 - May 25, 2015. I'll be giving an illustrated lecture there on Sunday, February 22.
It's Tuesday, which means it's time for Episode Seven of the serialized podcast of Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time. To listen, click the orange play button below, or follow the link to the SoundCloud file.
Will and Arthur Denison attend the gathering of humans and dinosaurs at the Habitat Conference.
...and then they make their way to the village of Treetown.
The Podcast SeriesThis acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the
ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
Episode 8 arrives in a week. Each short episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will disappear.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download.
----
You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's the ultimate holiday gift for the imaginative person in your life. (Ships via Media Mail within 24 hours of your order. US orders only for the book, please).
The Dinotopia book is also available from Amazon.
----
There will be an exhibit of
Dinotopia originals at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut from February 14 - May 25, 2015. I'll be giving an illustrated lecture there on Sunday, February 22.
Today we continue with Episode Six of the serialized podcast of Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time. To listen, click the orange play button below, or follow the link to the Soundcloud file.
Are there meateaters in Dinotopia? You bet! And in this episode we see what happens when you encounter them.
Arthur learns about the sabertooth cats that once lived in Waterfall City.
They outfit a convoy for a journey across the Rainy Basin, where tyrannosaurs present a constant threat.
And we witness Bix bravely face off against a T. rex.
The Podcast SeriesThis acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
Episode 7 arrives in a week. Each short episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will disappear.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download.
----
You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's the ultimate holiday gift for the imaginative person in your life. (Ships via Media Mail within 24 hours of your order, so it may or may not arrive in time for Christmas. US orders only for the book, please).
The Dinotopia book is also available from Amazon.
----
There will be an exhibit of
Dinotopia originals at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut from February 14 - May 25, 2015. I'll be giving an illustrated lecture there on Sunday, February 22.
Today we continue with episode 5 of the serialized podcast of Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time. To listen, click the orange play button below, or follow the link to the SoundCloud file.
The episode opens in the helicoid geochronograph, a water-powered machine that keeps track of time.
We meet Nallab and Enit, librarians of Dinotopia, who show Arthur their scroll-reading machine.
In Dinotopia, dinosaurs write messages in a sandbox using a unique footprint alphabet.
The Podcast SeriesThis acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
Episode 6 arrives one week from today— Tuesday, December 16. Each 10-minute episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will vaporize.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download.
If you missed last week's episode #4, I'll leave it up through the rest of today. Here's the
link to that SoundCloud file for Episode 4.You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's the ultimate holiday gift for the imaginative person in your life. (US orders only for the book, please).
It's Tuesday, time for the new episode of the Dinotopia audio podcast adventure. Just click below or follow this link.
Descending the flanks of Volcaneum, Arthur and Will Denison hear Bix's vocal talents, and witness the hadrosaur swamp symphony. For this sequence, producer Tom Lopez drew on his stereo recordings of jungles in India and Bali, and composer Tim Clark created deep rumbling sounds.
As they approach Waterfall City, they hear the roar of the falls.
They fly across the gorge on a glider and make their first entrance to Waterfall City.
Malik, the timekeeper, explains to Arthur how Dinotopians visualize the passage of time, using a combination of circular and linear geometry, resulting in the spiral and the helix. I love the immersive quality of the audio in this whole episode, and it's not surprising that AudioFile Magazine called it “A masterpiece of audio production.”
The Podcast SeriesThis acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
Episode 5 arrives in one week— Tuesday, December 9. Each 10-minute episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will disappear. So tell your friends, and be sure to check in to this blog each week. That way you'll be able to hear the whole production for free.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the
MP3 download.You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's the ultimate holiday gift for the imaginative person in your life. (US orders only for the book, please).
It's time for the new episode of the Dinotopia audio podcast adventure. Just click below or follow this link.
Arthur and Will Denison continue their adventures in Dinotopia. Lee Crabb tells them about his sneaky plot, and they follow him to Volcaneum.
Arthur meets Tok Timbu and learns about the ways of the island where people live alongside dinosaurs.
...and they meet again someone they saw when they first arrived.
The Podcast SeriesThis acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
Episode 4 arrives in one week— Tuesday, December. Each 10-minute episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will disappear. So tell your friends, and be sure to check in to this blog each week. That way you'll be able to hear the whole production for free.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download.
You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's the ultimate holiday gift for the imaginative person in your life. (US orders only for the book, please).
To listen to the full audio podcast, you can get a
download at ZBS Production.
It's Tuesday, time for the new episode of the Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time serial podcast. To listen, follow the link to the SoundCloud file.
The adventure continues as Arthur and Will adjust to a world where humans and dinosaurs live as equals.
In the hatchery, kids help the hatchlings connect with their parent dinosaur.
Copro carters are a part of a proud profession, connoisseurs of the finest fertilizer.
When ZBS adapted Dinotopia to audio, they added to what was in the books by creating a fun banter between these characters.
...and then they meet up a disgruntled Dinotopian named Lee Crabb.The Podcast SeriesThis acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.
Episode 3 arrives one week from today— Tuesday, November 25. Each 10-minute episode will only be live online for one week, and then it will disappear. So tell your friends, and be sure to check in to this blog each week. That way you'll be able to hear the whole production for free.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all twelve episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download.
Here's the
link to the SoundCloud file (which will disappear after a week).
You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's the ultimate holiday gift for the imaginative person in your life. (US orders only for the book, please).
Every Tuesday for the next three months here on GurneyJourney I'll be sharing a new episode of an audio presentation of Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time. To listen, click the orange play button below, or follow the link to the SoundCloud file.
This acoustic adventure by the ZBS Foundation uses a full cast of actors, sound effects, and an original music track by composer Tim Clark to bring the world of humans and dinosaurs to life before your ears.
When I wrote and illustrated the book, it seemed like a silent movie on the book page. But this production opens the gates of the imagination, complete with tambourines, trumpets, rumbles, hoots, roars and laughter.
The adventure begins with the shipwreck of Arthur and Will Denison on the shores of a mysterious island in 1862...
...and their arrival at a strange egg hatchery, where they meet humans who seem entirely comfortable with living among the saurian giants.
The Podcast SeriesEpisode 2 arrives one week from today— Tuesday, November 18. Tell your friends, and be sure to come back each week. That way you'll be able to hear the whole production for free.
But each 10-minute episode will only remain available online for one week, after which it will disappear like a mirage.
If you'd like to purchase the full two-hour Dinotopia podcast right now and hear all 12 episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out
Dinotopia at ZBS Foundation website. The show is available as either as an MP3 download.
Here's the
link to the SoundCloud file (which vaporizes November 18).
You can also order the original book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. It's the ultimate holiday gift for the imaginative person in your life. (US orders only for the book, please).
By: James Gurney,
on 10/15/2014
Blog:
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Blog reader James Jones asked: "I'm a college student in Idaho studying to become an elementary teacher. I was just wondering, when you created the world and artwork and subsequently the story of the Dinotopia series, did you have a specific age range in mind for the series? I personally discovered the books in the 4th grade and have loved them ever sense, but I was wondering if they were meant for a slightly older audience."
Hi, James,
I don't buy into the "target age range" mindset of contemporary publishing. I wrote Dinotopia fundamentally to amuse myself as an 30-year-old adult who was rediscovering dinosaurs and utopias. I was also a new dad when the idea came to me, so I was aware of the magic that picture books had for young kids. And I was thinking of making the kind of book that I would have enjoyed when I was 10 or 12. At that age I didn't really like very many children's books, but instead loved the old illustrated adventure books by Twain and Stevenson and Verne.
A book should be like a swimming pool, with a shallow end and a deep end. The few "children's" books that I did like when I was young, such as the Winnie the Pooh books or The Little Prince, had layers of meaning that fed me as I got older. I don't see why book can't have meaning for a person at different stages of their lives.
In fact, I was deeply touched yesterday to receive a letter from a young filmmaker who has carried the book along with him overseas as he has grown from child to adult. He says:
"Dinotopia began as the favorite book of a little boy fascinated by dinosaurs. It later evolved into a personal inspiration for a young man just starting to dream about how he might make his mark on the world. I'm now happy to report that, as I approach my thirties, it has evolved into professional encouragement for how to keep that childhood spark alive while pursuing a creative career....and all the discipline, terror, heartbreak, exhilaration, and wonder that come with it. Thank you for that gift; I hope that some of my work can one day provide just just as much inspiration to even one little child somewhere."
----
Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time
I've always had a fondness for exuberantly painted cars. Here's one in Ohio that features Will Denison from
Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara painted on the hood.
In case you couldn't make it out, here's the painting it's based on.
I love the wiggly yellow line against the blue and black stripes and the gradation from red to orange. Nice job!
Thanks, Azonthus.
Previously:
Fan Fun,
Waterfall City mosaic, and
Dinotopia in Lego
Dr. Jo Ann Leggett, director of the
Children’s House preschool of Victoria, Texas recently completed a Dinotopia-themed project for the school’s summer program, and she sent some photos to share.
Dr. Jo says: "Children delighted in all the books," and they learned about geography from the Dinotopia map.
They tried "plank walking," a Dinotopia game that I introduced in "
Journey to Chandara."
To succeed at plank walking, everyone has to pull the ropes and lift their feet together as a team.
"Dinotopia is our 'most-looked-forward-to' unit at the school. Thank you for your inspiration," says Dr. Jo.
Thank YOU, Dr. Jo! If you're a teacher of any age group and would like to spotlight Dinotopia at your school, please write me a letter. I’ll be happy to send you a list of suggested games, projects, and activities, and I'll include a signed card to help you get the ball rolling.
Previously:
Dinosaurs Invade Millburn High SchoolScience, Art, and Fantasy (Elementary School)
By: James Gurney,
on 6/29/2014
Blog:
Gurney Journey
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Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Fans of robots, jaegers, droids, mobile weapons, drones, and transformers will be interested to know that the new edition of
Nuthin' But Mech Volume 2
is now available.
This is the second volume in the series originated by Lorin Wood, who created the original Nuthin But Mech blog. Ian McQue produced these robot walkers with all the wear and tear and rust of a real machine that had been left outdoors for a long time.
Most of the images are either 2D or 3D digital, but there are a few painted in traditional media. All of the proceeds will go to help the medical costs of Francis Tsai, one of the book's contributors, who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease in 2010.
This book features the work 40 contributors, ranging from whimsical concepts to realistic and compelling dystopian visions, such as this one by Bastiaan Koch.
There are six pages of my own artwork, mostly the new sepia paintings for
Dinotopia, First Flight Expanded Edition
. This one, called "Drainage Man," has the caption: "Poseidian D-class brontostrutters require frequent fluid exchange service. Drainage men, stationed at remote outposts along the steam safari routes of the Great Desert, replace hydraulic oil from the quad pistons after every 50K cycles. They also check lube levels, and they pump water into the belly tanks for the long hauls."
Nuthin' But Mech Volume 2
Seven-year-old Ben asked: "I was reading Dinotopia and I found the page where it showed the human vision and the dinosaur vision. Did dinosaurs really see that way?"
Hi, Ben,
Good question. Of course we’ll never really know how the world looked to dinosaurs, or for that matter, what things looks like to a dog or cat or bird. In fact, if you think about it, you can’t even be completely sure exactly how another person sees, and whether that’s different from the way you see, because you can’t climb inside their head.
But scientists are able to study the structures in the eyes of modern animals and they’ve found out some interesting things.
Dogs, cats, deer, and other mammals do not have color receptors in their eyes that can sense the difference between green and red. So their view of the world may only distinguish light and dark, and maybe blue and yellow colors. Humans, apes, and monkeys have the addition of green / red color receptors, so we see those colors, too.
Most birds seem to have as many color receptors as we do. But some birds, like hawks, may have sharper distance vision based on how their eyes are structured, and some other birds, like owls, surely see much better in the dark than we do.
When it comes to color, some insects can see into the ultraviolet range, a kind of light that’s invisible to us. These unique abilities probably help bees and butterflies to see fruit or flowers. The mantis shrimp has 16 kinds of light receptors in its eyes, which apparently allow it to see images in polarized light and ultraviolet light that we can't see without special instruments.
A good clue is that if animals have bright colors on them, then others of their kind can see those colors. That's why most animals aren't colored red, except for monkeys, which are unusual among mammals for having the same sort of color vision that humans have.
We shipped out another big stack of orders of
Dinotopia: First Flight today. Congratulations to Carol W. of Accord, New York, who was Order #50.
That means Carol won an original storyboard that I sketched while planning the book. For those who didn't win the grand prize, no worries: you'll receive an original drawings inside your copy as well as a signature, so everyone should get a fun surprise.
There are still two storyboard sketches left, for orders #75 and #100. If you order now, you might be a lucky winner.
-------
You can order the book at
JamesGurney.com or
Dinotopia.com. (USA customers only, sorry)
Previously:
First Flight Released
If you ordered a copy of the brand new expanded edition of
Dinotopia: First Flight, good news! Your copy shipped out today.
And congratulations to Peter O. of San Francisco. You were Order #25, and that means you'll be receiving the special copy with the actual original storyboard from First Flight included inside, along with a hand drawn and painted remarque.
If you haven't ordered yet, good news! There are still three original remarques waiting: #50, #75, and #100.
So if you order today you might be the lucky one. Plus everyone who orders from me gets a signature and a little drawing, and a few random people will get extra-custom drawings of the hoverhead Fritz with the painted flame effect, like above.
-------
You can order the book at
JamesGurney.com or
Dinotopia.com. (USA customers only, sorry)
Previously:
First Flight Released
In this concept art study, a crab-like mech, surrounded by a cloud of drones, tackles a tyrannosaur, while two archers try to take it down.
It's painted in gouache, using white and black, warmed with yellow ochre and raw umber. I chose monochrome to evoke the look of an old photo. The gouache gives me more precise control over the recession of values in the dense, backlit atmosphere.
 |
| Detail of Tyrannosaur's head in "Grapple Hold" from Dinotopia: First Flight by James Gurney |
I reserved the darkest values (though still not black) for the dinosaur's tail. The darks on the dinosaur's head are much lighter, closer to 50%.
To give it a photographic look, I tried to paint each section with just three values: a light value, a dark value, and a much brighter edge light. Those values step back together as you go back in space, like paired notes in music.
The new edition has more than 40 pages of new supplementary material: character sketches, vehicle designs, cinematic story treatments, and backstory notes--all of which is published for the first time. This material fleshes out the tumultuous ancient origins of Dinotopia, which predates its utopian recent history.
I also just wrote a special article about painting in monochrome for the April/May issue of International Artist magazine. The article is illustrated with six of these steampunk mech pieces.
By: James Gurney,
on 3/14/2014
Blog:
Gurney Journey
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I also designed the image to work as an accordion-fold greeting card for Portal Publishing's "Streamers" line. The card was printed the same on both sides and then die cut around the silhouettes.
When the card was all folded up, the silhouettes overlapped in such a way that faces could peek out in a surprising way.
Previous post about the kids who modeled for the painting.
Reference maquettes don't have to be made from Sculpey. Any materials that you've got in the studio or workshop can come in handy (which is a good excuse for being a lateral thinker and a packrat).
I constructed this very rough maquette for Arthur Denison's submersible using cardboard for the body profile and a
clear plastic egg shapes, which I filled with kit-bashed plastic model parts. The long gray pieces came a model railroad supply store.
As you can see, I didn't follow the maquette closely at all, but it was really valuable for imagining Arthur Denison's submersible. I also referenced reconstructions of
Bushnell's Turtle, a Revolutionary-era submarine ancestor.
Combined with a kronosaur maquette that I had on hand, along with underwater photos of whales, I felt more sure of myself when I tackled a more difficult scene like this one, from
Dinotopia: The World Beneath.
I'm happy to announce that a big exhibition of original Dinotopia artwork will open October 27 at the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, New York. I'll be doing a lecture and book signing there on the opening day, so I hope you can mark your calendars and make the trip.
The Arkell has a fine permanent collection American art by Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Maurice Prendergast, and Andrew Wyeth, as well as a full-size replica of Rembrandt's Night Watch.
------
The Arkell Museum is at 2 Erie Blvd., Canajoharie, NY 13317 Phone (518) 673-2314
"Dinotopia: The Fantastical Art of James Gurney" at the Arkell MuseumGurney lecture October 27
The print edition of
Glamour magazine in Germany regularly asks its editors where they have been getting inspiration lately. This time it was fashion designer
Kai Margrander's turn.
He mentioned the book
The Great Gatsby
, the
Café de Flore in Paris, his Morgan silk jacket....and Dinotopia. He says: "On a stroll through Tumblr, I discovered the whimsical fantasy paintings of the 54-year-old U.S. illustrator. One of his favorite subjects: dinosaurs."
Mr. Margrander's other favorite things include his garden in Lower Bavaria, the song "
Nagh el Borda" by Oum Kalthoum,
Star Wars, and the word "Absolutely!"
------
Thanks, Mr. Margrander!
Kai Margrander's blog: "The Talented Mr. M"Courtesy of the print edition of Glamour magazine, German edition, February 2013 issue.
The original painting of "Garden of Hope" is still on view through March 13 in New Hampshire.
I recently completed five new paintings for a book called Nuthin' But Mech 2, which will be published later this year. The book is a collaboration of about 25 concept artists who love to paint robots, spacecraft, walkers, and other kinds of mech designs.
Here's one of my pictures called "Intruder." It is set in Dinotopia's dramatic ancient period known as the "Age of Heroes." The image shows a crab-like vehicle known as a sprog patrolling the marketplace of Prosperine, just behind a
Triceratops.
The painting uses sepia watercolor and colored pencil to suggest the vérité look of an old photograph. This animated gif captures a few steps in the process. The first step shows a pencil drawing with a light wash over the surface. Then I painted sample area of the foreground and background to establish the range of values and the atmospheric perspective. Then it was a matter of carrying each area to finished effect with brush and colored pencil, fixing goofs where necessary with gouache.
For example, note the man facing us at extreme left. I sketched his head in too big at first, so I had to shrink his head a couple of times until he fit into the perspective. The warm color cast at the end is not a change in the painting but an adjustment in Photoshop.
Brain Children• The illustration board I used is a
Cottonwood Arts cold press watercolor booklet with 16 glue-bound heavyweight pages. It's a nice format for hand painted concept pieces or plein air studies. Cottonwood Arts is the brainchild of
John Park, one of the other contributors to NBM2.
• The blog that started it all:
Nuthin' but Mech, brainchild of
Lorin Wood, another contributer to the book and a senior conceptual designer for
Gearbox Software.
• The publisher is
Design Studio Press, brainchild of
Scott Robertson, yet another contributor to NBM2.
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Were you tempted to submerse it?
Very cool James, reminds me of a submarine for the bath tub I had as a kid.
I had to look up kit-bashed, makes sense, its right up your alley, now I know.
An artist/sculptor worth checking out, I saw a show of his at the Oceanside Museum of Art, is John Taylor.
He use cast-off computer parts among other things to create (folk art)ships. You would probably enjoy these.
http://www.folkartships.com/
It's posts like these that justify my need to keep my labeled boxes of odds and ends haha
I'm excited to try making up a few rough models and such for my next piece! :D I think it will really help me in my trouble area of believable lighting in my backgrounds.
Katie!!! You finally posted. Congrats on the contest btw.