EPOCH TIMES :. During your career, you have worked in fields as varied as book cover illustration on the animated films like Frank Frazetta / Ralph Bakshi of "Fire and Ice," you celebrated the remarkable success of your books Dinotopia, which were also made into a television series, and give lectures for creative professionals (for example, DreamWorks Animation SKG and Lucasfilm, Ltd.).
What is your perspective has changed in the field of visual arts in general and for the artists and the demands on them over there 20/25 years?
JAMES GURNEY: The most obvious change in the last two decades is the emergence of digital tools, both in illustration and in film. Although I work in traditional oil paintings, I find this exciting new technology, particularly advances in 3D modeling, lighting and animation, because it has caused a rebirth of the new understanding of the world visual. He brought artists in collaboration with physicists and mathematicians to understand such things as the distribution of the basement, caustics, occlusion shadows, and particle behavior. All these new ideas have influenced me, even though I work entirely in the traditional media.
But I think your question goes to another, and perhaps the least obvious change. New forms of digital distribution artists offer new ways to market and promote their work.
These tools have given artists a lot of choices for how to use their talents. If they like working together on a large company like a movie or a video game, there are huge opportunities. The term "concept artist" did not exist when I was in art school. But artists can also work alone to write, illustrate and design their own illustrated stories, graphic novels, or movies animation, even, and connect with readers before the work was published
aND:. Considering platforms like "Deviant Art" or "Conceptart.org," in which artists seem to produce outstanding works of art in mass every day, you can ask provocative: is there still a demand for illustration / imaginative art and what it means for the individual artist today
JG: I can not say too much on these forums because I have not enough time online to be able to explore, but I realize they are a valuable resource for emerging artists and professionals.
the people are hungrier than ever for images of imagination. Imaginative The work is healthier than ever today. The most successful exhibition of recent years at the American Society of Illustrators was the Spectrum exhibition. Most young people have grown up loving comics, games, science fiction and fantasy, so it is not going away anytime soon
In your first instruction book on the picture, "Imaginative Realism. - How to paint this Doesn 't Exist" you give a complete overview, drawing from the treasury of the age of gold illustrators as well as providing a generous glimpse into your personal methods and experiences on how to create imaginative works of art in a comprehensive way that I did not get in shape yet - there will be other publications after what was your first starting point / motivation to go for "how" -book
Yes, there will be more books "Color and Light?"? after Color and Light, including another book art instruction, sketchbooks, and new fantasies illustrated along the lines of Dinotopia. I am also very interested in video, e-book formats and applications, so that I will find at least a little time aside to develop these ideas.
To answer your second question, as many artists of my generation, I find that the art school did not answer all the questions burning in my mind. I was hungry for some pieces of information, and I could never find it, so I wrote the book to answer all these questions.
To find these books, I drew not only from my own direct experience but also on that of older mentors who I met as classical illustrator Tom Lovell. I also researched off-print books instruction in the art of 50 and 100 years, which was like a window into the distant past.
Imaginative Realism reached in the last six months, the # 1 position on Amazon.com in the categories of both teaching art and painting, color and light, not yet released, is already on # 3, only through pre-orders! How do you explain this success and was surprising for you? Completely unexpectedly, both for me and the editor! There are so many good books on the teaching of art out there, particularly on figure drawing or painting of a landscape, or make a living again. I will not repeat what has already been said. But as I looked at the available books, I realized that there were shortcomings, and these missing information was what I wanted to offer. Surprisingly few books systematically explored the question of a realistic image of a subject of fantasy or history. This was the subject of my first book
Regarding "Color and Light" -. One could say that the two most fundamental themes of art. I walked into my archives of your blog "Gurney Journey" and found so many theoretical knowledge as practical examples - what can we expect from this book? Can you give us a brief overview? What are its essential elements / what was most important to you?
As I assembled the first volume, Imaginative Realism, I realize that the information on the color and the light was so vast that I decided he needed a second volume.
I am interested in to four groups of readers :.
1. artists of all media interested in a realistic traditional approach
2. Fantasy and science fiction artists, illustrators and concept artists.
2. Non-artists who are curious about the inner workings of the visual world.
3. collectors and fans and my work, ensuring all present new works of art from what we've seen in the last book.
This is what the book contains: the book begins with a historical survey of teachers who have used color and light in interesting ways. It then examines the different light sources, and we look at how light creates the illusion of three dimensions. The middle chapters cover the basic color properties, and an introduction to painting and pigments.
Then I present the method I use for color planning called gamut mapping. The following chapters of the book address the specific challenges we face when we want to portray surfaces such as hair and foliage, as well as detailed information about the infinitely varied phenomena of atmospheric effects. The book ends with a glossary, a pigment index, and a bibliography.
The book contains no recipes for mixing colors or painting step by step procedures. It is not too technical, but it deals with the subject authority. I also saved the reader some very technical discussions that are difficult to follow, unless you are a physicist. Instead, I wanted to keep relatively brief text for the work can be reproduced large. And I wanted to offer practical observations that painters can really use. I have heard that art teachers used as a textbook in schools of art and I hope it will be a standard studio reference for many types of artists.
From what I'm on your blog, higher than in the "imaginative realism," you seem to focus in your new book on outdoor studies in "Imaginative Realism "promote you as a classical approach with outdoor studies, charcoal studies from models of life and nature, while modern digital painter often used to work mostly with photo references, it loads into his painting software. Why the study of life so important? What is the difference of working with photo references and this approach is feasible in the rapidly changing industry of today (whether art book publishing / editorial or design for the gaming industry and film-)?
the best way to answer this is to show you a book page which shows the comparison of the observed and photographed reality.
work the imagination and observation are essential to each other. I could not paint my imagination for a long time without having to go outside, and I could not paint observation exclusively. And yes, it is possible to work to life in this fast moving world. A charcoal study from the model only takes fifteen minutes. But I also like to spend three hours or more to make a careful study of oil observation.
Unlike many modern art schools are promoting you do go for a / style "personal" individual. Can you explain why?
You are right. I think it would be a mistake to insist on the development of a personal style, especially for a student, because sometimes the style is the way to really see. In addition, any style eventually becomes tired and stale, but the truth of nature is timeless. In my view, especially students, but also working professionals, should continue to explore the world around them with careful observation. It is natural and good for the young artists to model their images after those of other artists as a path to mastery. But I prefer my heroes to be dead, and I have always tried to study a lot of different ones, not just one
In the afterword of IR quote American painter Harvey Dunn, who said the conclusion of the book, saying "the only thing that is true about everything is the spirit of it,.", "art that lives in the memory and the test of time mix mystery of earthiness, containing both a handful of clay and a feather of a wing of angel. "What in your view is essential for good art in general and there is something that you can share young artists effort?
I can not talk about what is "good art" because I love many types of art that are based on different starting places. But I'm always interested in a painting where the surface seems to disappear and I feel I can live inside . of the scene I paint There is a Latin quote that I burned wood on my stick mahl He said.. "Ars est celare artem" I picked an artist named James Perry Wilson, who painted the . backdrops of diorama illusionists in the American Museum of natural history It means: "true art is the concealment of artifice." It's easy to make a painting look like paint, but it is much more difficult to make a painting that draws in viewers so completely that they feel the warm sun on their neck and sand in their shoes.
Art is more than illusion, of course. What really matters to me in the end is how a given work connects the visible world with the world of dreams and emotions. Many different art modes can achieve this, but what interests me is the art that makes being sensitive to both the visual world around us, and the inner mystery Sea us. The inner eye and the outer eye inspire each other.
Interview with Christian Schlierkamp
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Epoch Times
Color and Light
Imaginative Realism
ConceptArt
Deviant Art
Spectrum News (Review of Color & Light)
James Perry Wilson
GJ previous posts about Tom Lovell, Using photos Reference
