I had the very good fortune recently to hear James Gurney speak, author and illustrator of the Dinotopia fictional world. He spoke at the 2009 summer conference for the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). He spoke about art, drawing, and his process for creating the amazingly realistic illustrations. Many of these illustrations involve dinosaurs, which are hard to model since they are extinct.
Mr. Gurney strongly recommends practicing drawing constantly, especially with people and models. To accurately represent people, he often dresses himself, his wife, and willing friends in costumes, and then sketches or takes a photo for reference. He might model his own body’s position, using full length mirrors in his studio. He finds costumes from drama department and costume rental house sales so that he can correctly model the folds and lighting of fabrics.
For faces, he might use his own mirrored expressions for reference, or those of friends or models. He also sketches many people; he shared an amazing drawing of an older man he sat next to on a plane.
To create the amazing city scenes found in Dinotopia, he starts with a model made up from old boxes, milk cartons, etc. He paints it and lights it with a film light. These lights have a directed glass piece over the front called a “fresnel lens” that allows one to direct the light more accurately (See Birns and Sawyer or Arriflex in Los Angeles for examples). Plastic dinosaur toys and people figures may be added to the scene as well. He might also use a home made clay model called a maquette. Some have posable features. Then a photo is taken of the lit scene, or an illustration done. Then he might create a perspective drawing. Then he often paints several color schemes using a large brush, to plan the color tones of the final painting.
He shared two photo references, and they were amazing. When the model, dinosaurs, light, shadows and human figures are all arranged together, you can imagine humans living side by side with dinosaurs. The second photo he showed was of the round-domed building in the main city, above several waterfalls pouring forth from below the buildings’ bases. The illustration added immense, billowy clouds with hues of orange, off-white, yellow and pink in the background, as well as the waterfalls.
He also had a prop house create the fictional journal about Dinotopia by the main explorer, to better get into the story.
For drawings, he might draw people on separate tracing paper, and then move them around to create a final layout. The moving around could be done by hand or in Photoshop.
When his art process becomes stuck or maddening, drawings are burnt to ash using a homemade “Gallery Flambeau”; art is hung at the focus point of a set of mirrors that are set up in a parabola. The mirrors are mounted on a flat piece of plywood (kids, don’t try this at home!)
Mr. Gurney published two books in the fall of 2009 with captivating Dinotopia-illustrated scenes. One is entitled “Imaginative Realism” and the other one is “Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara.”
I have been pouring through “Imaginative Realism” for several days now, and can truly say that its an amazing book. It really outlines the whole process for how he creates accurate historical or fictional scenes and characters. There are about seven steps to the process. (No wonder my one-step paint process doesn’t work!) The process might begin with very small business card sized thumbnails to choose the best layout, before one proceeds to a more final drawing.
He uses as many real models as possible (in maquette, live model, photo reference, or photos of himself). There is a very funny sequence where he shows a series of photos of himself in sailor’s costume mimicking all of the characters in a naval battle. He created the photo reference for each character that he needed.
He lights the scene to render it as accurately as possible. He might take a photo and draw from that, or he might draw directly from the scene.
Then he might draw a perspective drawing, especially with architecture.
It’s a long process, but it obviously yields great illustrations. He has done many illustrations for National Geographic, the Post Office’s dinosaur stamps, and of course all of the wonderful illustrations for the Dinotopia world.
You may read more on James Gurney’s blog: gurneyjourney.blogspot.com. James Gurney’s books include Dinotopia, Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, and Dinotopia: The World Beneath, among others. The first and last are like journal/art books. There is also a Dinotopia website to enjoy.
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