Matania at Work

Archival newsreel film footage brings to life the working process of Italian/British historical illustrator Fortunino Matania.




You can click the image above to link over and see the film.

It shows Matania directing costumed models, who pose as he draws them directly into the finished illustration. He adds the missing elements, such as settings and horses, from his imagination.

Ever the showman, Matania puffs from his cigarette as he draws, jumping up from his chair to joke around with the model. The film ends with him working away, surrounded by a a Bohemian throng, with one of them strumming a guitar.



(Link to British Pathe, where you can watch a small-scale preview or pay to get a full-rez download)
Previously: Matania's Models and Props
Matania: Without a Net
Image: "Goodbye Old Pal" (Man comforts dying horse)
Thanks, Daniel 

The Spell of the Cell

Cell phone users hold predictable poses for relatively long periods. They’re oblivious to the world around them, making them good sketching subjects.

This man in France was talking energetically while gesturing with the non-phone hand. His right hand held a slip of paper and a pen.

The fact that people gesture while talking on cell phones suggests that hand movements benefit the speaker more than the hearer.


When men check messages, they usually stand with their feet wide apart and their pelvis forward. They duck their chin to their chest and hold the cellphone against the base of their sternums.


Children melt into their chairs. They totally relax their legs and feet. The outer world disappears. They fall into a reverie. Their minds link with the machine.

(Note: We’re home now in New York. Many of the upcoming posts will be from places we’ve been over the last two months--western USA and Europe. I’m just catching up from a lot of material generated over the last month of touring. I’ll try to keep the Facebook page updated with what we’re doing and what’s coming up.)
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The Angel Academy of Art

The three great domes of Florence were shining in the morning light yesterday.

On the left of the picture is Jay Blums and on the right is Martinho Isidro Correia. Both instructors are originally from Canada. We're standing in the Angel Academy of Art, one of the world’s leading centers for academic training.


The school was founded by Michael John Angel, known as “Il Maestro” by his students. Mr. Angel was a student of portrait painter and muralist Pietro Annigoni (1910-1988).


The school consists of two buildings near the center of Florence, where 60 students from 29 countries follow a focused curriculum. The method is based on traditional realistic painting methods that Mr. Angel has painstakingly researched.

Students begin by carefully copying plates from Charles Bargue’s 19th-century drawing course. Then they proceed to portraying the plaster cast under artificial light, using "sight-size" procedures, first in charcoal, and then in oil.

They graduate to working from still life subjects and to drawing and painting the living figure.

The entire regimen has taken as little as two years for a few very precocious students. More typically it takes three or four years. A single oil or charcoal can take several months. People move to succeeding steps in the curriculum depending purely on their readiness.
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Angel Academy of Art
Michael John Angel
Cast drawing at left is by Dorian Iten
Charles Bargue Painting Course (Book from Amazon)
Pietro Annigoni on Wikipedia
Wikipedia on the Atelier Method & Sight-Size Drawing
Related GurneyJourney posts:
    Academy of Realist Art, Toronto
    Grand Central Academy, New York
   En Loge (Prix de Rome) Competition

The Marais

Around the city of Bourges, France, is a vast system of marshes and canals called the Marais. The low land has been reclaimed as allotments for gardeners, who grow swiss chard and lettuce.

Footpaths follow the canals, punctuated with pollarded willows . Pensioners walk their dogs or ride along on bicycles, greeting each other as they pass. The air is hazy, and fragrant with the smell of burning leaves.

Last Judgment

One of the stained-glass windows of the cathedral of Bourges shows scenes the Last Judgment.

Here, the souls are thrown into the mouth of the Leviathan. The scene is conjured with all the vividness of the 13th century imagination.

Guest-blogger Jeanette

This sketch was done in ballpoint pen with watercolor wash. I sat next to Jim, and my picture begins just to the left of where his sketch ends. Trying to get the half-timbering (pan-de-bois) correct was insanely time-consuming.

As we sat there on our folding stools, people from Bourges kept walking by us, saying encouraging things in French. At least I assume it was encouraging from their facial expressions, as I don’t speak much French.

It’s amazing how Jim and I can sketch the same subject at the same time and come up with entirely different results. Almost invariably, mine is breezy and cheerful, and Jim’s is carefully drawn, with moody lighting. I see everything in line, Jim sees form and light first.

Tao of Painting People

Don’t paint a figure; Paint a person.
Don’t paint a head; Paint an individual.
Be accurate, but see beyond the surface.
Beware of pictures that are correct but lifeless.


The face is the window to the soul.
All of humanity’s greatness and frailty can be found in a single pair of eyes.

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Portraits by Peder Krøyer (1851-1909). Thanks to Tim Adkins for the close-up.
Krøyer on Wikipedia

Map Crunch

What do other countries in the world really look like? Standard tourist photos don’t give you genuine slices of life.


The website “MapCrunch.com” allows you to view random images from the vast Google street view archives. You can select from 18 different countries around the world and choose whether you want country roads or not. The examples above are from Spain, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Missouri (USA).

This would be a fun motif-generator for the tiny landscape painting exercise in yesterday’s post. Press the button and paint the scene in 10 minutes or less!

MapCrunch.com
GurneyJourney: Tiny Landscapes
Thanks, Toby Neve

Unveiling at the Jules Verne Museum

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the unveiling of two paintings that are now part of the permanent collection at the Jules Verne Museum in Nantes, France.


Upper left: The paintings on the wall of the museum near the entrance; the dedication ceremony yesterday; the Jules Verne medal presented to me by Jean-Louis Jossic, the cultural minister of Nantes; and standing near the fountain in the Place Royale, where the painting is set.

According to the article in today's Ouest-France:

"Le musée acquiert deux illustrations de l'auteur de Dinotopia: l'une, Décollage nocturne, a servi pour l'affice du festival des Utopiales 2009, tandis qu'une autre représenet le musée installé sur son rocher."

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Ouest France: "Deux oeuvres de James Gurney au musée Jules Verne"
Musée Jules Verne
Utopiales Festival 2009

Previous GJ Posts:
Floating Jules Verne Museum
Utopiales Painting, Part 7: Final Painting
Part 6: Washin
Part 5: Pencil Drawing
Part 4: Lighting
Part 3: Maquette
Part 2: Researching Insect Flight
Part 1: Initial Sketches

Muddy Colors Blog

The new blog called "Muddy Colors" brings together an all-star line-up of illustrators and designers with daily insights into the thinking behind the art of contemporary fantastic art.

In the last five posts:
Dan Dos Santos reflects on digital versus traditional and violence in covers.
Arnie Fenner describes how movie posters and paperback covers got him fired up about art.
Greg Manchess shows how he painted a cover with clockwork fairies.
Jon Foster explains how he uses thumbnails to find the best image.
Dan Dos Santos shows the various sketches on a job and the thinking behind them.