World Beneath Podcast Episode 2

Last week we began airing the first episode of the serialized audio dramatization of Dinotopia: The World Beneath. During this week we launched Episode 2, but sorry, it's no longer available.

In this episode we meet Lee Crabb again, who offers Arthur some advice about traveling into the World Beneath. I painted the standing portrait of Oriana from a live model in my studio. Both are in oil.

When Arthur calls a Round Table meeting, the humans sit on high chairs to be at the height of the dinosaurs. Producer Tom Lopez did an amazing job of creating the strange sounds of all the dinosaur voices.

Enit the librarian operates the pedostenograph machine.

Arthur shows a part of a key that he believes will get him back into the caves. 

The Podcast Series
This acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.

Episode 3 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 World Beneath podcast right now and hear all fifteen episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out The World Beneath at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download. It's also available as a CD.

The Book
You can also order the original printed book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. (Ships via Media Mail within 24 hours of your order. US orders only for the book, please). The book is also available from Amazon in a 20th Anniversary Edition with lots of extras.

The Museum Exhibition
Many of these paintings will be on view at the upcoming Dinotopia exhibition at the Stamford Art Museum and Nature Center, Feb. 14-May 25. I'll be in attendance at events on Feb. 28 and March 1. Read more about the events here on this blog.

Making It Documentary

(Link to video)
Producer Tony Moorman is about to release an hour-and-a-half video about the trials and tribulations of making a living as a professional artist.


The small crew traveled to various artists' studios, and interviewed a large number of people at Spectrum Live in Kansas City and Comic Con in San Diego. The careers of the main subjects, Andrew Bawidamann, Eric Fortune, and Brian Ewing, span the fields of fantasy illustration, rock 'n' roll posters, gallery art, and illustrated logo design.

The video consists mainly of interviews. It's not really a tutorial or instructional format, rather more of a collection of snapshots of various artists' outlooks on creativity and careers. The topics include whether art school is worthwhile, how to remain inspired, and the personal costs of hard work.

The film will be released on February 17th. After that, it will come out on the i-Tunes store, Amazon, VUDU, X-Box, VHX, and Google Play.
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Making It website
Facebook page.

More on Muddy Colors
Making It Documentary
On Vimeo
Making It on YouTube

Gibson featured in Illustration magazine

The upcoming issue of Illustration magazine (Issue #47) features the work of Charles Dana Gibson.

Gibson (1867-1944) was an illustrator from the Golden Age whose portrayals of self-confident women became a style icon known as the 'Gibson Girl.' 

Gibson's painterly pen-and-ink illustrations captured the attitudes and postures of the characters he portrayed, often in amusing or awkward situations.

The article by Gary Land tells the story of his life, from child prodigy to celebrity artist. It is well illustrated with 35 images, shot from original art. This issue also a feature article on pin-up illustrator George Petty.

Dan Zimmer, who publishes Illustration magazine, is also about to release a trade edition of his successful Kickstarter project, a book called The Golden Age: Masterworks from the Golden Age of Illustration. 

It's not a history or a textbook, but a picture book with over 218 color illustrations by 154 different artists. The book is a 9 x 12 inch hardcover and costs $44.95. It will ship in March, and you can preorder now.

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Illustration magazine

The Other Abstract Art Movement

Left: Female Bust by Picasso, 1937. Right: Popeye by E.C. Segar, 1929-1937

While Picasso was experimenting with abstraction in the world of galleries and museums, another abstract art movement was playing out right under people's noses in the realm of comic characters.

Left: Picasso Bull, 1945. Right: Disney Studios Hell's Bells, 1929

In both modes of image-making, artists discovered that a certain power derives from simplification, from stripping away layers of reality and searching for basic psychological symbols. They recognized this power in the older work of the cave painters, the Egyptians, the African mask-makers, and the Japanese printmakers, to name a few.

George Herriman, Krazy Kat, 1918

The forces driving innovation in the two movements was different. In animation, the whole medium was new; there was no grand tradition of painting to overthrow. No one had seen drawings move before. They were alive! Simplification was a practical and economic necessity because they had to be hand-painted by the thousands on acetate cels. It was a collaborative and often anonymous enterprise, yet no less innovative than the work of the easel-painters. 

Cartoon characters in the newspapers had to be reduced to something that could be printed on a mass scale. As the decades passed, comic characters were reproduced more and more quickly at relatively small sizes on cheap paper.

But the most important difference was that images in the world of comic characters had to be expressive. People had to love them. They had to convey character and story and personality. Without that, they were dead on arrival. There was no artificial life support system to keep them going. If no one loved them, they died. 

The language of abstraction in the world of comic characters took a while to develop. The Yellow Kid and Little Nemo were among the earliest newspaper characters, and they were still based more or less on the arrangement of a real face. By the time Betty Boop arrives (lower left) in 1930, we're very far from reality.

Mickey's earlier incarnations had dots for pupils floating in a big white shape that could be either the whites of the eyes or a big forehead.

When Fred Moore redesigned Mickey in 1938 for Sorcerer's Apprentice, his pupils became white ovals with smaller pupils inside them. But Mickey always had those two purely abstract circles for ears, which became a problem as Disney Studios strove for more and more realism.

Characters from Pixar's Inside Out. All Disney images ©Disney, Inc.

The give and take between realism and abstraction continues to this day with character designers in the 3D digital animation world deciding how to boil down the characters to their simple essence. The goal is always to make them more expressive, to make their emotions come across better in a story.

The person who first got me thinking about comics as the "other abstract art movement" was toy collector and inventor Mel Birnkrant, who is fascinated by the design of comic characters, especially between 1920 and 1940. In this heretical view of art history, the art of comic characters is not only a legitimate art form, but perhaps the most protean, innovative and enduring form, which transcends all the "isms," and is the central story of 20th century art history.

Mel says, "Isn't it ironic that modern art had to fight so hard to introduce abstraction to the world? When all the while, abstract art had already been peacefully introduced and willingly accepted by an eager public, many years before, in the form of comic characters."

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Mel Birnkrant's essay "Reflections in a Pie-Cut Eye"

Books: Winsor McCay: His Life and Art

The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics

Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat

All copyrights to their respective holders.

Dreamland

(Following text quoted from Wikipedia) Dreamland was an ambitious amusement park at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City from 1903 to 1911.



Dreamland was supposed to be refined and elegant in its design and architecture, compared to Luna Park with its many rides and chaotic noise.


Among Dreamland's attractions were a railway that ran through a Swiss alpine landscape, imitation Venetian canals with gondolas, a "Lilliputian Village" with three hundred dwarf inhabitants, and a demonstration of firefighting in which two thousand people pretended to put out a blazing six-story building fire every half-hour.

In a bid for publicity, the park put famous Broadway actress Marie Dressler in charge of the peanut-and-popcorn stands, with young boys dressed as imps in red flannel acting as salesmen. Dressler was said to be in love with Dreamland's dashing, handlebar-mustachioed, one-armed lion tamer who went by the name of Captain Jack Bonavita.

There were also two Shoot-the-Chutes with two ramps that could handle 7,000 hourly riders, a scenic railway called Coasting Through Switzerland, gondola rides through a nighttime model of Venice, a miniature railroad, and a simulated submarine ride.

A concession called Hell Gate, in which visitors took a boat ride on rushing waters through dim caverns, was undergoing last-minute repairs by a roofing company owned by Samuel Engelstein. A leak had to be caulked with tar. 

During these repairs, at about 1:30 in the morning on May 27, 1911, the light bulbs that illuminated the operations began to explode, perhaps because of an electrical malfunction. In the darkness, a worker kicked over a bucket of hot pitch, and soon Hell Gate was in flames.

Chaos broke loose as the park burned. As the single-armed Captain Bonavita strove to save his big cats with only the swiftly encroaching flames for illumination, some of the terrified animals escaped, but about 60 animals died. A lion named Black Prince rushed into the streets, among crowds of onlookers, and was shot by police. 

By morning, the fire was out and Dreamland was completely destroyed and never rebuilt.

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Wikipedia: Dreamland

More about the fire

Podcast about Dreamland from the Memory Palace.

Book: Coney Island: A Postcard Journey to the City of Fire

Lessons from a Kickstarter Campaign

Last summer, Cherngzhi (Erwin) Lian of Singapore conducted a Kickstarter campaign to create "The Perfect Sketchbook"—a pocket-size gem with artist-grade cotton watercolor paper and a built-in gray scale. The campaign was successful, raising $53,850, just over the goal. 

  

"The Perfect Sketchbook" Kickstarted by Cherngzhi Lian

But that is just the beginning of the story. What it took to execute a successful Kickstarter effort from start to finish is a tale of hard work and smart business that should inspire anyone who is thinking about crowdfunding.

Gurney: Have people used your sketchbook in any ways that particularly surprised or impressed you?

Cherngzhi: Absolutely! Our backers were really impressed with the quality of these sketchbooks and I reckon that The Perfect Sketchbook presented a unique opportunity for many who didn’t dare venture into quality watercolor paper. Generally speaking, most avoided 100% cotton watercolor paper because it is usually a lot more expensive than generic 20% cotton watercolor paper. Many of our backers were particularly surprised by how light these sketchbooks weigh and were delighted with the way that cotton paper responds to heavy washes and ‘lifting’.

Gurney: What did you learn from doing a Kickstarter project? Were there any unexpected difficulties or things you would do differently?

Cherngzhi: There were many things I learnt from this Kickstarter. For a start, I am not a celebrity of any sort and do not have a huge following. In an effort to rally for support, I resorted to approaching friends, strangers, famous artists, interest groups, art councils, art publications, and possibly anyone related to Art, travel, sketching and watercolor. It was not the easiest thing to do and rejection was common. I persisted and reminded myself that it was a rare opportunity where I can mass-produce something great, and persevered. When the fund was at $28,000, I thought that the campaign would fail. I wrote the greatest number of emails at that stage but it did not correlate to the fund's momentum. Although daunting, I kept going at it, even during the last 4 days when I was more than US$10,000 away from target. I thought it was game-over. Miraculously, the funds came in big during the last 4 days and we eventually managed to surpass the target of US$50,000, finally finishing at US$53,850. It was not easy and I slept little during the 45 days of our campaign.

The Project would have never made it without the support of all my backers. Every contribution along the way fueled my motivation, and my conviction in the success of the project increased with the number of backers and contributed funds. I fought harder, and we eventually made it. My backers were the true drivers of The Perfect Sketchbook, as without them, this project would not have taken off. I am truly grateful.

After the funding was complete, I dealt with a lot of special requests. This was challenging because Kickstarter's customer management system is not meant to handle changes and special requests. The increase in fees for raw materials, shipment, wiring and postage also worried me throughout the project. There were so many hidden costs that we were not able to foresee. We also ran into a few production issues, but these were readily resolved by my experienced manufacturer, Bynd Artisan. For that matter, I am really lucky to have partnered with them. It was amazing that they made most of The Perfect Sketchbooks by hand.



Gurney: I'm curious about logistics of the Kickstarter fulfillment. What services did you enlist to help fulfill your pledges?

Cherngzhi: In a desperate attempt to raise the required funds, I added many more reward tiers throughout our campaign. After the campaign was over, I worked immediately to fulfill the Giclée prints and hand delivered framed, original paintings to our top backers. To streamline the fulfillment process, we decided early in our project to send rewards separately even when a backer had backed both a sketchbook and a print. My collaborator, Bynd Artisan designated some their staffs to pack The Sketchbooks while Dan Hong (another employee from Bynd Artisan) and I worked on the labeling and sequencing of the packages. All the Giclée prints were printed and processed manually by me. Most of the packages were international and since we couldn’t afford to lose any package, we purchased a tracking option. Apart from the hefty cost of international registered mail, we had to manually sequence every package at the post office so that they are traceable. It was an extremely time-consuming and laborious process. The neighborhood post offices couldn’t handle our volume in a single day, and we ended up making multiple trips to their headquarters in order to complete the fulfillment process.

Gurney: How did you use social media to raise awareness for the campaign?
I have been using Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook to document my travel and sketches for the past two years. At first, I thought it was just a great way to document my thoughts on-the-go and felt that I might be able to refer to them for content if I should one day write a book. Over the span of 2 years, I gathered about 2000+ followers on Instagram. Most of my Kickstarter backers actually came from my own social media circle. Our biggest backer, Dr Ramona from Austria, has been following me on Tumblr, and kindly answered to my call for support.

Apart from my own social media network, there were generous artists like you, James, who were influential and kind enough to the share my project with your audience. This helped extensively with the visibility of my project. Without the internet or social media, this project would have never taken off.



Gurney: What advice would you give to artists who want to manufacture their own product ideas?
I think it’s really important to find a reliable and experienced manufacturer to work with. I was really lucky to have found Bynd Artisan, and their experience in book-making has proven to be invaluable. Extensive research also needs to done on budgeting, because every process along the way tends to cost more than the initial budget. Without economies of scale, you cannot produce something that can compete with other sketchbooks based on price. As an artist, you have the ability to make something out of nothing. However, you will need to be tenacious to reach out to people who value your work and effort. Bear in mind that even when you put in the best materials and effort, there will be a lot of harsh criticism out there. Enjoy the process and remind yourself that it isn’t the end of the world if the project fails. Stay positive and don’t give up.



Gurney: What are your plans for manufacturing or distributing the sketchbook now that the Kickstarter project is over?
A lot of satisfied backers wrote to me with feedback that I should also make a bigger sketchbook. I am currently approaching top-quality paper mills, in hope that they will be willing to collaborate with us to make an affordable A5 [148 x 210 mm or 5.8 x 8.3 in]version of The Perfect Sketchbook. The current pocket-sized sketchbook is a limited edition, and the limited excess from our project is currently only available at Bynd Artisan stores in Singapore.

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Thank you, Cherngzhi, and best wishes for your continued success.

GJ post about the campaign

Website of Cherngshi 
Byndartisan
Cherngzhi on Tumblr
Cherngzhi Instragram
Kickstarter page

Interactive Sketchbook Contest

A lot of artists are having fun making their drawings interact with the real world, so I thought we could do a contest here on GurneyJourney.

The idea is to draw or paint a picture in your sketchbook that relates in some way to actual objects in the environment around it and then take a photo of the interaction. Here are some examples for inspiration:

Artist fighting with creation. Alex Solis of Chicago


Sketched character dealing with a problem nearby. David, known as Troqman

Drawing with marker and white-out on clear plastic sheet. Marty Cooper, known as Hombre McSteez

Cartoon character cut out of paper. Mlle Lowra of Deviant Art

Object placed in front of drawing. Cartoonist Manik n Ratan from Bangladesh

Those of you who are plein-air painters could do something with a fantastical painted illusion on canvas or glass that merges with its background, like a glass matte.

Rules
1. Your art can be a drawing or painting on a sketchbook page, panel, canvas, but not grafitti or chalk art drawn on the scene itself.
2. The drawing can be folded or cut out or drawn on clear acetate. If you use acetate, show the edge of it and a hand or something holding it.
3. No Photoshop manipulation—everything should be photographed together in camera.
4. Art should be new and original; not already published.
5. One entry per person, please.

How to Enter
6. Submit entry as an attached JPEG (no more than 800 px on longest side) to gurneyjourney [at] gmail. Title the file with your name and the title of the piece if any.
7. Use subject line "INTERACTIVE SKETCHBOOK"
8. Or send me a link to a public file-hosting site where your image can easily be accessed and downloaded.
9. Deadline is March 15. It's free to enter.
10. I'll pick my favorite 10 semifinalists to post on the blog, then a blog poll will select the top three.
11. Top three finalists receive official Department of Art embroidered patches (thanks to blog reader Steve for donating the patches).

Giant Rodent Painting in the News

Scientists at York University in the UK and Montevideo in Uruguay have published some new ideas about Josephoartigasia, the extinct giant rodent that I reconstructed a few years ago. They asked if my painting could be used for the press announcement. The idea of these creatures using their teeth as powerful weapons has been very popular.

I would love to imagine two male Josephoartigasia in a rutting contest, with David Attenborough narrating.

BBC: "Biggest rodent 'fought with teeth' like tusks"

Daily Mail: "Enormous 3-million-year-old rodent used its teeth like elephant TUSKS: Ancient mammal used incisors as tool to dig and defend itself"

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Previous GJ post showing the sketches and maquette
I talk about this picture's use of depth of field in my book Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter.

World Beneath Podcast, Episode 1

This week we began the serialized audio dramatization of Dinotopia: The World Beneath, but unfortunately the track is no longer available. You can order the full production below.

The scene opens in Waterfall City as Arthur talks to his son Will about test-piloting his newfangled Dragoncopter on its maiden flight.

Producer Tom Lopez and composer Tim Clark pulled out all the stops to immerse us in the acoustic environment, with the roar of the falls, the chugging steam engine, and the crowds on the ground.

We then follow Will into Arthur's laboratory, where they wonder about the mysterious stone that Arthur found on his journey below ground.

The Podcast Series
This acoustic adventure was produced by Tom Lopez, mastermind of the ZBS Foundation, with an original music track by composer Tim Clark.

Episode 2 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 World Beneath podcast right now and hear all fifteen episodes back to back in a feature-length production, check out The World Beneath at ZBS Foundation website for the MP3 download. It's also available as a CD.

The Book
You can also order the original printed book from my web store and I'll sign it for you. (Ships via Media Mail within 24 hours of your order. US orders only for the book, please). The book is also available from Amazon: Dinotopia, The World Beneath: 20th Anniversary Edition (Calla Editions).

The Museum Exhibition
Many of these paintings will be on view at the upcoming Dinotopia exhibition at the Stamford Art Museum and Nature Center, Feb. 14-May 25. I'll be in attendance at events on Feb. 28 and March 1. Read more about the events here on this blog.

Howard Pyle's Palette

Blog reader Walt Morton asks:

"Did Howard Pyle teach or endorse a particular palette of colors? He was so methodical and analytical, I believe he had an ideal palette underlying his methods.
Yet I find no printed evidence."

Offhand I didn't know the answer, so I reached out to my lifelines.

Kev Ferrara says:

"It is my understanding that Pyle's emphasis was always on values, and color was of secondary consideration. [Harvey] Dunn said that Pyle 'preached tonal values 24-7' and had a very negative view of his own abilities with color. In fact Dunn reported that Pyle claimed he didn't really understand color at all. Given the many beautiful pictures in color by Pyle, we may take this anecdote with a grain of salt... something Dunn said which was designed more to drive home to his own students the preeminence of values in picture making.

"Regarding actual palette set up, Harvey Dunn said that Pyle taught his students to 'Keep shadows and light absolutely separate both on palette and on picture.' Dunn elaborated elsewhere: 'Keep light colors and shadow colors separate on palette, shadow colors on left, leaving a division between, and then light colors on the right.'"

Howard Pyle, The Dancer, 1899

Ian Schoenherr, author of the Howard Pyle blog, says:

"I have almost nothing to add to what Kevin said. In my transcribed records, there’s little mention of the specific pigments Pyle used.

"However, in a letter Gertrude Brincklé wrote from Italy on March 12, 1911, she said: 'Mr. Pyle colored a print of Holbein’s ‘Richard Southwell’ for me - not just tinting, [but] modeling with water colors, white, vermillion, cerulean blue, thick colors.'

"And two observers assumed that Pyle added vermillion to his black and whites (starting in the early/mid 1890s). Likewise, an 1897 news item said, 'He even uses color sparingly where that will add to the ‘value’ of his scheme. Black and red is his favorite combination, with the introduction now and then of blue and yellow.'"

"Like Kevin said, there are a few photos of Pyle with palette in hand - and I think only one (from early 1899 - above) shows the paint side - but that doesn’t help much."

Thanks, Kev and Ian. 

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Book: Howard Pyle: American Master Rediscovered