Four Professions Portrayed

Portraits of the professions of florist, writer, musician, and barber, where the faces are composed of the tools of their trades. 

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In the style of Arcimboldo (Wikipedia link)

Book on Arcimboldo: 1526-1593
See also Nicolas de Larmessin's Grotesques of the Professions
Via Public Domain Review

Chicks, Hens, and Eggs

For this sketching adventure, we start out in the barn, where the young chicks are in the incubator box.

A year later those same chicks have grown up into laying hens.

(Link to Video on YouTube)

The pen I'm using for the written notes is a Noodler's Ahab fountain pen with Higgins sepia ink. The Ahab is an excellent low-cost refillable fountain with a flexible nib. 

This is just one page from my new Living Sketchbook app, "Metro North" Pick up for yourself. Three versions to suit your device:

• App for Apple iOS phones and tablets from the App Store
• App for Android devices from Google Play
• For laptop and desktop computers, or people with old phones or tablets, a "PDF+ Edition".

Controlling White Values in a Still Life

Many subjects have a range of whites, none of them pure white.

In this diner still life, there's the white paper placemat in shadow, the placemat in light, and the white "PEPSI" lettering painted on the near side of the glass.

And then there are white highlights. The highlights are lighter than the values of the placemat, but even still they aren't pure white.

Highlights are specular reflections of the various light sources. As a consequence, they take on the relative color of the source: cool for the highlights of the window light, and warm for the highlights of the artificial indoor light. That's why I mixed a little yellow into and a little blue into my lightest specular highlights.

Controlling the white values in a painting means keeping even your brightest highlights a little down from pure white, and always comparing one white against another. Mixing accurate values is one of the features in which gouache excels.

This is just one page from my new Living Sketchbook app, "Metro North" Pick up for yourself. Three versions to suit your device:

• App for Apple iOS phones and tablets from the App Store
• App for Android devices from Google Play
• For laptop and desktop computers, or people with old phones or tablets, a "PDF+ Edition".

(Link to video on Facebook)

Metro North App is Here

(Link to trailer on YouTube)

The Living Sketchbook, Volume 2: Metro North app is now available. It's a complete immersion into my recent sketchbook, with high-res scalable images of every page, plus audio commentary and behind-the-scenes videos, all for just $4.99.

Here's what customers are saying already:

"So much eye candy and information for the price of a fancy coffee!"

—Carole

"Boom. That was easy. Spent more than that on a beer yesterday!"

—Rock P.

Pick up a copy of Metro North for yourself. Three versions to suit your device:

• App for Apple iOS phones and tablets from the App Store
• App for Android devices from Google Play
• For laptop and desktop computers, or people with old phones or tablets, a "PDF+ Edition" including all the art plus all the audio and video in HD.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Here's a gouache sketch of some bunnies at the farm. 

I used a special gouache technique for this one, painting into a wet, dark under-layer, which makes soft edges much easier. The bunny sketch is just one page of the Metro North app, which releases for iOS and Android phones and tablets tomorrow. 

It will include high-res images that you can explore in immense detail, plus custom audio and video elements, immersing you in the adventure of creating each painting.

The first volume of the "Living Sketchbook" series became the top selling new app in Android's Art and Design category, and it's a must for any art lover, painting student, or sketching fan.

Shari Blaukopf of Urban Sketchers says: "There is a lesson to be learned with every sketch in James Gurney's The Living Sketchbook — whether it's about light, colour, materials or composition. Spending time with each sketch and being able to zoom in on them with your tablet allows you to really think about how they were created. And videos that accompany many of the sketches enrich the experience because you see the sketch develop from large colour blocks down to final details. And of course hearing James narrate his thought process — whether it be about his limited palette choices or the characters he meets while sketching — is what makes it come alive for me. It's done with warmth, humour, honesty and a vast wealth of knowledge."

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Check out Volume 1—Living Sketchbook: Boyhood Home
For Apple phones and tablets at the App Store

For Android devices at Google Play

Car Noir

I'm standing in the bright spring sunshine, painting a moody night scene.



That's because I try to paint both what's in front of my eyes as well as what's behind them.

To me, there's something epic and mysterious about a white Lincoln Town car—especially one parked near a trash can and a basement entrance. I want to make it look like it's lit by a streetlight.

Here's the easel view as I'm starting out. Clockwise from upper left: Pocket travel brush set, watercolor journal with a casein "sunburst priming" and russet watercolor pencil layin, casein paint: white, yellow ochre, raw umber, black, and ultramarine blue.


Here's a 1-minute video that takes you behind the scenes: Link to video on Facebook.
Total painting time: 1 hour.
Info on Casein Painting in the Wild
Get the same paint kit I'm using: Jack Richeson Gurney's Casein 6 Pack with Brush Set
Music by Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech

Sketching in Low Light Conditions

Sketching with an LED hat

Madill Studio asks:
"Hi, James: Speaking of low-light conditions, do you have any observational tips on how to check values in such conditions (think low-lit cafe or similar). Also curious if I get a battery operated lamp for night sketching, what would be a good lumens range?"

You're right. When you're sketching in ultra low light conditions without a light of your own, it's hard to judge values accurately. It's even harder to evaluate subtle color variations.

It's also very challenging if the relative level of illumination varies a lot between the subject and your work. This is a common problem when sketching in a theatrical performance. Your eyes take a while to adjust from the bright stage to the dark sketchbook.

Lecturer sketched in dim light
with a brush pen.

If you're in a place where you can't use a light, here are some tips:
1. Shift to monochromatic colors. You can use black and white or two colors you're familiar with.
2. You can do a "notan" sketch and avoid halftones altogether, using a brush pen.

There are adjustable book lights such as the Lemonbest booklight (200 lm or 450 lumens). Book lights clip to your work and they stay stable.

For a brighter light, there's the Zebralight headlamp, which is good if you need more light outdoors.

I did these shapewelding sketches in a dark concert setting. Light shapes go to white and are grouped with other light shapes. Dark shapes weld together.

I painted these oil sketches after the sun had just set. There was still enough ambient light to see the colors on the palette and the painting.

LED hats illuminate your field of view, but they might be distracting to other people in indoor conditions. You can also get a Light unit with 5 LEDs that clips to the brim of your hat, in case you like to change hats.

David Farquharson

David Farquharson (1839-1907), The End of the Day's Fishing, 56 x 91.5 cm

This oil landscape by David Farquharson (Scottish/English, 1839-1907) has a marvelous sense of scale and depth. 

A few observations:

1. Note the tiny fishermen figures on the right side of the picture.

2. Also, the tiny slivers of light reflecting off the water in the middle ground.

3. The foreground is illuminated and the middle ground is shadowed, the reverse of many grand landscape painters.

4. The corners of the composition are "dodged" or "blocked"—that is, darkened to keep the attention in the middle of the picture.

5. Well orchestrated atmospheric perspective. The dark colors in the extreme distance are lightened and cooled.

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More about atmospheric perspective in Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter

David Farquharson on Wikipedia

SciFi Exhib Opens Soon in London

Dinosaur Parade, Waterfall City and four other Dinotopia paintings just headed off today on a journey that will take them to London, Athens, Denmark, and beyond.

They'll be on a multi-year tour, part of an exhibition called "Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction." 

The multimedia show will include original art and sculpts by people like Ray Harryhausen, HR Giger, Syd Mead, and Moebius, alongside film clips, books, props and other pop culture items. 

Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction will be at at the Barbican Centre in London from June 3 through 1 September, 2017.

Fluid and Particle Showreel

I love the mesmerizing complexity and interactivity of this CGI fluid and particle showreel from Digital District. (Link to YouTube)