Rico Lebrun teaching animal drawing

Rico Lebrun (1900-1964) was an Italian-born painter / sculptor who made important contributions in teaching animal drawing. 

He studied mural painting in Naples and Florence before coming to America. He taught at Chouinard Art Institute and then at the Disney Studios. 

Joining another great teacher, Don Graham, he helped animators understand animal anatomy as they worked on the film "Bambi."

To help Disney's artists, Lebrun created model sheets simplifying the skeleton to a mannikin. He put the mannikins through their paces, emphasizing the flexibility of their spines and the line of action of the poses.

Lebrun was concerned that the animators ground their work in reality. He said, "You really have to go to nature. The little fawn is a pretty big handful in the sense of grace. It's all there. . .the real thing has got it. What you have to do is make a poetical translation of it."
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Previously: How to Train an Animator/ A Memo from Walt Disney
Two good books: Walt Disney's Bambi: The Story and the Film
and The art of Walt Disney
Rico Lebrun Model Sheets at Michael Sporn Animation blog
Bio at Rico Lebrun website
Oddly enough, Lebrun's Wikipedia page makes no mention of his time at Disney

Appearance Transfer

Computer networks are able to generate photographically realistic images from a simple written description. They can recognize and distinguish the various elements in a photo. And they can alter the weather or the time of day in a video clip.

In this post, we'll see how they can start with a simple outline drawing and complete it to match the appearance of another object. So, for example, a line drawing of a purse can be rendered to match the color scheme of a shoe.

The input is a simple outline drawing of a handbag (top row). The network fills them in using the colors from a photo of a shoe (left-most image).

Even more remarkably, the system can start with the basic input of a mannikin pose (top row in array below), and then transfer to that pose the appearance of a photo of a model in a completely different pose (left column).

The system will generate a plausibly photographic image of that model in the desired pose.

This video by Two Minute Papers summarizes the research (Link to YouTube)


For those of you who are interested in how these computer innovations will affect creative jobs, check out this talk by Andrew Price of Blender, who sounds an optimistic note. (Link to YouTube)
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Scientific paper: A VARIATIONAL U-NET FOR CONDITIONAL APPEARANCE AND SHAPE GENERATION
Previously: Text to Image Synthesis
Image Translation
Semantic Image Mapping

International Artist Issue #124

The next issue of International Artist Magazine has an article I wrote on my recent painting trip to Maine and a cover feature on Morgan Weistling. (Video on Facebook)

The article on Weistling focuses on his new book: "A Brush With History: The Paintings of Morgan Weistling," a large format collection of his artwork that evokes a nostalgic view of bygone times.

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International Artist Magazine
Today at midnight is the deadline for the "Paint a Cell Tower Challenge." Check it out and preview the entries so far.

Toulouse Minotaur

The street theater company La Machine has introduced a giant spider and a minotaur in Toulouse, France. (Link to YouTube video)

According to the New York Times:

"The goal of the project is to make the 'city and its residents all part of a vast work of art by giving them a common topic to react to so that they would 'talk to each other' and 'the whole city becomes a place of theater.' The Toulouse Minotaur, who has been named Astérion, arrived on the evening of Nov. 1 and slowly made its way down the streets as people stood and gawked. It was transported to the vast square in front of the majestic building that houses the city administration."

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Previously:
The Deep Sea Diver
The Sultan's Elephant

Give a Dog a Bone

I want to paint a portrait of Smooth, the husky mix. I give him a bone, and maybe he'll stay in one place.

Well, he doesn't hold still, but the bone occupies his attention.


Here's a video showing the process. Video link to YT
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Tutorial video downloads: Painting Animals from Life  and Casein in the Wild 
How to Make a Sketch Easel (DVD) Pentalic 5 x 8 inch Aqua Journal
Casein Explorer's Set (12 colors)
Casein 6-pack with brushes

The Forest Floor is 'Breathing'

In this brief clip, the forest floor appears to be "breathing." The lateral movement of the treetops in a windstorm lifts the interconnected network of roots upward in saturated soils, causing the ground to heave up and down.  (Link to YouTube)

View from Shamrock Tacos

The best tacos in Texas are at Shamrock Tacos, tucked away in the gas station in Wimberley.

From the picnic table outside, I'm looking at Hill Country Tire and Automotive. I love the bright Texas sun, and the details of the white car and the truck parked across the empty parking lot.

I lay a light warm color across the scene and refine the areas, going from transparent to opaque and from large areas to small details. (Link to video).
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Deadline is November 7 for the Paint a Cell Tower Challenge. Check it out on Facebook.
I'm using M. Graham gouache in a Pentalic Aqua Journal.
Facebook group: Sketch Easel Builders, free to join.
Follow me on Instagram @jamesgurneyart

Chicago Art Institute Releases High-Res Image Files

The Chicago Art Institute is releasing high-res scans of many of its art files that are in the public domain.

Two Cows and a Young Bull beside a Fence in a Meadow,1647
Artist: Paulus Potter, Dutch, 1625-1654, Chicago Art Institute

The collection includes famous works by John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, Katsushika Hokusai, and Thomas Moran.

The Museum says:

"We’ve released thousands of images in the public domain on the new website in an open-access format (52,438 to be exact, and growing regularly). Made available under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, these images can be downloaded for free on the artwork pages."

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Chicago Art Institute Paulus Potter
My Modern Met: Art Institute of Chicago Free Resources
Chicago Art Institute: Behind the Scenes of the Website Redesign

Roadhouse Relics

While in Austin Texas, I look across the street to Roadhouse Relics, where Todd Sanders makes neon signs in the classic style of roadside America.

Note: 1) Giant chicken with hat, 2) BETO sign reflected, and 3) Neon 'Texas.'



I'm using M. Graham gouache in a Pentalic Aqua Journal. I place some big areas of tone over the whole thing, using big flat brushes, and I dry-brush the foliage textures. (link to video on Facebook)
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Roadhouse Relics website
Sketch Easel Builders

Snow White Adopted

Good news! Snow White, the dog I sketched and shared about on social media, was adopted, after spending over two years in the animal shelter. Thanks to the family that invited her into their home. (Link to video)
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Previously: Donald Colley's Dog Sketches