Gradients Video Released Today

 Today is the release of Gradients: Color, Form, Illusion. Here's a sample YouTube Premiere.

You can download or stream the video at Gumroad. It's also available as a DVD. 

Here's what people are saying:  

“In Gradients: Color, Form and Illusion, Gurney has once again demonstrated his ability to take complex or confusing concepts, reduce them to their essential components and lay out a path to understanding with clarity and ease.”  —Charley Parker, Lines and Colors blog 

“The thing about painting is that everything gradates. Recognizing this, James Gurney devotes an hour to this essential and too often overlooked skill, outlining several approaches to creating seamless transitions in water-based media with some helpful hacks from his illustrator’s bag of tricks. An absolutely great and informative video on a hugely important subject for all painters.” —Edward Minoff, Artist and Professor, Grand Central Academy

“In this video, artist James Gurney takes the mystery out of painting gradients, a necessary skill in the painters and illustrators toolbox. Mr. Gurney simplifies the process of painted color gradients by breaking things down into a series of short studio exercises that you can do at home, using a variety of paint mediums and suggested tools.” —Veronica Lawlor, Artist and Teacher

“Each demo is chock full of tips on how to think about light, color and human perception. This is a must have video for anyone interested in color, form, and the illusion of depth in a painting.” —Todd Casey, Author of The Art of Still Life

“Like a magician stepping through how a magic trick is performed, James steps through his demos of gradients and their practical application in his paintings, unveiling the secrets behind the magic of the effect.” —Chuck Grieb, Illustrator and Professor of Animation, Art School at Cal State Fullerton, 

“This new video from Jim gives an easy-to-watch and very conversational approach with eye-opening ways to approach painting.” —Roger Bansemer, Painting and Travel with Roger and Sarah Bansemer

“James Gurney's video workshop about gradients was the most concise, comprehensive, engaging and informative video I have ever seen about different ways of blending with a variety of techniques and mediums, from watercolor, gouache, casein and acrylic!” —Tiffanie Mang, Artist and designer 

“I never knew gradients could be accomplished simply and never thought that you could use so many methods to accomplish them. I cannot wait to try out these techniques and experiment with my future landscapes! But first, let's paint a checked cylinder.” —Angela Sung, VisDev & Art Direction

“No matter your skill level as a painter, you’ll always learn something new in every James Gurney video. “Gradients” does not disappoint. Gurney follows each up-close studio study with a more complex on-location sketch that illustrates how he puts each gradient into practice. And as always, every tidbit of information is delivered with intelligence, warmth, and a sprinkling of humour.” —Shari Blaukopf

“As James Gurney says in his new video Gradients: Color, Form, Illusion, "flat is easy to paint, but gradients are everywhere. As artists we need every way we can to create them.” And the best way to learn all about those options is through this excellent video. —Darren R. Rousar, Sightsize.com

“James Gurney is a one-person art school. I can honestly say that I learned more from Gurney than I did in art school. His practical tips and tricks about methods and materials, and about color and light, are perfect nuggets of wisdom. The wealth of information he provides has helped me immensely over the years in my art practice and in my teaching. With this new video Gurney provides useful real-world information to help anyone improve their artistic skills and their powers of observation.” —Patrick O’Brien, Professor of Art, MICA

“Jim talks you through the wisdom of gradations, shows you everything he talks about, offers generous demos, and creates a pleasant meditation on how light and color change through a painting. You’ll enjoy it!” — Marshall Vandruff

Brothers Klimt

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), known for his semi-abstract paintings, began in a realist mode, painting theatrical curtains and murals. 

He formed a company with his younger brother Ernst, who worked diligently on this complex painting of street theater. 

Hanswurst on the fair stage by Ernst and Gustav Klimt,
1884-92, 450 x 100 cm Burgtheater, Vienna

It features a stock comic character called Hanswurst on the stage pointing to his forehead as the crowd looks on.

Ernst and Gustav Klimt, 1884-92.

Ernst died in 1892 of an inflammation of the pericardium, leaving the painting unfinished, so Gustav finished it, adding a few more figures. 

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Book: Gustav Klimt. The Complete Paintings

Brushed Gradient in a Dinotopia Painting

The sky in this Dinotopia painting has a brushed gradient shifting from cool colors at the top to warm colors at the bottom. The brightness of light on the dinosaur also diminishes toward the base.

Edward Minoff, Artist and Professor at Grand Central Academy, says: “The thing about painting is that everything gradates. Recognizing this, James Gurney devotes an hour to this essential and too often overlooked skill, outlining several approaches to creating seamless transitions in water-based media with some helpful hacks from his illustrator’s bag of tricks. As always, he develops from simple studio exercises into complex field studies, answering questions along the way which give his video the feel of attending a workshop. The video has something for all levels from novice to expert. A brief art history tour though light as a compositional device in landscape paintings is so insightful that I actually whispered “wow, this is amazing” to myself while watching. An absolutely great and informative video on a hugely important subject for all painters.
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My upcoming video tutorial "GRADIENTS," comes out on Gumroad this Friday, and there will be a free YouTube preview on Friday at 11am Pacific Time.

Layers in an animation background painting

There's a big gradient in the sky and small gradients in the far ruins, all accomplished with an airbrush. 

Those color changes are barely visible behind the upper layers of this traditional animation background painting. 

Top layers include tissue paper (or frosted acetate), characters on acetate cels, and a foreground wall with hanging branches and flowers.

Gradients are a key ingredient in any painting, adding dimension, depth and atmosphere. I'll share recipes and strategies in my upcoming video GRADIENTS, which materializes on Friday, 10 September. 

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Shari Blaukopf continues: "'Gradients' does not disappoint. Gurney follows each up-close studio study with a more complex on-location sketch that illustrates how he puts each gradient into practice. And as always, every tidbit of information is delivered with intelligence, warmth, and a sprinkling of humour.”

Angela Sung says: "I never knew gradients could be accomplished simply and never thought that you could use so many methods to accomplish them! My favorite method is definitely the 'in-brush gradient.' I cannot wait to try out these techniques and experiment with my future landscapes! But first, let's paint a checked cylinder."

Are there "right-brained" and "left-brained" artists?

Many artists are familiar with the method of drawing instruction based on the lateralization of the brain into right and left hemispheres. The method was inspired by scientific studies from the 1970s which proposed that the right and left sides of the brain employ different styles of information processing. The left side (which controls the right side of the body) tends to specialize in language, certainty, categorization and fragmentary parts, while the right hemisphere tends to regard the world in a more holistic and metaphorical manner.

Researchers have learned a lot since then, and neuroimaging studies have demonstrated more clearly what parts of the brain are activated with certain tasks. While there is some truth to the claims of lateralized functions, and while the method can be useful for many beginning artists, some of the more extreme claims aren’t supported by evidence.

For example, some argue that certain individuals are “right-brained” and others are “left-brained,” or that one hemisphere exclusively handles a given task. 

Neuroimaging studies show that in a normal brain, the two hemispheres are deeply interconnected, and they work together to solve most drawing or painting tasks, whether it’s analyzing shapes, measuring proportions, or representing contours.

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This is a sample excerpt from my new article in International Artist Magazine called "What Brain Science Teaches Us About Painting, Part 2"

You can learn more about the recent science of lateralization in the book by Ian McGilchrist called The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

Online: The myth of right-brained and left-brained people

The Fun Starts Friday Sept. 10

The fun begins on Friday 10 September at 11am PT / 2pm ET with a free YouTube premiere about lighting in landscape, and the release of my next Gumroad tutorial on GRADIENTS. 

Get your questions ready for the chat.

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Painting Secrets from Fitz and Van

Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman, also known as Fitz and Van, were a team of advertising illustrators whose paintings of new car models were so successful that their car ads changed the fortunes of major car companies in the 1950s and '60s. 

When Fitz started as a car illustrator, the standard illustration produced by his competitors showed the car against a white background. 

But over the years the mood and setting became extremely important to create the aspirational mood for the upwardly mobile middle class of the postwar era.

Fitz painted the cars and Van painted the backgrounds. The settings evoked an upscale lifestyle of travel and leisure. At one point one of the agency art directors suggested painting the car in a suburban driveway with laundry on the line. Fitz knew that what interested potential customers was a ticket to the "good life," with romantic possibilities, affluent leisure, and no kids.

They demanded and received huge sums for their work. In the late '50s they received from Pontiac about $5,000, at a time when the average annual U.S. household income was about $5,500.  

They were rare among advertising illustrators in that they were allowed to sign their work with the initials "AF VK." They also had complete creative control over the car colors and elements of the scene. Fitz had direct contact with the senior management of the car companies, which allowed him to go circumvent the usual approval chain of the ad agencies. 

Fitz and Van lived about 40 minutes away from each other in Connecticut. On a typical job, they hired messengers bring the painting back and forth from studio to studio. Van painted the background on illustration board, while the car was painted on a photostat of the comprehensive drawing and rubber cemented onto it so that you could hardly see the join. The interactive reflections came last. 

Most of the smooth transitions in the car were were achieved with a brush in gouache. The rare instances when they used an airbrush included the edge of a windshield or a highlight on a chrome bumper. They called those highlights "skinkles," but they tried not to use too many of them. "Skinkles don't make a car look shiny," Fitz said. "Reflections do." 

Fitz would start with photos of the car which were taken in Detroit from prototypes on giant turntables so that they wouldn't have to move the camera. The design of the new car models was so secret that the car makers had their own photographers and labs to take the pictures. 

To achieve the car's wide, low stance, they stretched the actual car's dimensions. Fitz sliced the photos into vertical sections and spread out the slices horizontally. They also moved the wheels outward in the wheel wells and lowered the ground clearance of the car, which placed the wheels higher in the wheel wells.

They preferred to show the car in a stationary position rather than on the road moving. They made an exception to show the car driving with a "strobing" background, suggesting a photographic effect at night. The agency loved the look and wanted more, but Fitz and Van decided to go back to their proven idea of the casually idled car in the upscale setting. One cardinal rule was never to have anyone looking at or admiring the car. 

The settings were based on a huge collection of slides they compiled from their travels. Since the car never actually appeared in the setting, Fitz had to invent how the reflections would look on the mirror-like hood of the car. A given background sets up opportunities for the reflections, not only on the hood of the car, but also on the down-facing planes of the chrome bumper, which picks up the color of the ground.

It was always a challenge to achieve the maximum glossiness of the paint job. Getting a white car to look shiny was the hardest challenge because you're already starting at white. They found it worked best to park the car in shadow, and that's what they did for the 1968 Bonneville. To make sure it was clear that the car's surface color appeared white, they had just a couple spots of dappled light on the front.

These observations come from the new book by Rob Keil called Art Fitzpatrick & Van Kaufman: Masters of the Art of Automobile Advertising. Keil assembled the book over more than a decade of exhaustive research, which included meeting and talking with the the artists and their descendants. The book is full of technical insights and biographical details and gorgeous reproductions, mostly taken from the rare original paintings that have survived. 

Art Fitzpatrick & Van Kaufman: Masters of the Art of Automobile Advertising, by author Rob Keil.

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GRADIENTS launches in one week

A week from today I'll be premiering the first of three free 15 minute YouTube videos and releasing my next Gumroad feature “GRADIENTS: Color, Form, Illusion.”

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Mark your calendar the premieres and have your questions ready for the chats.

"How to Light a Landscape" premieres on YouTube Friday September 10 at 11am Pacific time / 2:00pm Eastern / 11:30pm Mumbai time. 

"Painting an Alleyway in Gouache" will be Saturday 11am Pacific time / 2:00 Eastern time 

"How to Paint an Optical Illusion" will be Sunday 11am Pacific time) 2:00 Eastern time 

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LightboxExpo.com is an online convention that will be a hub for lots of artist presentations and virtual gatherings. If you sign up (it's cheap to join) you get access to a bunch of great artists and presentations.

Thomas Kelly in Action

Thomas Kelly is a Professor of Music at Harvard University. I sketched him while he gave a lecture, and I tried to freeze in my mind some of his characteristic expressions.

Should You Interrupt Long Straight Lines?

In his 1916 book Cartoons and Caricatures, Zim advises: “Avoid long straight or curved lines without some object breaking into them. They are inartistic and disturbing to the eye."

"Draw in your background as though you were arranging a stage setting, putting the various pieces of furniture in such positions as to break up the monotony of blank space and long lines. Frequently a good play falls flat owing to poor arrangement of objects on the stage.”

Read more:

From Cartoons and Caricatures or Making the World Laugh, by Zim, 1916, page 29.

Book in Print: The Lost Art of Zim: Cartoons and Caricatures