DollsArtCats

I'm excited to announce some upcoming public appearances. They're all gatherings that I would recommend, so come on by, say hello, and get your book signed. *October 29, 2015: University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA.* In connection with the museum exhibition, "The Art of James Gurney," I'll come to Philadelphia for a digital slide lecture, booksigning, and reception. Public Presentation: Thursday, October 29: 1 - 2:30 pm, Levitt Auditorium Reception: Thursday, October 29: 3 - 4 pm, at the Von Hess Gallery, Anderson Hall, 333 S Broad StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19107 K, go see him!

I lifted this off James Gurney's blog (Gurney Journey is on the side links, and there is more information about Sylvia's creation there). I really like her head sculpt and her outfit. As a kid, I would have run down to the dollar toy store and loaded up on dinosaurs to play with her. It would be fun to customize some bjd's to look like Dinotopia characters; they would probably have to be minis unless you wanted to make paper mache scale dinos to go with them. Though that sounds pretty fun too. :D

It's kind of an awesome salamander-thing that lived in Australia millions of years ago, and James Gurney went Down Under to hang out with some Australian artists and paleontologists in order to make a big series of dino stamps . On his blog this week he talks about his visit; it sounds like so much fun! Here are some of the first sketches and the initial color sketch of the Koolasuchus (I assume it's pronounced "cool A sookoos", but I sure could be wrong): It's that last image of the wet, slightly surly Koola flopped down in his pond that I love. It's so expressive. That Koolasuchus is Having A Day.

This beautiful watercolor was painted by an ancestor of James Gurney's, 2nd Lt. Samuel Gurney Cresswell of the HMS Investigator . Real life is way cooler than novels sometimes. Read about the Investigator here: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/05/samuel-gurney-cresswell.html

Aww, that is James Gurney, in a photo lifted from his blog--if you go see it you can look at his little watercolor painting of calla lilies. Normally I think he's an oil painter; but as he had to fly to the Plein Air Painters get-together in Monterey, California, the TSA wouldn't let him take a couple cans of solvents with him. I love his watercolors, and the Sargent quote he notes about painting with them: "Making the best of an emergency", which I why I like watercolors myself and I was thinking of getting back to doing them--they are completely different from painting digitally. Here's Gurney's blog: Enviable Painting Expedition

How to create animated gifs from your drawings: 1. Redraw parts of the pose, such as head turns. 2. In Photoshop, isolate parts of the drawing as independent pieces. 3. Create a Photoshop file with each element on a separate layer. 4. By switching on and off visible layers, create frames of animation. 5. Upload frames into online gif-creator such as "imgflip.com" and adjust settings 6. Upload file to Photobucket, etc. as above. About once a week, Gurney posts a total gem of art info on his blog. The rest of the week he puts up cool paintings. :D Gurney Journey