Artist, James Gurney, just released his new instructional DVD today called ‘How I Paint Dinosaurs’. It became available this morning at 4am EST, and I admit, I actually stayed up all night just to download and watch it.
The video is available in two formats, as a download, and as an actual DVD. The download costs a bit less, but the DVD comes with a few extras. Being impatient, I went for the download.
The video is just under an hour, which may seem short for an instructional video, but I assure you, James crams a whole lot of info into that one hour! Further more, he does so in a way that does not seem even the slightest bit rushed. In retrospect I think it was actually really wise to make the video so short, as I was inclined to watch it immediately. There are other DVDs I’ve owned for years that I still haven’t watched simply because I don’t have the 3 hours needed to do so.
Even though it’s called ‘How I Paint Dinosaurs’, it’s should really be called ‘How I Paint Stuff’, as all the techniques are applicable to any form of fantasy art. In the video, James uses not one, but two paintings, to facilitate the discussion of:
-Concepting
-Maquette Building
-Lighting
-Sketching
-Surface preparation
-Color Theory/Mixing
-Painting Technique
The video jumps between time-lapsed and real-time painting smoothly. Admittedly, I always prefer real-time video, as I could sit and watch James paint slowly all day long. But that’s just not practical, and the time-lapse was done appropriately, never leaving me to feel like I missed something.
Some of my favorite parts were watching James thumbnail some concepts, as well as watching him freehand his drawing directly onto his painting surface. He does a great job of demystifying the working process, but when you watch him draw this stuff so effortlessly, you can’t help but feel like you yourself have got a long ways to go!
In general, this DVD is a wonderful overview of James’ working process. It is not the kind of DVD that’s going to answer questions like, ‘How come my colors always get muddy? How come my faces don’t look real?” What it is going to do, is show you a solid working method (from pencil to paint) that will help facilitate the creation of your own informed, believable paintings.
The DVD is $32 plus shipping. The download is just $15, and worth twice that in my opinion.
You can order the DVD HERE, or download it right now HERE.
And of course, more info can be found on James’ stellar blog HERE.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQxwmGt1OkA]
Looks fantastic and a wonderful price too! Thanks for sharing!
James Gurney rocks! Learned about him in my perspective class back in 2010.
Living in the early-bird part of the Earth, I start my on-line morning by reading Gurney's blog prior to Muddy Colors blog, so I already bought the digital download before reading this post and commenting here. And I can confirm that this one hour is one helluva educational hour you'll ever get for your money.
Also, James filmed and produced the whole thing himself, so, if you go for digital purchase – I really urge you people to use the option to go over the initial price: for the appreciation of the efforts put into it, if not just for the informational value of the video!
JAMES! Cut it out!!! This is TOO DANG COOL!
I love it! Can't wait to buy it and watch! Now I'll know all your secrets and steal them away to make my own pictures! Bwuahahahahaha!
Oh, wait….that's the point. Never mind.
: ) Greg
Thanks, Dan—and Pavel, Allison, Thinh, and Greg. That's so nice of you to lose sleep to watch my video. I should have made it more boring so that it put you to sleep instead. You must have been a zombie the next day. At my age, losing sleep is dangerous to people around me.
I read the blog post above, watched the trailer, immediately hit 'buy now' and the MP4 is downloading as I speak! I can't wait to watch this, I have both 'Colour & light' and 'Imaginative Realism' and am in such awe of Mr. Gurney's work. Can't wait to start learning from this amazing gift! Thanks, James.
I was so excited to see this offering, James! I can't wait to pick this up for myself and apply the lessons, therein. If it's anything like your amazing books, I'm sure I'm in for a treat! I learned so much from the written word and can't wait to see it all in live action.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!
Just bought it! Can't wait to watch it. If it's anything like Color and Light, it's sure to be amazing. I've never had much formal training, so much of what I've learned about painting in general has come from James Gurney.
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One of my all time special quotes appears very fitting here “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.”–Jim Rohn