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Imaginative Realism: How To Paint What Doesn't Exist (2009)

by James Gurney(Favorite Author)

4.04 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0740785508 (ISBN13: 9780740785504)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Andrews McMeel Publishing

review 1: Really great book. It covered some broadly applicable principles, debunked some myths regarding composition with recent research, showed lots of process things, showed tools for solving problems like maquettes, lighting and plan sketches, thumbnails, and lots of dinosaurs. Admittedly, some parts got rather dry and boring. But overall, I'd say this is one book that should be in every artist's library— regardless of their style and purpose.This book alone won't make you a great artist from scratch, but if you're already a painter or artist anyway, and already drilling basic shapes and figure drawing and gestures, I imagine this will help sharpen and contextualize your ideas and process.It's a point of contention to recommend a full transfer to realism/naturalism (which Gur... moreney does) as opposed to the contemporary recommendation of "finding your voice" in a unique style. I think the real challenge is to go for both— and I've seen very good artists go for both. I say not finding a good balance between these two things will leave you with less artistic growth than
review 2: Anyone who is seriously interested in art needs to have this as part of their studio reference book collection. James Gurney (creator of Dinotopia) puts "imaginative visual art" into perspective and practice. Many artists get caught up in trying to create worlds of their own without wanting to draw from life; Gurney explains that this is 100% necessary if you want to create your own worlds. You must create color studies of landscapes (from life), you must draw figures (from life), you must ask people to dress up in period costume or pose (from life). It's extremely important for artists to put this into practice... especially those wanting to create a world that doesn't exist. One can not simply draw from their imagination, otherwise how will you convince the viewer that what you are looking at could possibly be real? Gurney truly is a master of "Imaginative Realism". less

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