James Gurney's art book: Imaginative Realism

I was fortunate to meet artist James Gurney at Babytattooville last month. He's the creator of the gorgeous Dinotopia series of books, and is a very friendly guy. His work reminds me of old masters of book illustration like N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle.

James has a new book out called Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist, in which he describes his creative process. It's a rare treat to learn how a talented artist creates his art. James has also made a couple of fun YouTube videos to promote the book: Gallery Flambeau Video and Unicycle Painter.

Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Robert

That’s Alan Dean Foster’s Glory Lane up there.
Anonymous

I am the proud owner of one of James Gurney’s Hand-signed, and documented prints from his Dinotopia series. I love his work…
Stefan Jones

I remember when Gurney and his crew would visit SF conventions to show off this neat new thing they were working on. It took years of hard work to get the Dinotopia franchise off the ground. It is cool to see his stuff become successful.
Anonymous

I strongly suggest you should invite James Gurney to be guestblogger sometime. He’s a really nice person and has a lot to say… just drop by his blog someday and you’ll see.
twobeeshawn

Thanks for posting this! Spent four hours yesterday in bed with a sick kiddo and we read Dinotopia almost to the end. As always, I’m transported by the lovely paintings- my son really did ask how the pictures could look so life like… know exactly what he’ll be getting for Christmas.