Ever Dream Land

<div style="color: #783f04; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="yiv2146533235apple-style-span">When the <a href="http://www.norton.org/Exhibitions/Archive/Dinotopia/tabid/436/Default.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1306523950_3">Norton Museum of Art had its Dinotopia exhibition</span></a> last year, students involved with the Museum’s PACE program </span>(Progressive Afterschool Arts Community Education)<span class="yiv2146533235apple-style-span"> at local community sites worked together to create their own utopias. These expressions of collective dreaming were exhibited in the museum near my own paintings and models.</span></span></div><div style="color: #783f04; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #783f04; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4hQafCakCMI76nV8AqrXh3kSWGFYYj9xBGUJ82u4WK8cT_40LAe4LxUdzHHn_YRCMGFfS0sPnbQwXRBgLMwJA1eNoBV8K2qulvuibIliUleR8gLncoekw04xpPKWJUlkrzn3qJh08PY/s1600/Gurney_Ever_Dream_Land.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4hQafCakCMI76nV8AqrXh3kSWGFYYj9xBGUJ82u4WK8cT_40LAe4LxUdzHHn_YRCMGFfS0sPnbQwXRBgLMwJA1eNoBV8K2qulvuibIliUleR8gLncoekw04xpPKWJUlkrzn3qJh08PY/s320/Gurney_Ever_Dream_Land.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><div style="color: #783f04; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="color: #783f04; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">The students of My Choice Community Development, a center in <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1306523950_4">Riviera Beach</span>, created a land inhabited by a marvelous menagerie of animals and plants, which they shaped out of clay. Students at <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1306523950_5" style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;">Gaines Park</span>, a <a href="http://www.cityofwpb.com/park/">West Palm Beach Parks and Recreation </a>site, created an island called “Ever Dream Land.” The name was a reaction to the limits implied by the name “<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1306523950_6">Never Never Land</span>” of Peter Pan.</span><span style="font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Ever Dream Land is inhabited by a marvelous menagerie of humans, animals and plants, which they shaped out of clay. </span></div><div style="font: 12px Arial; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 12px Arial; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4C-LazZMOviT5SPiaukyzFAbEr3YaR0YYi-wJK3i0rEoiJl7DYUCw5UEJZtWTFbd7I8NY3SNknBaD0-f_8ZBRkXJJHMXCSYyjEfqyLdca-BDG8VkjYQvEWlyZlLVhuxB3a6YqAsDufZw/s1600/EverDreamLand.sm.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4C-LazZMOviT5SPiaukyzFAbEr3YaR0YYi-wJK3i0rEoiJl7DYUCw5UEJZtWTFbd7I8NY3SNknBaD0-f_8ZBRkXJJHMXCSYyjEfqyLdca-BDG8VkjYQvEWlyZlLVhuxB3a6YqAsDufZw/s400/EverDreamLand.sm.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="400" /></a></span></div><div style="font: 12px Arial; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 12px Arial; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">They drew a map and invented up their own set of alphabetic symbols. They pictured themselves floating up on balloons over ice cream mountains and candy rivers, with soft round homes made of discarded packing foam.</span></div><div style="font: 12px Arial; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12px Arial; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.norton.org/Exhibitions/Archive/Dinotopia/tabid/436/Default.aspx">The Norton Museum of Art's 2010 Dinotopia Exhibition</a></span></div><div style="font: 12px Arial; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>

Ever Dream Land

When the Norton Museum of Art had its Dinotopia exhibition last year, students involved with the Museum’s PACE program (Progressive Aftersc...

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Automated Selectivity

One of the reasons we like to look at paintings is that reality is filtered through someone's brain. Painters select the important elements out of the infinite detail that meets our eyes. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOdoercYMaTo8RLxPwLdPSoU6mvfXeE_EH_ht1AXHtq9CEGl-_32YQBFmjWtsS_GSY69yZvjwWCicghMIxxQBxSfFPrLi1vxWWyTxaDFL-TjC3ZfUL4pcwkW4IZGbttzclzhYPeoChSsA/s1600/Parker_Night_Call.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOdoercYMaTo8RLxPwLdPSoU6mvfXeE_EH_ht1AXHtq9CEGl-_32YQBFmjWtsS_GSY69yZvjwWCicghMIxxQBxSfFPrLi1vxWWyTxaDFL-TjC3ZfUL4pcwkW4IZGbttzclzhYPeoChSsA/s320/Parker_Night_Call.jpg" width="242" /></a><br />Here, Al Parker chooses to show us detail in the hands and face. He sinks everything else into a flat tone. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis3uAo7TwytyhAkNNhBLQuc18KPN-10yf-iDZOORrL2d8xErTk4ALX1chE88nqhvRiki8KDvM9plu0ReqAjVvrnszglc2GtKlrMv3-zw1ytR6Vjv5q8nRkyWVAUDmyU-sp0DG94iE0HJU/s1600/Sargent.Street_in_Venice.sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis3uAo7TwytyhAkNNhBLQuc18KPN-10yf-iDZOORrL2d8xErTk4ALX1chE88nqhvRiki8KDvM9plu0ReqAjVvrnszglc2GtKlrMv3-zw1ytR6Vjv5q8nRkyWVAUDmyU-sp0DG94iE0HJU/s400/Sargent.Street_in_Venice.sm.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />John Singer Sargent could have detailed every paving stone and roof tile in this Venice street scene. Instead he softened and simplified the background areas and put the focus on the faces. <br /><br />This selectivity isn’t arbitrary. The detailed areas correspond with the parts of the picture that we want to look at anyway.  As we’ve seen in previous posts, eye tracking studies have demonstrated the cognitive basis of selective attention. Viewers’ eyes consistently go to areas of a picture with the greatest psychological salience: things like faces, hands, and signs. We’re hard-wired for it.<br /><br />What happens if you combine eye tracking data with computer graphics algorithms to automate the process of selective omission? Would the result look “expressive” or “artistic?” <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGpLB4CGsAg5xPqeYjy_bv6Az_D288RCk6rTA0vPToVkCca8AcDVy9ms1zYYeohtvLciT2-wG6xVUTyBKScMZ4fO1h_hArEA3MmmqC_7HO_rucDXsvfl4IVM5H_KgjWY1W9x__renbNug/s1600/Painterly_Abstraction.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGpLB4CGsAg5xPqeYjy_bv6Az_D288RCk6rTA0vPToVkCca8AcDVy9ms1zYYeohtvLciT2-wG6xVUTyBKScMZ4fO1h_hArEA3MmmqC_7HO_rucDXsvfl4IVM5H_KgjWY1W9x__renbNug/s320/Painterly_Abstraction.jpg" width="265" /></a><br />(Click to enlarge) In his doctoral thesis for Rutgers University, Anthony Santella did just that. The photographs on the left include a set of overlapping circles showing where most people spent their time looking in each image. The larger the circle, the longer the concentration on those areas.<br /><br />Santella combined that data with a rendering algorithm which simplified other areas of the image. In the top image, note the flattening of the far figures and the arches above them. In the bottom image of the woman, note how the wrinkles in the drapes and the textures in the sweater are rendered with flat tones. But her eyes, nose and mouth are still detailed. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaP_blwOtVG7eMWcJq6_Zi13jzr7DE0iNo5XpwNMW21o0AKn3slIZqyr_6zNDCeWtp3Dm6piQwM4Ta1VT4ZMyKa7TAdgA8Ci1QbqL8MZxxhDtKaWAMURo7RD2LlIiMlcWC2fOj1BWns8g/s1600/Guitarist_Street.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaP_blwOtVG7eMWcJq6_Zi13jzr7DE0iNo5XpwNMW21o0AKn3slIZqyr_6zNDCeWtp3Dm6piQwM4Ta1VT4ZMyKa7TAdgA8Ci1QbqL8MZxxhDtKaWAMURo7RD2LlIiMlcWC2fOj1BWns8g/s400/Guitarist_Street.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />The rendering algorithms can be designed to interpret the source photo in terms of line and color. Or the shapes can modulated in size according to the interest factor. Note how the outlying areas of each rendering is simplified.<br /><br />Whichever rendering style one desires, the output image has a sense of psychological relevance, more so than <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2010/01/automated-painting.html">rendering algorithms based merely on abstract principles</a> such as edge detection. As a result these computer-modified photographs have a sense of something approaching true human artistry.<br /><br />The results of this interaction between eye-tracking data and computer rendering algorithms suggests a heretical thought: What we think of as a rare gift of expressive artistic judgment is really something fairly simple and logical, something you can teach a machine to do.<br /><br />"THE ART OF SEEING: VISUAL PERCEPTION IN<br />DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF<br />NON-PHOTOREALISTIC RENDERING"<br />by Anthony Santella<br /><a href="http://www.research.rutgers.edu/%7Easantell/thesis.pdf">www.research.rutgers.edu/~asantell/thesis.pdf</a><br />Final two sets of images are courtesy this online graduate thesis.  <br /><br />Previous related posts on GurneyJourney: <br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/12/abstraction-generator.html">Abstraction Generator</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2010/01/automated-painting.html">Automated Painting</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2007/09/al-parker-at-rockwell.html">Al Parker at the Rockwell</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/11/eyes-have-it.html">The Eyes Have It</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/01/stroke-module.html">Stroke Module</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/09/eye-tracking-and-composition-part-1.html">Eyetracking and Composition, part 1 </a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/09/eye-tracking-and-composition-part-2.html">Eyetracking and Composition, part 2 </a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/09/eye-tracking-and-composition-part-3.html">Eyetracking and Composition part 3</a><br />Introduction to eyetracking, <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-are-you-looking-at.html">link.</a><br />How perception of faces is coded differently, <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/05/never-forget-face.html">link.</a>

Automated Selectivity

One of the reasons we like to look at paintings is that reality is filtered through someone's brain. Painters select the important eleme...

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Mirko Listening

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTUWciNVMqyU1w-ep84Px3jGC8Mvo0gFs6hfbAnoSwolqIhsnKeSIYPBVHNVF5errTi_cQW8qdtIq09Ruciuo7KETlbXF6ui1-q_M01LqZi7a45K2wGiQ5lXlP6cl6PIT5OvWlthnzXv4/s1600/Mirko_Listening.sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>I did this little sketchbook portrait of my friend Mirko last Sunday. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTUWciNVMqyU1w-ep84Px3jGC8Mvo0gFs6hfbAnoSwolqIhsnKeSIYPBVHNVF5errTi_cQW8qdtIq09Ruciuo7KETlbXF6ui1-q_M01LqZi7a45K2wGiQ5lXlP6cl6PIT5OvWlthnzXv4/s1600/Mirko_Listening.sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTUWciNVMqyU1w-ep84Px3jGC8Mvo0gFs6hfbAnoSwolqIhsnKeSIYPBVHNVF5errTi_cQW8qdtIq09Ruciuo7KETlbXF6ui1-q_M01LqZi7a45K2wGiQ5lXlP6cl6PIT5OvWlthnzXv4/s400/Mirko_Listening.sm.jpg" width="290" /></a><br />He sat a few seats away from me at a choral concert last week. He was deeply concentrating on the music of Schumann and Tchaikovsky. He didn’t notice I was sketching him.<br /><br />Those blurry pools of dark ink on his coat were done by first wetting the surface with the clear water brush and then applying a second water brush filled with black ink.<br /><br />In addition to the two water brushes, my left hand held three water-soluble colored pencils: russet, brown and black. To avoid distracting people around me, I minimized all my hand and head movements. The tools are absolutely silent on the paper.

Mirko Listening

I did this little sketchbook portrait of my friend Mirko last Sunday. He sat a few seats away from me at a choral concert last week. He was ...

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A color photo from 1911

Here is the Emir of Bukhara, Alim Khan (1880-1944), in a photo taken in 1911. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7LiUTvKNIgwLPERZYLu0y8mQnMplHqhr0gDgbhwynnW3oiumV1SRXKnBQKbOoNB_s1tBVOjB8kzu5HvPwTngO8lOOU_YKw2UKXLgcT-xXyJdLVWyyR-s0G44fYiENspvr6OCHeN0zKm4/s1600/Three+Color+Filters.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPDNUxKGDiSzexCt7R6TlmNm06oF98ztmI5mJIT5v3XPyuD_xVLpdpT8fIIQzHLzM0bCj7D5pRPOAifcwM4avyCWFsmynp55J9_GEbc90BH28ENy4doW-a8QfKWyMYNVG_uqZsi4O3SA/s1600/Emir_of_Bukhara_1911.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPDNUxKGDiSzexCt7R6TlmNm06oF98ztmI5mJIT5v3XPyuD_xVLpdpT8fIIQzHLzM0bCj7D5pRPOAifcwM4avyCWFsmynp55J9_GEbc90BH28ENy4doW-a8QfKWyMYNVG_uqZsi4O3SA/s400/Emir_of_Bukhara_1911.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />This is just one of a rich collection of images from the Russian empire, called the Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record, now housed in the Library of Congress and available for viewing online.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7LiUTvKNIgwLPERZYLu0y8mQnMplHqhr0gDgbhwynnW3oiumV1SRXKnBQKbOoNB_s1tBVOjB8kzu5HvPwTngO8lOOU_YKw2UKXLgcT-xXyJdLVWyyR-s0G44fYiENspvr6OCHeN0zKm4/s1600/Three+Color+Filters.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7LiUTvKNIgwLPERZYLu0y8mQnMplHqhr0gDgbhwynnW3oiumV1SRXKnBQKbOoNB_s1tBVOjB8kzu5HvPwTngO8lOOU_YKw2UKXLgcT-xXyJdLVWyyR-s0G44fYiENspvr6OCHeN0zKm4/s200/Three+Color+Filters.jpg" width="128" /></a>The photograph was made by shooting three plates in quick succession using red, green, and blue filters. Originally they were intended to be projected by lantern slides using the same color filters. Technicians were able to digitally scan and recombine the plates into the image you see here. Color photography was thus possible long before it appeared elsewhere.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html">Empire that was Russia: Process</a><br /><a href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ethnic.html">Pictures of Ethnic Diversity</a><br />Previously on GJ: <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/10/early-color-photos.html">Early Color Photos</a><br /><br />Thanks, Kay!

A color photo from 1911

Here is the Emir of Bukhara, Alim Khan (1880-1944), in a photo taken in 1911. This is just one of a rich collection of images from the Russi...

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Our Towns Exhibition

This TED lecture by James Howard Kunstler shows how postwar city planners sold us on dead-end dreams that have filled our world with blank malls and suburbia.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmWmK33c8FIxkXFVO-cwW4PwR3figLjMYAEOyq7K0vUyxE_lEDkZZhXlSk7x8CLZOpsuFoDwPOm2OIwvg-d6G8TPRW4O6zNLD5a2cwIfqO3rK9Wntsd1JXT9h95pnrtLSp6Yyk8fkhBJg/s1600/MillStreetLoft.Gurney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="290" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Q1ZeXnmDZMQ" width="480"></iframe><br />Thinking about such things makes me search my motives when I look for townscapes to paint. Am I just looking for nostalgic visions of the human-centered places that hardly exist anymore? Is the plastic franchise landscape worth painting? <br /><br />For me, the answer is yes to both questions. What interests me most is time—how changes in human thought play themselves out in layers of architecture. I’m fascinated by odd juxtapositions: mom-and-pop stores next to mega corporations, or commercial and residential spaces butting up against each other. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmWmK33c8FIxkXFVO-cwW4PwR3figLjMYAEOyq7K0vUyxE_lEDkZZhXlSk7x8CLZOpsuFoDwPOm2OIwvg-d6G8TPRW4O6zNLD5a2cwIfqO3rK9Wntsd1JXT9h95pnrtLSp6Yyk8fkhBJg/s1600/MillStreetLoft.Gurney.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmWmK33c8FIxkXFVO-cwW4PwR3figLjMYAEOyq7K0vUyxE_lEDkZZhXlSk7x8CLZOpsuFoDwPOm2OIwvg-d6G8TPRW4O6zNLD5a2cwIfqO3rK9Wntsd1JXT9h95pnrtLSp6Yyk8fkhBJg/s400/MillStreetLoft.Gurney.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />Tomorrow, the <a href="http://millstreetloft.org/2011/05/%E2%80%9Cour-towns%E2%80%9D-juried-fine-art-exhibition-opening/">Mill Street Loft</a> will open a group exhibition called “Our Towns: the Cities and Towns of the Hudson Valley.” Nearly 30 artists in various media will be participating. The juror was <a href="http://makebetterart.blogspot.com/">M. Stephen Doherty</a> of <a href="http://pleinairmagazine.com/editor/">Plein Air magazine. </a><br /><br />I’ll have four oil paintings in the show, three of which are plein air pieces. If you’re near Poughkeepsie, New York tomorrow, Saturday, May 21, please come by the opening reception, which is from 4-6 pm. I’ll be there, and I’ll also be doing a gallery talk on Thursday, June 9 at 6:00pm. The exhibition will be up through July 15, 2011. For more information, call 845.471.7477 or visit <a href="http://millstreetloft.org/2011/05/%E2%80%9Cour-towns%E2%80%9D-juried-fine-art-exhibition-opening/">Mill Street Loft's website.</a><br /><br />Reminder: Mill Street Loft’s other exhibit on Hudson Valley landscapes is still accepting submissions through <strike>May 23. </strike>     <span style="color: red;">Extended to May 31, 2011.</span><br /><br />Related Previous Posts:<br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2010/09/powers-market.html">Powers Market</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/06/dalleos-deli.html">Dalleo’s Deli</a><br /><strike>All</strike> Three of the four paintings are reproduced in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Color-Light-Guide-Realist-Painter/dp/0740797719?ie=UTF8&tag=gurnjour-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=gurnjour-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0740797719" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />

Our Towns Exhibition

This TED lecture by James Howard Kunstler shows how postwar city planners sold us on dead-end dreams that have filled our world with blank m...

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My Preference for Reference

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0m1W4aJyXJUW0y1YQQByEcQuNRAYWiI1Vu3O7BeQoalzocf9sjp9M92WzKnrS9o7UGBoul8g5a_sTYn1U3apfwZMVcTWjg2IJ4JpbIHn5KcNzyuZoYIeALG4p_UgvmHw-hpDb76UsExU/s1600/IFX_Reference_Gurney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>When you set out to do a painting of a scene from fantasy or history, you have a range of choices for reference.<br /><br />There’s an argument for using no reference at all. If you train your memory, you can work entirely from your imagination, which helps particularly in the development stages of the idea.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSRdGfeKpnUB37UhRdBFHzzNAF1pADZ9BjDtMb4kxqrJXMEOQZFKvUE18vOMPP9BTBj9SY_C232Jdj9cQHtCXCfpgLF9Xf04EY0dhxXPmDkIUVAZ9JZsWih-KD0Ki2R2N22pN9exnYO6U/s1600/Pirate.Comparison.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSRdGfeKpnUB37UhRdBFHzzNAF1pADZ9BjDtMb4kxqrJXMEOQZFKvUE18vOMPP9BTBj9SY_C232Jdj9cQHtCXCfpgLF9Xf04EY0dhxXPmDkIUVAZ9JZsWih-KD0Ki2R2N22pN9exnYO6U/s400/Pirate.Comparison.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />And there are pros and cons of using traditional drawn studies of a model. Above is a charcoal mirror study of me posing in a pirate costume and the resulting painting.<br /><br />There are also benefits of working from photo reference, especially when you’re dealing with kids, animals, or anything in movement. When I needed to paint a picture of a kid playing tug-of-war with a dinosaur, the first drawing I did from my head didn’t have the conviction that came later when I actually staged and photographed the action. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOlovRLQydOJV2-IHWWI18UWZh9KCNfe8yQ1SHSxuqUE8N5h_ZE0YT9GMwgB5YoKoLAxw0Y7TOl32YYfy_8oK_ESwPN-5TTVkSwdh6GHqhSgSmbBLohxlfHfmD7pQS-wK4XCGGITyNGY/s1600/Tuggle_Sketch.Comparison.sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOlovRLQydOJV2-IHWWI18UWZh9KCNfe8yQ1SHSxuqUE8N5h_ZE0YT9GMwgB5YoKoLAxw0Y7TOl32YYfy_8oK_ESwPN-5TTVkSwdh6GHqhSgSmbBLohxlfHfmD7pQS-wK4XCGGITyNGY/s400/Tuggle_Sketch.Comparison.sm.jpg" width="230" /></a><br />Photography has its benefits, but also its pitfalls. Copying a photo too much can drain the mythic magic from your painting. Photographic effects such as depth of field and motion blur belong in some images, but not in others. <br /><br />Everyone has to develop a reference strategy that suits their goals. I’m a pragmatist on this issue: the desired results govern the choices, and I’ve used every kind of reference. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0m1W4aJyXJUW0y1YQQByEcQuNRAYWiI1Vu3O7BeQoalzocf9sjp9M92WzKnrS9o7UGBoul8g5a_sTYn1U3apfwZMVcTWjg2IJ4JpbIHn5KcNzyuZoYIeALG4p_UgvmHw-hpDb76UsExU/s1600/IFX_Reference_Gurney.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0m1W4aJyXJUW0y1YQQByEcQuNRAYWiI1Vu3O7BeQoalzocf9sjp9M92WzKnrS9o7UGBoul8g5a_sTYn1U3apfwZMVcTWjg2IJ4JpbIHn5KcNzyuZoYIeALG4p_UgvmHw-hpDb76UsExU/s400/IFX_Reference_Gurney.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />This meaty topic is the subject of a six page workshop that I wrote for the June, 2011 issue of <a href="http://www.imaginefx.com/02287754330039194524/imaginefx-issue-70.html">ImagineFX magazine.</a> You can pick up a copy at the local newsstand, or visit their website. The accompanying DVD has a couple of my short videos and lots of examples.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.imaginefx.com/02287754330039194524/imaginefx-issue-70.html">ImagineFX magazine</a><br /><br />This topic is also explored in <a href="http://www.dinotopia.com/dinotopia-store.html"><i>Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist. </i></a><br />Tug-of-war image from <a href="http://www.dinotopia.com/dinotopia-store.html">Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara</a><br />Pirate image is from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dinotopia-Lost-Bold-Adventure-Hidden/dp/B000HZ5XSW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305819444&sr=1-3">Dinotopia Lost</a> by Alan Dean Foster<br /><br />Previous posts on GurneyJourney<br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2007/09/acting-it-out.html">Acting it Out: (Tug of War)</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2010/07/rackham-on-photo-illustration.html">Rackham on Photo Reference</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/03/using-photo-reference.html">Using Photo Reference (32 comments)</a><br /><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/03/model-to-mermaid.html">Model to Mermaid </a><br /><div style="color: red;"><br /></div><span style="color: red;">P.S. I've just received word that the painter <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Jones_%28artist%29">Jeffrey Catherine Jones</a> passed away this morning from emphysema. R.I.P. There's </span><a href="http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/05/spotlight-on-jeffrey-catherine-jones.html#comments" style="color: blue;">more information at the blog Muddy Colors </a><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: blue;">.</span> Jeff was an acquaintance and fellow artist I had known for twenty years or so, and I'll miss Jeff's unique perspective.</span>

My Preference for Reference

When you set out to do a painting of a scene from fantasy or history, you have a range of choices for reference. There’s an argument for usi...

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