Saturday, March 25, 2017

Window 10 at the DMV

Jeanette is having her driver's license renewed, so we're sitting in the waiting room at the DMV.



People fill out their forms and get called up to different windows to have their picture taken and their eyes tested (Link to video on Facebook). I'm sitting across from Window 10. Everyone is so preoccupied that they don't notice me and my art supplies.


I have a page in my book with a cool underpainting that I did a few days ago, not knowing what I'd paint over it. 

The underpainting is in casein because I don't want that base layer to reactivate when it gets wet again. You could also use acryla gouache, acrylics, or tinted gesso instead. I use the following colors of gouache: cadmium yellow deep, burnt sienna, brilliant purple, black, and white.

Window 10, DMV, gouache, 3.5 inches square
The plan is to paint a warm, 'orangey' gouache painting over the bluish underpainting. Later, I'll do a blue or gray sketch over the warm underpainting to the right.
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If you like my blog, you'll love my new app: Living Sketchbook, Vol. 1: Boyhood Home. It's available for iOS on Apple phones and tablets at the App Store and for Android devices at Google Play.

''James Gurney's Living Sketchbook: Vol. 1 celebrates the mobility and charm of gouache, casein, colored pencil, and pen and ink in sketchbook form. This brilliant app is loaded with beautiful high resolution artwork set to a powerful environmental soundscape that brings you there. The narration is full of insightful observations and wisdom to pass on to artists of all levels. Additional layers of video are dispersed in the volume to clearly illustrate approaches by a master teacher and storyteller. An elegant and generous offering that will immediately make you want to sketch out ‘in the wild'!"
—Erik Tiemens - Watersketch.com

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds just like ours in Texas. Have you been asked not to paint anywhere?

James Gurney said...

No, I've never been asked not to paint. I use water media (no smell, no spill). I work small, I'm and if I'm indoors, I'm usually sans easel. If it's a place that's really not cool for paints I use a water brush and water-soluble colored pencils.

Anonymous said...

There's a typo in your first sentence. Isn't that the WAILING room at the DMV? :)

Nice painting, of course!

Biff said...

I noticed, in the video, that you zoomed in a little tighter than usual. I found that very informative and helpful in understanding brush control.

Thanks!

James Gurney said...

Biff, thanks, that's good to know. I shot this with my little Canon Powershop point-and-shoot, and I was surprised it would focus that close.

Bob, seems like a wailing room I guess. Or a fast paced Purgatory.

Sheridan said...

Do you use any of the sketchbook images to compose larger studio works, or do you consider the sketchbook your finished work?
The reason I ask is that I; due to your inspiration; have been working in the sketchbook format for the past few months, and find that I don't think a studio painting would have the same "being there" quality as the small original.

Iva Wilcox said...

I so enjoy all your posts and painting instruction! Thank you for being so generous with your talent! I have a question about your new Living Sketchbook app...will it work on an iPad 2? It's not on your list of compatible devices. It sounds like another great instructive tool and I would love to get it on something larger than my phone. Thanks again!

James Gurney said...

Iva, thanks for asking. I don't think the iPad 2 will work. We did a lot of testing (including on my old iPad 2) and those don't work because of the graphics and videos. I also have a new iPad Pro and it works great on that.

James Gurney said...

Sheridan, although I have painted larger studio works based on my sketchbook, I do see the sketchbook (complete with the videos, audio, and written elements) as the finished work. It exists as a "serial art" object, but also as a multimedia form that is more than its component parts, just as a graphic novel is. That's why I'm so excited to put it all together in the series of new apps.