Colored Pastel on Gouache For Glowing Light Effects 

Some art videos are just fun to watch. Some are inspiring. Some teach you something. Some moves you to take the brushes and start to paint. Yours are all of these things combined. Thank you very much.

That father’s comment in the background “you’ve gotta practice” is soooo true 😍 Amazing paintings 👍😍

Love this one! Great tips- I like the kids asking about painting. I get that often painting outdoors and I keep meaning to start collecting the small Cotman WN half pan boxes so I can make little sketching kits and just give them to kids that stop to watch to keep. Love what you said about Sargent and others experimenting with mixed media.

The light on the first painting is just absolutely spot on!! This guy has a gift!! It's insane

_The quality of these videos are outstanding!_

The flaring technique lends so much atmosphere to these everyday subjects. Thank you.

I always think I'm an alright art teacher, then I watch one of your videos and realize I so much more to learn.

You did this while standing and watch the short passing moments that may only occur once every couple days or months even. And your fingers' freezing?! Nah, man u are legit. Salam from Indonesia ❤

I just love the little tips you give, like the "wearing a dark shirt". So handy, and an indication of how conscientious and genuine you are about the craft. I'm sure this channel makes good business sense, but there's no faking your enthusiasm and sincerity. Thank you.

Hey James, I just discovered you have a channel! I've been watching it over the past couple weeks and am so appreciative of all the tips and tricks you provide. It's funny, I grew up with a Dynotopia print in my room, and always wondered how you made such dramatic paintings. I've been painting a lot lately, and it's really nice to be able to learn from the Dynotopia author. Thanks for sharing!!

I worked in soft pastel for a long time, and was always curious about how some pastel artists, Richard McKinley, for example, got such great depth and darks in their paintings...even on light paper. Then I found out they were using underpainting techniques, usually watercolor. It really opened up a whole new world for me...but I always feel like I’m cheating when I mix mediums. Don’t know why, I suppose it’s because I went to a very traditional art school.

"But in the real world of painting, there are no laws or rules or ten commandments," What a great sentiment that is!

I've been watching your videos and following you for a while now. You're such an inspiring artist and I really can't believe how realistic your paintings are, even though they are so light and minimalistic. It's the idea that you give with just a few brush strokes that is so realistic. I wish I could learn something like that, but I can't even draw a banana :(

I like the idea of painting the space, the very air between you and the subject. It certainly makes you think differently. Beautiful rendering Jim.

I have tried underpaint and it’s a fabulous result

James Gurney Your outdoor watercolors, The picture is so flavorful cool, You are the best watercolor painter, As a Korean watercolor artist, I commend your painting, I pray that good things always happen!

You’re awesome. Not only in art, but these are very calming and helps me take my mind off my days and life stresses.

I see Garin Baker! Great artist and human being!

You’re a genius artist extraordinaire- I just can’t believe how you drew this view so small, so precisely- I just love your work 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻brilliant

This kind of makes me want to get into painting. I like the idea of just setting up anywhere and just painting.

Great job! Congratulations!

tldr: The way he sees things is very unique and i don't think it can be learned, so the next best thing is to try to imitate him and fail until you develop your own style... might take a while tho.

I love cold weather but it makes it harder to paint😄

never look straight up while standing under a bird. Especially with your mouth open.. lol

Looks like oil pastel. I use colored pencil and regular pastels with wc all the time. So wish I had gouache too. I just have Holbein's white. The effects are great!

Your videos are so relaxing and inspiring please keep going with what you are doing!

Looks like the thumbs up have it 😁. Another interesting video.

When you hear birds overhead, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT look up with your mouth open.... trust me on that one. ☹️ Good video, great paintings...thank you for sharing.

Thank you for sharing your time with us

I can barely draw a stickman and make it work and you over there can put some cameras to shame with how good you capture the scenes in your photos.

Your videos are so inspiring James, I learn so much from them every time, such a great teacher 💜👍🖌🎨🖼

Greetings from Chile James, i love your work

Great painting tips! Thanks for sharing!

Incredible artist, but boy his voice is breathy.

I'm 100% sure I'll never get tired of watching you do your thing

Thank you James for debunking the "rules" of "good" painting. I love your work and your informative videos. I had a watercolor teacher many years ago who ascribed to the AWS no black, no white rule. My comment to her was that the thought police were controlling her art. I pointed out that black and white have been used extensively throughout painting history. The next time she had a show, I was delighted to find a number of her works included black.

I am beginning to focus on various types of light in my own watercolor painting. Your video was extremely helpful. Do you have a video or blog that talks about the supplies you use? I have never tried using the pastel on top of watercolor.. going to add that one to my tool kit!

I always fear to color in art. Now that its finals week of my first trimester in art college and I am cramming, I gotta say, I found the right video that inspires me.

Love the freedom! During painting, I am a free man! Agree with your opinion James. And of course another beautiful art work!

Like seeing the touches of chalk (pastels?) beautiful painting of the ordinary made extraordinary ❤️ I always learn so much from you.....

Awesome

Love your work and your “teaching moments”. Where do you get those wonderful clips that hold your journal open? What is Chasein?

Amazing! Gorgeous!

I like your videos because you talk during them, this keeps me awake. Otherwise I fall asleep during art vids.

Watch that bird! he will shit on you! lol A bird shit on me when i was on holiday about 3 weeks ago 😒Great job as always! Take a look at my art?

Do you do any workshops in gouache during the year? This is the best art site on RU-vid. Thank you!

Hey James, not only did you irresistibly inspire me to start painting watercolour and gouache again, but when I tried to jazz up my paintings with pastels, they really sprang to life, your idea got me on to a new level. Thanks so much for your videos, I think you created a monster...lol and I'm not talking about your dinosaurs...

The only way I seem to be able to make good wires is by turning my picture more or less upside down and making the subtle arc between the two chosen points otherwise my wire is too flat or wiggly! 🥴

I LOVE the Edward Weston quote, thank you James. Making a note of it...

Hi James Gurney👋👋👋. Thank you for the video tip! I'll remember that in my art class!👍👍👍

I'll be honest, I dont mind when kids come up to watch but it almost always ruins the mood for me hahaha, so loud and distracting

You’ve motivated me to start painting. I’ve always enjoyed art, but have lost myself over the years in the military. Really enjoying your videos, tips and passion you show. I find water coloring very pleasant. Thank you! I really want to go on a hike and stop, and paint what I see. Thanks for the motivation and helping me find an interest, and myself.

Hi James, think your plein air demos are stunning. Re the Pentalic watercolour sketchbook, could you just say which size you use, as there are a number of options to choose from. Greetings from England UK !

You're all going to laugh at me, but I was so focused on the painting that at 10:02 when a car went roaring by, I was confused for a couple seconds when I didn't see it race past... duh

Great stuff as always! loved the wearing a dark shirt tip! And reminding me to consider wearing a hat! Fantastic stuff I should really consider digging out the pastels with some of my gouache mixed medias in my sketchbook once I get home! I personally think I may use my "soft pastel" paintbrushes I have set aside rather than my fingertip. Really a semi-firm but fairly soft inexpensive paintbrushes (I can clean; and have purchased for dry media blending, including good quality but very inexpensive make up brushes from the dollar store) are great with soft pastels, charcoal and graphite! I hope that is helpful to someone because I really dislike getting my hands dirty sometimes and the brushes also have the benefit of not adding skin-oil to the art. (or dirt lol). That glow effect is very pleasing. Thanks for the video.

Great tip about using stabilo pastel pencils, I have some so will try that thanks 😊

I feel like we should pay to watch these videos

This is so good. Thanks for the great tip with the chalk!!

James Gurney 絵がとても風情があり、 素晴らしいです、 あなたは最高の画家、 韓国の水彩画がある私はあなたの写真を賞賛している、 常に良いことがあることを祈ります！

James Gurney 당신 야외수채화, 그림이 너무 운치가 있고 멋있어요, 당신은 최고의 수채화 화가, 한국의 수채화가인 나는 당신의 그림을 칭찬해요, 항상 좋은일이 있기를 기도합니다!

Hey excuse me James, is there any chance your brother Dan was my kindergarten teacher?

Thanks for another insight into your way of painting, James! I've been inspired to paint for the first time in watercolour and gouache (mix media, why not right?), for my family in time for Christmas, and all is going well so far. Wishing you well, eagerly looking forward to the next video!

As you were painting the yellow lines on the lot, I heard the cars go by. I looked to that side of the painting, expecting to see the cars as they passed by!! Thanks for evoking that in me!

Very nice...... Ive been str7ggling wth oils so ive vought some guache bcoz oils are so expensive.... So these tutorials are great.....

Nothing is worse than some bs society pulling a bunch of nonsense rules out of their ass and then pretending to be an authority on the subject, especially in art I mean wth 🤦‍♂️

You are amazing. Greetings from Florence, Italy! Saluti da Firenze!

Excellent.... Could you please show us how to blend in gouache. I find a problem there. If I use water..the hue desaturates...if I blend without water....its too thick. Help me please

The question of composition in landscape painting might best be answered by saying that when you look around in the real world for a scene that you'd like to paint, you have probably selected those vistas that you internally feel are already attractively composed. Not always, but often. A lot of paintings are not about composition, the artists often focus on some effect of the light, or some particularly interesting detail, instead. Regardless of what the real world scene offers, "artistic license" allows the painter to leave out real world items that mar the composition. And it is also possible to add things that don't exist to enhance an arrangement. A simple thing to experiment with is to the 'rule of thirds,' that's commonly used by photographers. Also, many people may not realize that 1: .618, the golden mean, is close enough to 1/3 - 2/3, which is 1: .666, that when line thicknesses are factored in, no difference can be typically discerned. I don't want to promote this as some magic potion that will make a bad painting good, but it can make good work look better. Divide a sheet into equally spaced thirds, horizontally, and vertically. Place strong vertical elements, such as the horizon, on one of the horizontal lines. Then place a strong vertical element on one of the vertical lines. The idea is have a 1/3 - 2/3 spacing. The mirror effect is equally valid, 2/3 - 1/3. But you can subdivide the nine original rectangles into thirds as well. Placing things evenly on a grid does not produce good composition. You want varied spacing, but mere randomness can be enhanced with a little adjusting. Experiment with compositions with elements closer together at one side, but spaced at 1/3 - 2/3 increments, getting further apart as they move across the canvas. Then, play with having items return to tighter a little at the other side. Grouping smaller things in clusters that are spaced roughly 1/3 - 2/3 apart, is worth playing with as well. But to much of a good thing becomes obvious, and works against your goal. Simple is often better. If you examine the works you've done that you prefer the most, it's quite possible that you'll find compositional order that you didn't realize until you hunted for them. Just be warned, lots of people "find" compositional arrangements in some works that really don't exist. They force a bunch of compositional lines on a piece that don't belong. If an analyses has grid lines placed on low contrast, low interest, objects in a painting, the analyses is forced, and invalid. In the end, composition should be studied, and experimented with as training exercises. When real painting work is being done, it's probably best to look at the project a little beforehand, then apply whatever compositional system that seem to fit the work the best, but move forward with the thought of keeping all options open if something else appears to be the right thing to do. And, mostly, to master painting is to master hundreds of individual skills. Composition is just one of them, and is not the most important one to consciously understand. If something feels right, it probably is right, and you don't need to know why. As long as you spend a couple minutes finding what looks best to you, having a deep understanding of principles is not required. And that implies that any principles actually work, and they might not.

I have not clicked a single video on his channel which I didn’t like. I probably watched a dozen, and while he’s always working in the same way, I still can’t wrap my head around. It’s like my brain works differently. I see things. He sees contours and perspectives and light-fields, and finally he adds details: but even the details are highlights, or red or blue signs, or writing, and only at the very end the things get reconstituted in the brain. Why the heck is my brain only presenting me the interpretation of what I’m seeing, while he has access to all the steps in between? He can focus at one step at a time without the whole thing getting in the way. Can we please get Lex Fridman to interview him for 3h? It’s like James Gurney can dissect the workings of his own brain (at least the visual part) and slow things down for two hours what the brain normally does in 2 sec (if not 0.2 sec). Edit: You could probably make an AI for his style: first the contours, then the light-fields, then the details with the highest differences in brightness and color, and then add some little randomness to soften things up, make sure that there never are patterns of any size that exactly repeat, only similarities.

Hi, Artist, Gurney! What’s a “matte acrylic”? Did I tell you that your paintings are amazing,…every one, yet? Read that last sentence again.

Well. I love what you do... but I would have chosen the temperature instead of the time for the sign display. You know, bragging rights. lol.

I was at art school in the very early 1960s...I remember one tutor who made us use black shoe polish and stubs of paper as brushes in the life classes...so as not to get bound in formal technique or become too precious about equipment (UK)

I love your video great job you have rekindled my love for realistic art👍. Now I'm gonna go watch trailer Park boys for a bit. That 'ol Ricky 😆

AS A FELLOW ARTIST, i THINK IV LEARNED SOMETHING HERE! THEY WONT MAKE YOU GO THROUGH A WITCHES TRIAL, AND BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH A PAINTBRUSH or CAST YOU IN THE LAND OF CHEAP WATERCOLOR PAINTS., IF YOU USE PASTELS,COLORED PENCILS ETC .ON YOUR WATERCOLOR DRAWINGS. tHREE CHEERS FOR JAMES GURNEY;

I could hear the cars in the back ground.........Once I looked at the road in your painting to see what kind of car was passing by, now that was weird. I enjoy your videos.

I've always found the requirement of watercolor to be transparent really silly and put it off as elitist. But there are even some younger/about my generation RU-vidrs who instantly judge watercolor as low quality if it is just slightly opaque, just because that sentiment is so widespread that they adapted it without questioning. That is nothing but limiting yourself for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Each kind has its use and the fun/challenge is in figuring out which has what use or if it is useful to you at all. After all not everyone has to like every kind of paint - but putting other kinds down is so against the whole spirit of art, it boggles my mind.

You inspired me to do en plein air painting. I realized it teaches one many things.

I have been watching your videos (and reading the books) for a while. I have tried for a long time with re-wettable media and suffered a lot. I wanted to try casein but it is impossible to find casein here in my country, for god's only knowns why. I was wondering If I can get reasonably close by using liquid acrylics.

I'm loving your demos and enjoy the instruction on using mixed media in your paintings. The enthusiasm of the kid...." daddy, I want to paint" is so endearing and I hope the kids got a set of paints and is practicing.

lovely paintings ,and awesome advice brother

Lol I live in poughkeepsie which is near both Kingston and newburgh so that's very cool to watch you create this work in particular

I love to see upstate NY captured in these paintings. There are places in Catskill, Athens and Coxsackie, along the Hudson that would make great spots to paint too.

I've only just found your videos and I'm finding them really inspiring. I really like your looseness more than anything else so I'll be sure to bring that into my acrylic work. Keep up the good work.

I really want to walk inside your paintings. There are better than real😄Thank you James for all your lessons❤️🌹

No Ten Commandments. Just draw what’s there 👌🏻🤣

As a Photographer first, I would avoid backlit. Now I’m looking for it to paint.

i hate modern photorealisme they got no soul they got nothing it is just a photo, aritist like James Gourney who interpert what they want to make they give soul and feelings on their paintings give character and personal style make the artist unique,and please the viewer, etc sorry about my english.

Why there are so many utility poles where you paint? Normally all the utilities lines are underground.

Do you teach beginner workshops? I live in this area and would love to attend if you offer some!!

Mr Gurney, I'm drawing a hot savanna here with color pencils and I'm thinking if it would be possible to use pastels as you did with your glowing effects to give the ideia of the heat, the hot mid day moisture, flowing into the air. Do you think it could work?

Art is all about experimentation and self expression. Screw those people who try to limit you and your methods.

i want to start going out and painting like you master James but i have to wait and practice inside until i know what im doing before i go out embarrass myself in front of people out there

We can only imitate the Great Artist. I just paint what I see. God doesnt sue people for imitating His work of art.

Question... In the beginning of the video you stated primed the paper with casein and that it could be primed with acrylic. If you primed with acrylic then wouldn't that prevent the paper from absorbing the watercolor?

the gold for you, James! Thanks for this video.

I was wondering what did you use to paint the inside of the pencil tin palette/tray white? your videos are great fun and inspiring to watch!

I find it amazing that you take an everyday somewhat ugly scene and turn it into a beautiful painting!

Hi James, first thing right at the start - you've got a new subscriber, second - the scenes you pick look quite boring and dull on the photographs you start out with, even the composition is pretty boring. How do you see the potential in the scene to become such stunningly pleasing and interesting paintings? What do you look for among the things I can't see? How do you add such incredible vibrancy to a dull subject?

Apologies if you have answered this before, but is there a reason you like priming with casein, instead of laying down a neutral tone in watercolor or gouache?

“Art is never finished, only abandoned”.