Painting Feathered Dinosaurs with James Gurney 

Huh? Oh! Another Documentary. "I Think." You've out done yourself once again Mr. Gurney. I see your Illustrating another Yutyrannus. Only this one's having a dust bath. Not going stealing someone else's kill. Still, It's nice like you did in Tyrannosaurs. Um, Will this be out on DVD too? I was just asking since I'm a fan of one of the Great Paleoartists. Speaking of which, I'll send you a list of the other Great Paleoartists who did different but great Illustrations of the Dinosaurs like what you've done & what you did here.

I love this guy.

I admire and appreciate people who restore dinosaurs as real animals doing real animal behaviour, instead of the unreal restorations that depict dinosaurs battling and roaring at each other.

researching process is incredible, now i know how the true master prepares to work on a painting

Ah sweet! Hard to find dinos doing casual things and accurately presented!

I would love it if you updated Dinotopia, all of the books, with feathers and modern reconstructions of all the dinosaurs appearances. I know that a lot of people like the things that they grew up with in their childhood not to change, but I absolutely love Dinotopia, and it would be amazing to see that world with the understanding of dinosaurs that we have now

I've been having a lot of trouble making art recently but watching these videos has helped inspired my art and make me excited to try new techniques in painting. Thank you for the free videos :) You have always been my favorite artist

8:00 Yep, just a typical backyard bird.

THANK YOU! This made my day James. Your movies are so well thought out and brilliantly filmed and edited, a real treat to watch. Cant wait for more. Thanks again. Joe

My son and I were patiently waiting for this one to be uploaded! :) again, another inspiring video and the beautiful work you do. This was very much worth the wait.

Your dinosaur series is my favorite by far. I'm absolutely fascinated by your process of building the maquette first and using that as a reference for lighting and pose, and the wealth of research and knowledge you put into your pieces. This is your most in depth one yet.

Your dinos are the best Mr.Gurney! :)

Fabulous work--I love the way you put so much into the process to get believable lighting and detail. Thank you!

Amazing work ! You're the uncle we all dreamed about ;)

You are my absolute favourite dinosaur painter i love seeing this brings out my inner kid wanted to learn about those beautiful animals

I bought your two books and they gave me a lot of 'aha' moments. Seeing your process in video is another revelation. Thank you Mr. Gurney for sharing all your valuable experience. Greetings from Belgium.

I love the amount of effort put into these videos. I am glad people are finally starting to recognise you for the legend you are.

8:18 Your Fallout-styled mechanical gadget is interesting.

I love watching these videos where you explain how you create your amazing dinosaur paintings. I have loved learning about dinosaurs since I was a kid and would try and draw them form a book I had.

Honestly sometimes I cry because he’s so brilliant. Genius truly. I hope we cross paths one day

thx a lot for beeing so open and honest about your work process.

I love your models, they have some much personality but are dead simple. Great work Gurney, thanks for sharing.

I hope you never stop painting dinosaurs, really gorgeous!

My new favorite dinosaur is that dust bath T-Rex type fella.

I simply can't get enough of you vids. So informative and fun. Thank you.

this was an absolute joy to watch! i particularly like how you tackled the backgrounds to imitate nature photographs. i'd never thought of it before but it adds an element of believability to your paintings and makes them feel so much more lifelike!

I LOVE your process! Getting a rough sculpt to get realistic lighting is genius, particularly when it's difficult to predict for high contrast plumage.

This was fascinating, thank you for the detailed explanation!

One of your best videos yet! I always love it when you do dinosaurs.

I learned so much from this video, from terminology to painting feathers!

Very educational and inspiring! Great work all around. Thanks for this

Absolutely stunning work!

I had not ever thought that will be a man capable to create a fantastic world recreating nature as you actually do your work is very inspiring

Thank you for sharing! It's so interesting and encouraging to see your work and your process!!

Outstanding work and presentation, as always!

You sir have this down to a science (LITERALLY) 💯🔥🔥🔥 and your techniques are truely amazing

amazing work! going the extra mile with the model was seriously top notch

Wow! Just wow! You are an amazing artist and it is so much fun to watch ANY of your videos. The dedication you put into everything is inspiring. Our family loved watching Dinotopia so thanks for that too!

James Gurney has been my inspiration for a fantasized land called Ahmanzí I created. It's a tropical forest like area where tribes live with dinosaurs. Id love to put inspiration from real dinos and put a fantasy touch on it. I have recently created a feathered dino called a Cheiera. James Gurney has inspired me to study deeply the anatomy of dinos although I doubt I will ever reach the level and passion Gurney had.

Thanks for making these. It's so great to observe your process, I like the maquetts especially.

This is the spirit which we call "craftsmanship" and "artisanship".

Three great pieces James

You are such an inspiration James ❤️

Draw, paint, sculpture, photography...what amazing process!! Love your work Sir ☺️. Greetings from Spain.

Absolutely amazing! Great!

I really love seeing you creative process it definitely reminds me to take my time, do several put in the work and see it from all perspectives .... and to not be afraid to do several different renditions before committing to a final piece

Amazing as always! Thank you!

so freaking cool! thank you for being awesome :D

The dust bath dino is my favorite! Love the longer format of the video :D

just wow!! amazing artworks!

Nice! Very good how you just "eliminated" three dinosaurs with a few strokes of a green paint loaded brush!! Such awesome power an artist has, you know, moving mountains and such! Love these paintings and the reminder of my early days of painting wildlife, and making clay and card models of them for shadows and such as you did. Also painted them on paper or clear plastic and moved them around a blocked in background scene to see where they fit best In the composition. Good stuff!!

MASTERFUL WORK!!!

So inspiring. Beautuful illustrations.

You are simply an amazing person!

Man!!! I love your videos!!!

yeah you're my hero. thanks for getting kid-me into dinosaurs AND art

Amazing work, yet again :)

Thank you so much, this was very helpful! and Dinotopia is also a really great example of your great paintings, thank you for everything!

I click "like" before the video done loading to start haha thanks Gurney

Riveting! So much excellent information. Thank you for sharing your techniques for study and execution. Also, loved your comments around 4:19 (Dr Seuss character eyes!). Refreshing to know I'm not the only one who has to repeatedly erase sometimes to get something right. I feel inspired.

Just incredible

Thank you Mr Gurney for this another video ! Best Likes/Views ratio on youtube so far :D

You are the best Mr. Gurney! Un ARTIST

Love the way you say "maquette".

Generally I hold James Gurney very dear ever since my childhood with Dinotopia, I got into sculpting because of Imaginary Realism, to make maquettes - but the part around 2:50 about Sculpey as a base and something else on top was a big, very big "WAIT WHAT" moment. I've sculpted in detail, extreme detail, and Sculpey allows for all of it, while the maquette shown at that point...well, it's always quite educational for me to see how little is needed to serve its purpose, but that's the point: Compared to what you can do with Sculpey, that isn't even in the general ballpark of "detail". This really made me wonder whether I might have surpassed my idol, though only the regard of having my Sculpey in a better shape or knowing how to work with it better. Generally, if anything allows for greater detail than Sculpey, it means something's wrong with your Sculpey. I should be a sales agent for them I guess...

This guy is a master of world building right up there with some of the more popular fantasy authors.

You are my favourite artist since high shcool

thanks I learn so much in which way to improviseren my own painting.

Hope it's okay to leave a note here. The Met has opened what looks to be fascinating information and research on the works of Hercules Segers. For his time and they say very little travel had quite an imagination. If you and your family have time for the exhibit I hope they allow you all to make a video on it.

These paintings are awesome! Also thank you so much for pronouncing Bokeh correctly...

This was pretty rad

Fantastic! I never get tired of watching you create these paintings. I noticed at least one comment (on Facebook I think it was) from someone who said something like "birds didn't come from dinosaurs; God made birds all by themselves" , and I know one ornithologist (Kimball Garrett at the LA Natural History Museum) that pooh-poohs the idea as nonsense. But I have found the evidence too compelling and increasingly pervasive to ignore. Indeed, I only have to observe the ground-scurrying behavior of California Towhees or Northern Mockingbirds to convince me that birds evolved from reptilian dinosaurs; it is definitely lizard-like.

Can't I just like this video twice?

I Love your painting

this is passion

Woah! Cool

Your videos always inspire me to start painting i just need to find the time.

I've never been so glad to have followed the recommendation of a GG comment

I like this art Mr.Gurney I am very shocked at the level or detail

I enjoy watch that and also lending a lot.

You sir have a subscriber!

Its so different than want Im focused on for the last 8 years, that Ive forgotten how life was without bullshit such as social demands and other nonsense that lingers in a teenager's head. You can be fine without the need of other's approval is what Im learning at the moment and somehow people like Gurney and older people show tranquillity in one's self. Hope that the spelling is not shit which it probably is.

Nice. I want to try now.

Wonderfull video!

Beautiful work! I'm taking noted for my own artwork. one question tho: where did khaan's second-finger-feathers go?

Wouldn't it be cool if someone started making realistic (inexpensive) models of (At least) featherd dinosaurs. So instead of pink flamingos or Canada geese on your front lawn, you could have dinosaurs. Not T- Rex size, but perhaps Velociraptors size.

that was a lot of work dude wooow

Great tutorial, James! Unfortunately, I don’t use oil paints anymore. In the beginning, I discovered, almost right away that I couldn’t breathe around the turpentine or linseed oil. One of those. I only ever painted one oil painting, it was my only one,…ever. I don’t miss it. I’d rather breathe, tbh.

Genius!

I've always wondered what steps the process of painting feathered dinos typically includes :D the joke aside, very professional work!

Not to mention the new one’s being discovered!!!

Giant feathered carnivorous monsters: *existed* Me: M U S T H U G

man your cool!

U inspire me

Please do more dinosaurs!

James, as usual amazing. Have you considered Blender for trying modelling and lighting ideas? It gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility. I know it is not the real thing but with your experience, I am sure you can close the gap. I own your books. You certainly know how to teach without unnecessarily fluff. Thanks for sharing.

I LOVE your paleoart videos! Also, do you have any advice for aspiring paleoartists? I think I want to make a living as a paleoartist when I am older. I'm just not sure how...

I Love dinosaurs

4:39 I just give up when my paint looks like this

do you use watercolor or oil?