Imaginative Realism

After my first few studies of picture books I realised that I have an interest in the boundaries or merging between reality and fantasy. Due to this I decide to read much of Imaginative Realism by James Gurney. As creator of Dinotopia James has become highly regarded within the fantasy realism realm. There are several topics which I find of interest within the book although most tend to relate to  working practises and techniques.
James describes methods he uses to enable him to gain a fresh eye upon a piece of work. Games just to loosen up, looking into thumbnails in detail are covered. The most useful information to me seems to be on colour experiments and tonal studies. The reason these may become important to me is that I feel that these areas of my work can sometimes be my weakest. Thus learning how to improve on these could help me significantly in the future. Learning about tone and colour are probably regarded as some of the fundamental elements of art. This is something that I have been thinking about since meeting Martin Salisbury at the weekend. He made such an emphasis on observational drawing and building a solid foundation of art practises was key in underpinning all art. The use of experimenting with colour and tonal values is something I will bring into this project once I begin to create works. These will then be referenced more specifically as I use or learn from each. Below are just some of the pages of interests to show what may become instrumental in future work.