22 books like James Gurney Art

This was a book I wanted for a long time but it was out of print for decades. Finally, back in print in 2012, this has long been considered the bible for illustrators and visual artists of all stripes. Packed to the brim with useful and unique insights, this book covers figurative art comprehensively. From lighting to shadows, mood, and composition, it’s all here and explained in the clearest and most insightful way imaginable.

If ever there was a truly timeless book that explained the core principles of visual art, this is it. For me, it is an academy in itself. A book that will give you a lifetime of enjoyment and reward you with fresh insights every time you pick it up.

When I needed some practical insights into how to apply my theoretical knowledge this is the book I turned to. Light is what gives objects their form, and so it’s at the heart of this guide to rendering with both traditional and digital media by Scott Robertson. Very detailed and highly technical, this book gave me all the practical tools and techniques I needed to depict light and form accurately.

Any questions I had on how to depict lighting effects accurately were answered comprehensively in this book. From how to plot cast shadows, or create realistic surfaces made from a wide range of materials from wood, to cloth, or different types of metal, it’s all in here.

I love this book because it is as easy on the eye as it is insightful, with beautiful illustrations that perfectly complement the written content. Light and shadow are tackled with a noir aesthetic that is unique and very compelling.

Aside from the incredible visuals, what this book imparts most of all is how to use light as a storytelling and compositional device. And it does it in such style that I enjoy coming back to it again and again.

When I couldn’t truly see light, I couldn’t really understand it. There is a reason why we don’t notice the subtleties of light in our everyday lives, and it’s because our brains filter it out. This book gave me a key that unlocked the art of seeing so that I could see the world as it really is rather than the simplified version that my brain presented me with.

A must for any visual artist, this book gave me the most fundamental insight that I could ever hope for: it taught me to see the world as I’d never seen it before. This was a life-changing gift.

James Gurney originally intended this to be a children’s book, but strong interest by adult readers changed his mind, and the three subsequent tales were developed as young-and-old-alike books. The stories are textually brief, but that lack is more than compensated by Gurney’s many illustrations, which tell much of the story visually.

The artwork initially attracted me, but I also found the reading quite engaging. Central to the story are father-and-son castaways Arthur and Will Denison, storm-tossed onto an uncharted south-sea island where dinosaurs still hold sway.

I found the notion of intelligent, peaceful, talking dinosaurs to be conceptually engaging and very unlike Jurassic Park’s huge, uncommunicative, and superlatively dangerous beasts.

Golem’s illustrations are certainly not detailed in the same way as the others on this list; the imagery in this retelling of the Golem of Prague story is composed entirely of colorful cut paper, layered and woven into bold, dynamic scenes. Whereas the first four books I’ve recommended invite hours of poring over worldbuilding detail and density of information, Golem compels readers to marvel over the construction of its illustrations. How does the golem pierce through the spidery paper web of paper smoke? How are the sheets stacked to imply depth and shadow? Is this seriously all paper?! 

Richard Scarry books are nostalgic gold. There’s so much going on on every page, and I remember it all like it was yesterday (which it probably was, because half of the illustrations are on Twitter as memes).

The little vignettes cover all the traditional kids’ book themes—firemen, policemen, ship voyages, road construction—but then go further. Everyone is a Worker talks about how money flows through the economy, and Wood & How We Use It discusses a supply chain, from raw materials to production and manufacturing to transportation (albeit in grossly unrealistic trucks). 

While Spring Story is the first book in Jill Barklem’s Brambly Hedge series, all eight of them are bursting with sumptuous, hyper-detailed illustrations of a pastoral mouse society in the English countryside. Barklem’s watercolors are jam-packed (literally – so many jars of jam) with mouth-watering baked goods, flowers, and trees that any gardener would envy, and one of my favorite illustration techniques ever – the cutaway – to show the layout of the mice’s treehouses, flour mill, and other buildings that keep the tight-knit mouse village running smoothly. If you've ever salivated over the feasts of Redwall but been less-than-enthusiastic about the possibility of a weasel massacre, let the ever-sunny Spring Story scratch that itch in full, vibrant color.

The concept of this story is amazing, especially at a time when they are “bringing back” different species. I am often amazed at what scientists have been able to accomplish in real life, and it’s even more fun to read about it in fiction. 

Another thing that I loved about this story is how it shows that nature cannot be contained. We can manipulate it, but we’d better not make too many assumptions about how things will progress because nature has its own way of doing things.

The characters were also great in both the book and the movie.

In addition to his Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s dinosaur adventure story delivers world-class excitement and deeply satisfying reading. Doyle’s story of explorers who find living dinosaurs in the Amazonian rainforest can hardly be matched for its originality.

I read it long ago and found it so memorable it was worth another read more recently. And I’m glad I did. The dinosaurs are portrayed dramatically, to say the least, but I was also impressed by rereading that the characters were quite ingenious. Professor Challenger, the expedition leader, is a gruff, highly irascible fellow, given to brawling as much as to debate. Ned Malone, newspaper reporter, and central “I “ character is a riveting taleteller and keen observer of dinosaurian and human nature.