James Gurney writes my favorite art blog, the "Gurney Journey," updated every day. You can find it here: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/ . The blog explores art technique, art history, the science behind art, and many other subjects. It also showcases Gurney's bravura draftsmanship and his mastery of many media -- oil, watercolor, gouache, casein, graphite.
Gurney is best known for his wonderful multi-book series "Dinotopia," but I most enjoy the little gouache and watercolor paintings he does in his small sketchbook. You can even get apps containing the sketches as well as sound and video relating to the scenes James paints. Check one out here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/living-sketchbook-vol-1-boyhood-home/id1209783393?ls=1&mt=8
Mr. Gurney was in town today, and he gave a talk at the Yellow Barn Studio here in Glen Echo, Maryland. It was great! First he spoke about composition, and he elaborated on some of the themes from his blog -- e.g., that people don't view pictures the way art professors have long assumed, that figures and faces often draw more attention than high-contrast points or "golden mean" spots, etc. His second talk was about faces -- about the curious ways in which we recognize faces. (One interesting result of empirical study: women recognize faces better than men, but men recognize vehicles better than women.) Finally he did a delightful gouache portrait demo of a courtly gentleman dressed in period attire. If he posts the picture on his blog, I'll link it here.
Anyway, check out the Gurney Journey!