Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist

The definitive guide to painting believable scenes from your imagination, from dinosaurs to alien cities. If you want to create fantasy or science fiction art that feels real, this is where you learn how.

Why Start Here

Imaginative Realism was Gurney’s first instruction book, published a year before Color and Light. It reached number one on Amazon’s art instruction list and drew on decades of experience creating the Dinotopia series, National Geographic reconstructions, and concept art. The book covers the full workflow: researching your subject, building maquettes and scale models, gathering photo reference, sketching on location, and composing the final painting. Gurney shows you how to make impossible scenes convincing by grounding them in real observation.

This is not the recommended starting point because it assumes you already have a working knowledge of color and light. If you do, it is an extraordinary companion to Color and Light. If fantasy illustration, concept art, or historical reconstruction is specifically what draws you to painting, you could start here and circle back to the color theory later.

What to Expect

A 224-page paperback packed with process shots, sketches, maquette photographs, and finished paintings. Gurney walks through his own projects step by step, showing every stage from the initial idea to the final image. The writing is practical and specific. You will learn techniques most art schools do not teach, like how to build a small clay model of a creature so you can light it from different angles before painting. It reads like a masterclass from someone who has solved these problems thousands of times.