James Gurney (born June 14, 1958) is an American artist and author known for his illustrated book series Dinotopia, which is presented in the form of a 19th-century explorer's journal from an island utopia cohabited by humans and dinosaurs.
[1] He studied anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a bachelor of arts degree with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1979.
[1] Gurney met his wife, fellow artist Jeanette, as a sketching partner[3] in Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California.
Gurney and Kinkade also worked as painters of background scenes[8] for the animated film Fire and Ice (1983), co-produced by Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta.
Starting in 1983, he began work on over a dozen assignments for National Geographic magazine, including reconstructions of the ancient Moche, Kushite, and Etruscan civilizations, and the Jason and Ulysses voyages for Tim Severin.
The inspiration that came from researching these archaeological reconstructions led to a series of lost-world panoramas, including Waterfall City (1988) and Dinosaur Parade (1989).