Models on show

Fossils, casts and murals abound in the main exhibition hall of the Carnegie, but there is also a small number of life-sized reconstructed models of a number of taxa (such as this wonderfully bristly Psittacosaurus above), especially around the small ‘Jehol’ section.Here we can see a fully feathered Caudipteryx, a deinonychosaur (I think it’s supposed to be Sinornithosaurus, but can’t remember) as well as a lovely swimming choristodere.
I really do like these kinds of thing and they seem to be rarely used in museums (I can sympathise, they can’t be cheap) and this is a great little set, that in particular complements the often 2-D nature of the Jehol preservation. Nicely done.

Guest Post: Scarfe’s snout

After a week of pterosaur posts, it’s time for Dave Martill to pitch in with this guest effort. Dave and Steve Etches have just described a new pterosaur and Dave has been kind enough to pen this little effort on the critter:

Cuspicephalus scarfi from the Late Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset is one of those irritating fossils. It was clearly a beautiful animal, with long, slender jaws and fine teeth that would have made it look impressive. It is without doubt a cracking fossil, displaying a near perfect right lateral outline, with only a little bit of the dorsal rest missing. OK, it is sad that the lower jaw and rest of skeleton is missing, but in the UK, this specimen is the best thing since the second specimen of Dimorphodon was discovered in the Lower Jurassic in the mid 1800s. But despite its near completeness for a British pterosaur skull, it is not entirely clear where it belongs in the grand scheme (or schemes), of pterosaur phylogeny. It appears to be a pterodactyloid similar to Germanodactylus on the basis of its single NAOF and straight dorsal border, but when compared with Darwinopterus, its affinities become less clear cut. Sure, it isn’t Darwinopterus, but it isn’t Germanodactylus in the strictest sense either. Dave Unwin thinks it might lie close to the base of Dsungaripteroidea, and I am inclined to agree, but caution that this is based mainly on the nature of its crest… not a good criterion given the distribution of elongate fibrous-looking crests in Pterosauria.

Cuspicephalus skull. From Martill & Etches, in press

Cuspicephalus was discovered by Steve Etches. Known to most UK vertebrate palaeontologists, Steve collects fossils exclusively from the Kimmeridge Clay of Dorset and has built up a renowned collection housed in the Museum of Jurassic Marine Life (MJML) in Kimmeridge, Dorset. Steve discovered Cuspi on the wave cut platform in Kimmerdge Bay and reckons that one more tide would have destroyed it. Steve has found several other pterosaurs in the Kimmeridge Clay, some of which are represented by associated remains attributable to an animal close to Rhamphorhynhcus, and currently being examined by PhD student Michael O’Sullivan. A few specimens in Steve’s MJML have been identified as representing a germanodactylid by DMU, and it is possible that these elements are from the same animal as Cuspicephalus: clearly Steve needs to get out and find the complete skeleton. (Late edit: bonus images courtesy of Dave).

The name Cuspicephalus is derived from the sharp pointed nature of the skull in lateral view, and I suspect in dorsal view too, but Kimmeridge Clay fossils are rather 2D to tell. The specific epithet honours Gerald Scarfe CBE. Scarfe is known to most UK citizens as the artist who provided the caricatures for the intro to the extremely popular satirical TV series Yes Minister and follow up Yes Prime Minister. Both were excellent lampoons of the UKs higher civil servants and mainly incompetent elected politicians. Globally Scarfe is known to several generations of Pink Floyd fans as the artist behind The Wall (album, film and more).

Margret Thatcher as drawn by Gerald Scarfe. Courtesy Dave Martill

To readers of certain newspapers and periodicals Scarfe is loved or laothed for hard hitting political caricatures, and in particular those of British Prime Ministers and other notorious world leaders. Many were reproducible in daily newspapers, but others remained within the underground literature for reasons of decency (check out Rupert bear ****ing Mary Whitehosue with the Pope watching on). One cartoon of Scarfe’s that stands out is a caricature of Margaret Thatcher, an ex British Prime Minister who Scarfe Portrayed as a Tory blue, saggy-breasted pterodactyle, and therefore it seemed only fair that he should be honoured. Scarfe’s cartoon might have the number of fingers wrong, and he might have followed the Frey and Riess model for the orientation of the pteroid, but we all know he got the colour right.

Pip pip
Martill

Want to do some dinosaur art?

NOW CLOSED

I am genuinely interested in palaeoart and the act of reconstructing representations of dinosaurs as living animals from the fossil record. Indeed for me it’s the final extension of what I do as a palaeontologist in trying to produce the information that allows us to bring these long dead animals back to life.

However, I’m well aware of the fact that a great many of my friends in this field struggle to make a living, and despite their willingness to produce works on my behalf (and those of others) they are often not renumerated to the degree they should be. This makes me feel exceptionally guilty, but there’s not much I can do about it. I simply don’t have the money available for such things and all I can do is showcase their works and talent. A number of other people have generously volunteered their services at various times and have been kind enough to produce work that links to my research. Even here though, I feel I’m picking on the select ‘few’ when I know there are many people out there (and a large number who read this blog) would have liked a crack at whatever new thing in being described.

Bearing all that in mind, I though it time to open something up to anyone. A chance for any person who is interested to get a jump on a project and produce something in relation to it. I have an interesting specimen which is being written up for a paper and I’m giving people the chance to illustrate this. If you want to join in, all you have to do is e-mail me, or add a comment below and I’ll send you what you need.

The ‘rules’ as such are as follows:

1. The images etc. I send are private and should not be published or sent around etc. to anyone until the paper is out. Nor for that matter should you publish any sketches etc. Sorry about this, but the research should be kept private and of course the museum that owns the specimen and the curators who looks after it have their rules too about such use. It’s pretty much normal practice though.

2. You should discuss this work only with me, or another person you know to be illustrating this. I’m not that secretive about my research, but equally I can’t control a disparate group of people either, so the easiest and ‘safest’ thing to do is this.

3. Any submission I get will be published on the Musings (credited of course) when the paper is out (assuming you want that!). If you have done something and it’s ready in time I will post it.

4. Assuming we get media interest in this, I will make all images available to the media (credited of course, and with your permission) and thus may get some serious online interest.

5. I will attempt to provide such scientific guidance and feedback for the work as far as possible to help this on it’s way, though of course I can’t necessarily give tons of help if I have a dozen (or maybe even many more) people to deal with.

Edit: 6. Following the first few comments I realise that just to cover myself in case of any eventuality I reserve the right to have to change these rules and especially limit the number of participants. I simply can’t help / handle dozens of people, so if *everyone* signs up I may have to cut this down / hold a lottery / something. I hope it won’t come to that, but understand that 100 people could sign up and I can’t offer the time to help them all and I’d be uncomfortable sending out this stuff to such a huge number of people.

What I really hope this is, is a chance for people who want their work to be seen and to work with me on a project (getting some real help about anatomy etc.) and, well, have their work seen and recognised. What I hope this is not and I’m trying hard to make sure it isn’t, is exploitative. I know loads of people out there simply want to paint and draw dinosaurs and rush to be among the first to do so when something new comes out. If that’s happening anyway, then here’s a chance for you to do that with the researcher in question and get a headstart and real feedback on the subject (even if there’s a whole bunch of people in the same position).

I should add at this point that the paper is really not much more than a sketch right now and I don’t expect to finish the writing for a good few weeks or even a few months and then of course there are reviews etc. I’ll be surprised if this is formally published in the next 3-4 months, and it could easily be twice that (and more if there are big delays or bad luck). Either way, time is on your side, so don’t feel you have tyo go mad and get scribbling, but be warned that I have only limited control over when the ‘deadline’ will be. The paper is not about a new species but deals with dinosaur behaviour.

So, if you still want in, drop me a line or add a comment below. In a couple of weeks, I’ll put together a package of photos and files and send them out and let you get started.

NOW CLOSED

 

Palaeoart roundup

My palaeoart interviews have now been going for quite a while and seem to be very popular. However, if I’m honest, I’m really starting to run out of people to interview. I try to cover those who works I genuinely like or have a strong personal connection to. Fortunately a great many artists have been good enough to give me their time and loan me their works to build up my interview portfolio, but with this starting to wind down it seemed a good opportunity to create this clearing house and provide a list of all of those who have generously contributed. I do have a few more requests out there with people so I certainly hope this is not the end of the palaeoart interviews, but its might well be the beginning of the end.

Here then is the roll call (in alphabetical order):

Wayne Barlowe

Brett Booth

Brian Choo

John Conway

Julius Csotonyi

Mick Ellison

Larry Felder

James Gurney

Mark Hallett

Doug Henderson

David Krentz

Todd Marshall

Jeff Martz

Julia Molnar

Bob Nicholls

Luis Rey

Jim Robbins

John Sibbick

Mike Skrepnick

Adam Smith

William Stout

Bob Walters & Tess Kissinger

Steve White

Mark Witton

My thanks to them all and I hop to add to this list soon.

Doug Henderson sketchbook

Yesterday, palaeoart great Doug Henderson was kind enough to talk about his artworks in an interview on the Musings. In addition to the wealth of dinosaur art he loaned me for the interview, he also sent on a bunch of his landscape sketches on which his art is built. Those familiar with Doug’s work will know that the backgrounds (and even foregrounds) are richly decorated and detailed and provides a very strong frame for his dinosaurs, so in addition to their own value as art, this provide a nice insight into how his palaeoart is created.

Interview with Doug Henderson

This is a really special interview for me as Doug is my personal favourite palaeoartist and I know a lot of the people currently working in the area admit something similar. His old website is no more, though fortunately some of it is archived here and actually Doug’s e-bay store has a good collection of quite high quality versions of his artwork (and of course sells prints!). I’ll leave it there and let his words and images tell the story. Oh yes, and do come back tomorrow – Doug has also sent me a selection of his field sketches of landscapes etc. and I’ll be putting these up in an additional post rather than overfill this one. As usual these works are Doug’s, he owns the copyrights to his artwork and these should not be reproduced or used without his permission blah blah etc. Now, go enjoy:

Interview with William Stout

Today I’m delighted to bring an interview with William Stout. A well known artist in his own right with movie posters, comics and sci fi credits to his name, he also has a major ‘sideline’ in dinosaurs and fossil animals.

As ever please respect this artwork and don’t use it or link to it. I have it on generous loan from William.

What secrets lurk unknown?

In addition to the official talks and posters at SVPCA there’s always various discussions and meet-ups to get people talking and the science discussed. This year however there was a bonus presentation by John Conway on ideas that might just be possible (if incredibly unlikely) for dinosaurs that we can’t disprove becuase we have only bones and tracks. In short, John was deliberately pushing into the territory of the deeply implausible and reasonably unreasonable reconstructions to give us a good laugh, but also make us think.

This was described by Mike Taylor as “Brilliant but retarded” and it was an apt description. The images were, as ever fro John, beautiful and evocative, but the ideas mental and would be ludicrous were it not for the fact that they are just sort of remotely possible and he knew full well what he was doing. Anyway here are a few of them. My thank to John for letting me use them and a reminder that these come courtesy of John’s Ontograph Studios.

First off, a near impossibly well camoflaged Majungasaurus:

Second here’s some monstrously fat Parasaurolophus. They rather remind me of sheep in their shape, though of course without the wool.

Moving towards sauropods, here’s a Camarasaurus (well, a young one) rolling in mud as a sunblock and general skin treatment plan. The point here is not so much the mud rolling, which seems pretty likely to me, but really could a sauropod get down and really roll around like that?

Next up, John’s tribute to a famous photo of a duck. Who knows, maybe Citipati really did have this:

And finally this picture of Tenontosaurus. As John notes, contrary to every other piece of palaeoart of this animal ever, at least some individuals probably spent some of their time not being torn aprat by a pack of Deinonychus.

Interview with Adam Smith

It’s been a while but I now have the latest interview ready. Today it’s Adam Smith who I’ve known since I was starting my PhD at Bristol and Adam was doing the Masters course there. Adam’s art has appeared in a number of museums and books, but there’s a ton of it online in his various websites. Like me Adam is very big on his outreach and was one of the key people to help Dinobase up and running before starting Plesiosauria, the Dinosaur Toy blog and of course, Dinosaurs and their Biscuits. Oh yes, and i should add that Adam is currently based at Think Tank in Birmingham as the Natural Science Curator, home of, amongst other things, a hell of a nice Tricertaops skull.

How long have you been producing palaeoart?
I doodled dinosaurs all through my childhood. This eventually lead to a productive phase in my early 20s when I produced most of my ‘proper’ illustrations. These days other work keeps me busy so I only pick up
the pencils occasionally.

What first got you interested in dinosaurs and art?
The urge to draw dinosaurs was always a manifestation of my fascination with prehistoric life. But who knows where that came from? I’d love to indulge in fascinating anecdotes but I can’t truthfully point my finger at anything in particular – I enjoyed drawing dinosaurs so I did. Something must have lodged deep inside my brain at an early age. I do have photographic evidence of a trip to the Natural History Museum in London when I was about five years old – so maybe that’s it!

What is your favourite piece of palaeo art that you have produced?
The illustration I’m most pleased with is my Elasmosaurus (above). Some illustrations come together without a hitch, whereas others require constant tweaking or modifying. This one came together easily and I feel I captured a certain grace. It’s also the image that receives the most enquiries from people who want to use it, which I think also says a lot. Most of my artwork consists of pencil illustrations and I rarely break out the paints, so for this reason I’m also fond of my painting of a Scelidosaurus (below).

Who is your favourite palaeoartist or piece of palaeoart?

Every artist brings something different to the table so the more the merrier. Previous interviewees have already mentioned the big players in the world of palaeoart (the interviewees often are the big players!) and I enjoy them all too. But as a youngster I was also hugely inspired by the work of Graham Rosewarne whose work populated the pages of a magazine (‘Dinosaurs!’) and some popular books I read in the early 90s. His crisp, sharp style of illustration influenced mine considerably.

I’m not sure I have an absolute favourite piece of palaeoart though, so I’ll pick something a little different instead – dinosaur toys! I don’t know who sculpted the Natural History Museum’s old Invicta line of prehistoric animal replicas, but they are by far and away my favourite pieces of palaeoart.

What is your favourite dinosaur / archosaur?

As a researcher I work mainly on plesiosaurs and other fossil marine reptiles, so it will come as no surprise that my favourite prehistoric beastie is a plesiosaur – Attenborosaurus.

Is there any animal you would like to paint but have not?

I should really get around to drawing Attenborosaurus.

Bob & Tess Update

After the palaeoart interview of last week Bob and Tess got back in touch with two revised images. A large sample of the Carnegie museum mural and a revised version of the Giganotosaurs art with (hopfully) slightly less bright greens. People might have missed these updates, hence the separate post.

 

 

Double palaeoart interview with Bob & Tess

Often known by just their first names, Bob Walters and Tess Kissinger form the Bob & Tess team that run their own palaeoart studio. I pitched them the usual bunch of questions, but the nature of their collaborative work means that the replies are a mix of their answers. So sit back and enjoy a sort of a double interview. All images theirs, copyright, blah blah, kind permission, you know the drill by now.

How long have you been an artist?

Bob and Tess: we have both been artists since we could pick up a crayon.  Each of us was the class cartoonist and went from taking every art class we could in High School directly to Art School.  Bob graduated from The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and did his science academics at University of Pennsylvania, Tess at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Bob:  I really flummoxed this fine old fine art institution which graduated Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins and many other early American painters by wanting to illustrate science.  It may have been the late 60s but there was no hipness to the curriculum at PAFA which suited me just fine.  Anatomy came first and foremost.  I took additional graphics classes and learned all I could about the process of various kinds of printing too.

Tess: Carnegie had a school of engineering as well as art and I found myself gravitating toward art and science as well, but for me it was the interface between art and physics.  Until I met Bob anyway – although we still enjoy a glass of wine and a discussion of the nature of gravity in the garden on warm summer nights.  What nerds we are!

Plateosaurus by Bobby W. 1953

How long have you been producing palaeoart?

Bob: here is an example of some of my paleoart at age 4.I have pretty much been drawing dinosaurs all my life but I didn’t get my first paying dinosaur art job until 1978 when I produced a large-format illustration children’s dinosaur book called “Dinosaurs, The Terrible Lizards” from E. P. Dutton.  I had improved a lot by then.

Plateosaurus by Bob Walters 1978

Tess: I enjoyed hanging around with paleontologists but I didn’t start illustrating dinosaurs until I worked with Bob on the Creative Discovery Museum in 1995.  We moved to the new studio, I quit my job and we decided to try to make a go of it as a new company, Walters & Kissinger.

What first got you interested in dinosaurs and art?

Bob: That’s an easy one, I remember the exact day, year, almost the exact hour- September 7, 1953 at around 4 o’clock in the afternoon- when I saw the gatefold cover to LIFE Magazine with the illustration of Zallinger’s mural from the Peabody on it.  I asked my mother if dinosaurs were real and she said they were and we traveled to see exhibits of them at museums up and down the East Coast. (I was raised in Delaware)  It was just a natural fit I think, to live in a place so immersed in the Brandywine tradition of illustrators and have access to so many dinosaur museums- being a dinosaur illustrator was what I wanted to do right from the start.  The funny thing is that I thought it was my unique place in my family and then I found out that my great uncle Robert, after whom I was named, traveled with Marsh on dinosaur digs when he was at Yale. Maybe it was in my genes AND my environment!

Tess: I really fell in love with the beauty of the fossils first.  As an adult.  And I enjoyed the company of paleontologists so well that their natural enthusiasms sort of rubbed off. And then of course, I was living with Bob!

What is your favourite piece of palaeo art that you have produced?

I think we would both agree that it is the mural of the Hell Creek environment (below) that we did for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.  The museum specified a morning, rainy environment for the Triassic (Chinle) mural, an afternoon lighting for the Jurassic (Morrison) mural and the sun setting on the dinosaurs for the Cretaceous ( Hell Creek) mural.  This fading light gave us an opportunity to do such a pretty painting as well as a description of the environment.

Who is your favourite palaeoartist or piece of palaeoart?

Both of us would have to say Charles R. Knight. Just love him as a colorist and a “painterly” painter.  These days, everything is so 3D digital that we ask ourselves, “How real is too real?”  I mean, we are giving the impression with 3D digital that we know the size and mass and color and environment of these things and we sure don’t.  We both like digital media and use it, but we prefer an artists’ life restoration to be more artistic- and we worry that paleoart is trying to convince the public that we know more than we do.

 
What is your favourite dinosaur / archosaur?

Bob: it is usually the ones I am working on currently but perennial faves are T. rex and Deinonychus. And I have a special place in my heart for Giganotosaurus.  I did the first scientific life restoration of it, my first SVP poster about it, and its skull lived here in the studio while its body was mounted at the Academy of Natural Sciences.

Tess:  I am a fan of Stegosaurus.  It is just so “showy”.

Is there any animal you would like to paint but have not?

Bob: I ‘d like a chance to work on mammal-like reptiles more. Particularly the pelicosaurs.  And Dimetrodon which I have only gotten to work on a couple of times, especially after a conversation with Bob Bakker a couple of years ago about Dimetrodon ecology.

What do you think is the most important part of good palaeoart?

Bob and Tess:  We both think the most important part of being a paleoartist is working with paleontologists and doing our own research to reconstruct from the fossil evidence to fleshed-out animal.  Careful measuring of material, consultation with the paleontologists who are most familiar with the animal – these are the ways that you can be assured that, if not right forever, you have done the best work with what we knew at the time. Right now, working on the mural for Dinosaur National Monument, we have to portray 64 different species of plants and animals which are represented by fossils at the site, many of whom have never been illustrated before, and are known from fragmentary evidence – that is when the paleoartist most has to rely on the paleontologists who discovered these species to come as close as possible to a correct representation of the animals. Can’t release any pics of the work until October – sorry.

Interview with Jim Robins

Today Jim Robins kindly submits to the rigour of a Musings palaeoart interview. He also near buried me in art so while there’s the normal selection through the interview, some of the extras are included at the end. And Jim also has a blog where you can see still more images.

How long have you been an artist?

I graduated from Brighton College of Art in 1971 as an illustrator, husband and father….a traumatic condition requiring income, and substantial quantities of it. Art college education in those days didn’t really prepare one for the harsh world of commerce ( still doesn’t, I understand ) but I was up for anything and, sadly, still am. Was launched into the world of encyclopedias – Mitchell Beazley, Joy of Knowledge – which would require in short order drawings of anything and everything, from Dinosaurs to steam locomotion, from political analysis to psychological problems. Then to DK, cookbooks, gardening books, health books, sex books, DIY books, a phenomenal variety of stuff. Early in my career, in fact as a student, I fell in with Giovanni Caselli, who was a strong influence over my style of working. Haven’t seen him for decades, but manage to stay in occasional e-mail contact.

How long have you been producing palaeoart ?

First Dinosaur book was 1974, but I think we ought to skirt around that one….by the 1980′s, because my favoured technique tended to be line and wash you’d most often find me in the add-on ‘technical’ sections of palaeontological publication, the skeletons, the muscle structures etc, especially in a ground breaking series of books for Kingfisher ( I believe then still Grisewood + Dempsey ) authored by a young fellow by the name of Michael Benton…..The line and wash thing was then a bit of a bug-bear, publishers disliked it because if the printing register was off by a micron you had a nightmare, or they did. I tried to be John Sibbick, but it just didn’t work…..

What first got you interested in dinosaurs and art ?

For the former, being dragged around the Nat.Hist.Mus. on wet Sundays…..for the latter, there’s not much else I’m competent at……..

What’s your favourite piece of palaeo art that you have produced ?

Don’t think I’ve done it yet. There are odd things that I’ve felt happy with as a job competently done, Caudipteryx four-view for instance (shown below), drawn from the first published fossils, in need of serious reappraisal now, but at the time satisfyingly close to the mark. There was a time in the mid 1990′s when I was energetically proposing that this was the way to read Dinosaurs, four-view aviation style diagrams, much in the style of Profile publications much beloved of airheads and motor-nuts in the ’60′s and ’70′s. Unfortunately this coincided with the first ‘Walking with….’ where they did just that, digitally and in motion. Fortunately by that time I was a political cartoonist…….

Who is your favourite palaeoartist or piece of palaeoart ?

Difficult, there are so many, over the long term I guess I’ve been most in awe of Burian, then John Sibbick, a singular talent ( maybe coloured by not being able to do it myself ), Carl Buell, Anton, Csotonyi, Rauol Martin, Gurney etc etc. Luis Rey for brave ( and predictive ) eccentricity, of course Greg Paul – although I fear I’m well beyond the pale in reference to his recent palaeoart criticisms on DML. Similarly in awe of the digitalists, some of whom are also above, but I worry about an ‘over-plasticity’ ( probably ‘cos I can’t do that either ) but I also like Mr Witton – who makes it look like he didn’t use a computer at all.

What is your favourite dinosaur / archosaur ?

Love’em all……It’s the constantly evolving / reappraising thing about this branch of the study I enjoy. I have a long term unfinished project here on Australian Megafauna which is an occasional preoccupation. This also started in the mid 1990′s with a Platypus analysis – only hampered by there being no Platypi in the UK – but I’ll get there one day. In the meantime I’m a political cartoonist….or did I mention that ?

Is there any animal you would like to paint but haven’t ?

Probably.

What do you think is the most important part of good palaeoart ?

I guess to describe the beast as completely as possible according to the available information. To make the viewer believe in what they’re looking at, if possible to place it convincingly in it’s environment…..not, as it would seem so many publishers want, to be constantly rushing at you out of page or screen, red in tooth and claw.

Perhaps at this stage I should declare myself a fraud and a charlatan…..there have been many years when most of my income and future aspirations were derived from palaeontological illustration……I have to admit it’s been a while since I earned a red (green, or gold) cent from palaeoart. Probably not talkin’ to the right people…….list me amongst the political cartoonists……  J.