Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart [Hardcover]

Steve White (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: September 4, 2012

A paleoartist is an illustrator who specialises in the science and art of reconstructing ancient animals and their world.

In Dinosaur Art, ten of the top contemporary paleoartists reveal a selection of their work and exclusively discuss their working methods and distinct styles.

Filled with breathtaking artwork - some never before seen - and cutting edge paleontology, this is a treasure trove for dinosaur enthusiasts, art lovers and budding illustrators.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'An absolute pleasure to pore over, and almost every page is a window into a vanished world....the lavish art and interviews will undoubtedly inspire the next generation of great paleoartists...." – Smithsonian

'Alas, there were no photographers around to record the gruesome events. Fortunately for us, there are some highly skilled paleoartists who can provide a realistic look at dinosaur predation ...' – Huffington Post

'Dinosaur Art and the artists whose work is displayed within its pages are a feast for the mind, the senses, and the imagination. It strives to illustrate not only the dinosaurs, but the art and science that bring them alive for us all.'  – Red Orbit

'Magnificent, awe-inspiring, mind-blowing… words truly can’t describe the level of artistic mastery showcased in this collection. Bottom line: If you’re a dinosaur aficionado, regardless of age, you need to experience Dinosaur Art. This is a book to be savored, shared, and cherished.' – B&N Book Blog

'In his new "Dinosaur Art" book, paleo-artist and comics editor Steve White reveals the beauty, brawn and mystique of these giant beasts that walked the Earth millions of years ago.' – Live Science (www.livescience.com)

'Titan Books, publishers of this coffee-table book that is sure to be a phenomenon amongst paleontology enthusiasts, outdid themselves splendidly and an extra round of applause should definitely go their way!' – Killer Aphrodite

"Perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about Earth's history, or just wants to escape to a world of giant monsters who happened to be real." – io9

About the Author

Steve White has drawn dinosaurs since he was four, for fun and professionally.

Mauricio Anton has created artwork for museum exhibits worldwide.

John Conway has worked on projects for the Discovery Channel and the American
Museum of Natural History.

Julius Csotonyi has produced work for 25 publishers and museum exhibits, including National Geographic.

Douglas Henderson was credited as a 'Dinosaur Specialist' on Jurassic Park, and his artwork can actually be seen hanging in John Hammond's room in Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World!

Todd Marshall is best known for his collaborations with renowned paleontologist,
Paul Serono.

Raúl Martin's stunning oil and digital paintings have also appeared as murals in museums across the planet.

Robert Nicholls' illustrations, murals and 3D models are exhibited all around the world.

Gregory S. Paul has renamed several dinosaurs, and has been active in such fields as dinosaur physiology and thermodynamics. He was heavily involved in advising the filmmakers of Jurassic Park and several TV series.

Luis Rey illustrated Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages.

John Sibbick has been an independent illustrator for 30 years.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 188 pages
• Publisher: Titan Books; First Edition edition (September 4, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0857685848
• ISBN-13: 978-0857685841
• Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 12.1 x 10.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Animals > Dinosaurs
  • #11 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Paleontology
  • #12 in Books > Arts & Photography > Other Media > Mixed Media

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Best Book On Paleoart -- Outstanding September 7, 2012

By Ulrich

Format:Hardcover

This book collects virtually all of the best modern paleoartists into one spectacular volume. *Every* heavy hitter is here, and they range from digital artists to black and white "point" drawings; the publisher must have worked awfully hard to get so many top-notch artists into one volume. It is a definitive collection, and will probably remain THE definitive collection of paleoart for many years. Not only are the artists all extremely skilled, they show considerable ingenuity in the scenarios they depict ... for example, two giant Quetzalcoatus defending their flamingo-like nest against a much smaller juvenile T. Rex. And all the art is consistent with and informed by the best current paleontological research. As mentioned by the other reviewer, the art is not limited to just dinosaurs, which is a plus, despite the title. There are also prehistoric mammals, tetrapods, and such.

If there is one negative, it's that you will probably have seen many of these images before, simply because this is a "greatest hits" package of paleoart. Therefore if you have previously spent any time reading books on paleontology that include great artwork, then you will have run across a number of these images before this collection. But there is so much content overall that you will surely have seen only a fraction of it. Not only is the art great, but the text is very interesting as well.

Fun fact: The cover picture with the crocodilian attacking the T. Rex is epic (which you can see in the Amazon picture), but if you take off the dust jacket, there is also underneath a rather amazing image of two silver dinosaur skeletons battling against a black background, all done in very technical and precise anatomical detail.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy It November 22, 2012

By Andrew A. Pearson

Format:Hardcover

Buy it.
Without reservation, buy it.

Not every illustration is excellent, and there is one I would describe as quite poor. However, most are absolutely outstanding and more than outweigh the (few) disappointing illustrations.
If you are even vaguely interested in paleontology, buy this book, the artwork gives a amazing new perspective on extinct life (not just dinosaurs).

One of the best books on ancient life I have encountered, a comment I make from the standpoint of quite a substantial collection of such books.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book, really nice September 5, 2012

By mikeinLA

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is loaded with great, full color depictions of beautiful, sometimes stunning, artwork. This is a nice, detailed introduction a number of accomplished, extremely talented artists, with lots of examples of their (very good) work. The artwork is not limited to dinosaurs - it includes prehistoric reptiles, and there is a section with pretty incredible art by Mauricio Anton depicting prehistoric mammals. I just got the book, so I have not read all of the text (there are a lot of interviews with the artists, etc.), but even just a quick run-through tells me that if you enjoy looking at pictures of what these animals probably looked like (OK, colors are anybody's guess, but you have to decide on something), you will love this book - it is a great value just for the number and quality of the pictures alone.

30 of 41 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Greatest? Not quite, still missing some of the greatest paleoartists September 20, 2012

By Coopernicus

Format:Hardcover

"Dinosaur Art". Excited to hear it and simultaneously I was put off by the simplicity of the title. Couldn't the author or publisher come up with something more imaginative? More all-encompassing considering there's more than just dinosaurs here? I know the reason - search engine purposes. Dinosaur Art is so broad it's bound to turn up and lure buyers.
To subtitle it "The World's Greatest Paleoart" took some moxy considering with ten artists they just scratched the surface. Anyone thinking this is a critical overview or covers the comprehensive evolution of paleoart is mistaken. No such book exists (not even books by Rudwick, Davidson or Debus). This project was a paleofan's wish to compile his current favorite artists in one book, and probably have an excuse of speaking to them. So what you have is contemporary dinosaur art padded out with some basic Q & A.
I found the selection too Eurocentric. But what do you expect from a UK publisher? If you have wondered, where are the North American giants Mark Hallett? Larry Felder? James Gurney? Michael Skrepnick? Bill Stout? Karen Carr? Bob Walters? David Peters? Carl Buell? What about the Southern Hemisphere - Jorge Blanco? Peter Trusler? Some of these and others were approached by the author but there were space limits and disagreements about licensing/payments/royalties.
Let's hope a second volume can be produced with those or others, if Titan feels this one is successful. Dinosaur art books are always risky. Until then you have your Prehistoric Times interviews to fill in much of the same profiles.

Busy busy Phil Currie seems to be the first call paleontologist on these art books (see Dinosaur Imagery) and his foreword this time out seems generic, canned.... No remarks are made about specific artists or their art, and nothing in it suggests he even saw so much as even a rough preview of this book.
Scott "Dino Train" Sampson was asked to write the introduction. It's clear he at least did review the book or the artwork.
Why Prehistoric Times' editor Mike Fredericks is credited is curious too. For an advance "thanks" for forthcoming praise/plugging in his magazine?

These are tinted versions of b/w Gregory Paul drawings we have seen in Paul's Predatory Dinosaurs of the World. The Jurassic scene is in front, the Cretaceous in back, but the credits say otherwise. I noticed some of the publication years are not right too. The resting Deinonychus pair at night, reprinted here fairly small, is listed as being from 1987 but it's from 1980. Historically that makes a difference.

Perhaps the scope of the book was narrower than I would have liked but I feel there should have been at least a bibliography listing books or works by the artist. Many books are cited throughout the interviews and it would have been a no-brainer to try to list these at the end. We do get a glossary and a timeline which was considerate. I wish that the author had compiled an index of dinosaurs by different artists which would have been helpful and a list of winners of the Lanzendorf award would have been a good historical document.

Only Sibbick, Henderson, Marshall and Martin offer up any preliminary sketches for comparison to the final product and they are very revealing. Henderson and Paul both still have their childhood dinosaur art. As I have seen some of these I personally think people would have gotten a kick out of them.
A comparison of the same genus on one page by different artists (something practiced in Prehistoric Times)would have been immensely useful.

The two page historical narrative overview lacks a comprehensive highlighting of breakthroughs in paleoart. Artists of the past like Neave Parker, William Scheele, Margaret Colbert, etc are not mentioned at all. Bakker's seminal running Deinonychus is not mentioned. No pictures of Knight, Burian, Zallinger and Matternes. All we get is the usual Waterhouse Hawkins Crystal Palace Iguanodon photo. That is the extent of the "history". Reading the history one would never know the contributions of Eleanor Kish - the first paleo painter of any merit since Burian, John Guche - the first photorealist dino artist, Bill Stout who arguably gave us the first true dino art book - and Mark Hallett - the man who coined this term 'Paleoart'.

Wisely the author admits the 'popular perception damage' movies like Jurassic Park and its ilk have caused. Today's generation have strong childhood memories of these films and many don't mind which is problematic to real workers in the field.

Onto the Artist Pages...
We don't get any but photos of the artists could have added value. Some of the author's questions get predictable ("why the move to digital?", "favorite dinosaur to restore?") especially considering the answers are mostly the same. Asked to cite influences, virtually all roads lead back to the original Dinosaur Renaissance men Robert Bakker and Greg Paul. The author could have probed certain artists put lips on dinosaurs, or "shrinkwrap" heads (where fenestrae in the skulls are overly defined as if it had mummified, sunken skin), for instance.

1 - Julius Csotonyi (Canada). I could see why - his answers are lengthy, passionate and deeply informed - particularly insightful on coloration theory. What a heavy hitter: academic credentials and digital mastery. (All you budding artists have your work cut out for you!) His dead Brachylophosaurus on a sandbar is one for the ages but I confess seeing the other mixed media/digital paintings were underwhelming. Some just don't work technically, some look just as phony as any oil painting.
2 - Gregory Paul (US) should have been first considering he is called the most influential of all the paleoartists. If you have Greg's coffee table art book or the Princeton Field Guide, then you pretty much have seen all the b/w and color pieces here. This book does not have some of Greg's best color work and the ones here are `flat' which is ok considering it's been seen before in other books. I know the double page dryosaurs are not well reproduced. If you want them in higher fidelity look in Greg's coffee table art book. The Chinese Shunosaurus/Gasosaurus scene in Dinosaur Art is marred by canvas/texture lines.
3 - Mauricio Anton (Spain) breaks up the dinomonotony (one reason the book should have been called something different.) The author calls Anton the leading artist of paleo mammals but Don Prothero or Carl Buell may disagree. Anton is amazing, a first tier artist. He eloquently explains how he came to concentrate on mammals instead of dinosaurs. His b/w work is soft and exquisite, rivaling that of his own color digital work. Unfortunately I found the double page reproductions poor quality. They just seem too murky. Anton's dinosaurs - not his strength - are not here, making this chapter feel out of place.
4 - Doug Henderson (US). Now here we have a case of an artist whose work we all probably have many times over in different books. I don't think there's any stuff you have not seen, save for a museum commission or two, if you have kept up with this ebay store prints. Seven pictures in this chapter are landscapes without dinosaurs or any prehistoric fauna at all. Henderson is pretty candid about the state of paleoart these days.
5 - Todd Marshall (US). Frankly I think Mark Hallett should have been right here. Todd's second tier work looks like movie concept art will either be broadly appealing or visually unappealing, and for me it's the latter. I can't wrap my head around those shrinkwrapped heads with tons of fuzz and integument, or the sloppy brushstrokes of his color work. Todd speaks as he renders (read; digressive) doesn't make much of backgrounds and heads and bodies are not equal in detail. It simply doesn't hold up as zoological illustration (Paul Sereno must have not found the *right* artist yet, as there's a revolving door of right hand men he has used over the years.) Todd's enthusiasm in his interview spills over into fanboydom with odd namedropping of heroes in cinema and rock and roll. A gaming designer by day, I was happy to see he agrees that traditional art is still the most satisfying.
6 - John Sibbick (UK). Say what you want about Sibbick being a great painter. The truth is no one worth their salt ever copied John's dinosaurs because they were never right to begin with. Greg Paul's most outdated work still looks good after 30 years but Sibbick's doesn't. Why is that? Because Sibbick, as with most of the 70s British dino artists, was never on the leading edge; he was very much an interpreter. And it's clear in this interview that he *knows* he was never a revolutionary, and never tried to be. All his dinosaurs have feet on the ground like nearly every outdated image of dinosaurs we can think of. He has been the guy that publishers love because his work looks like the dinosaurs they remember from childhood, plus there's no arguments with publishers from John. If publishers want bulbous, balloon dinosaurs, John always had them. He knows how to capture, albeit softly, every dewdrop, every accent of light, every leaf vein seems to be accounted for but the main stars of the piece - the dinosaurs -were always lacking. There's a misty fantasy element to his backgrounds. I am reminded of children's books illustrated by Rudolph Zallinger. In this book we only see Sibbick's latter day work that could easily be mistaken for Mark Hallett's. It's the non-dinosaurs which Sibbick has a bit more finesse with. Note that Peter Trusler is mentioned as one of his favorite modern artists - one of the best around - so where is he in this book? If you are a Sibbick fan, you will enjoy his oddly contorted Scelidosaurus maquette and sketches.
7 - Luis Rey (UK) comes across a tad revisionist, as if he was a late arrival to the Dinosaur Renaissance. When you come down to the facts he really he is Post-Renaissance (if you were published from 1975-1985 and "broke ground" you can call yourself part of it; I'd say David Peters was more present and contributed more in the late 80s than Rey.) Rey's trademark is relatively colorful, dare I say cartoonish. Rey's influence cannot be denied. A look around the net will turn up all manners of clownish looking paleoart. Compared to Csotonyi or Martin's work, Rey's mixed media has a ways to go. If familiar with his work you will recognize the same works from other publications. The skin texture on the throat area of Rey's Stegosaurus (2007) look too crocodilian. The scales on Triceratops are not what the fossilized skin show. The back porcupine quills - perhaps at his consultant Robert Bakker's request - look ludicrous. I predict eye and ear positions will be errant as well in future works if Bob is advising...
Rey claims he has virtually stopped collecting books for their dino art due to stagnation and overuse of effects (digital, presumably) in the form. However, his own style is a study in excess.
8 - John Conway (UK) sure likes his dinosaurs very Greg Paul-ian with very similar spaciousness, simplicity. His interview shows great humility as he is inching towards his own style.
9 - Robert Nicholls (UK) seems at home recreating marine environments. This chapter is easily the weakest part of the book. Compare the albertosaur attacked by Deinosuchus from Nicholls to Martin's (on the cover). I hate to say it but this is the type of art we see in secondtier paleo books.
10 - With Raul Martin (Spain) it seems that either the author or publisher both felt they saved the 'best' for last. Indeed it's Martin's art (recently used on a cover of Prehistoric Times) that made the cover. The hardships Martin felt in Spain developing his technique is expressed well. Ever the tough reporter, unless unaware, the author spares Martin the embarrassing questions about his plagiaristic past (check out a little bestseller called "National Geographic Dinosaurs" by Martin Barrett). A book like this should have been the ultimate place to apologize and clear his name. Martin admits he uses Greg Paul's skeletons and it's obvious in the few reproduced concept sketches. Martin has steered clear of restoring original scenes with stegosaurs, a question on why he has would have been intelligent. Martin seems very open and willing to share and his professionalism is not questioned. He will likely show up in many books of this ilk to come.

As much as some artists - both first and second tier - hate to admit as such - this book is yet another reminder that their road to restoration leads back to Greg Paul's drawings. Not what I hoped it would be contentwise it is still a handsome book and fun to look through. Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Paleoart, A Window on Prehistory December 8, 2012

By Shellie

Format:Hardcover

For those interested in paleoart this book is without doubt a wonderful way to journey back in time on a lazy afternoon or rainy evening as you leaf through its glossy pages and is well worth forking out the money for if you are a lover of dizzying dinosaurs, bizarre beasties and creepy crawlies of all shapes and sizes in general! Focusing on ten of the key artists who've helped popularise the aptly termed "Dinosaur Renaissance" given several pages each to showcase their meticulous art, explain the creative process and offer scientific insights every page is full of vivid, vibrant and often visceral imagery. Usually the work of art itself will take anywhere from hours, days or weeks to finish but the painstaking research the artist has to do beforehand to get the proportions, anatomy and also the natural environment the animal is portrayed in true to life can take many gruelling months. This normally involves consultation with palaeontologists, studying a plaster cast of the fossil and a rigorous process involving several other disciplines of science as well as fieldtrips to comparable landscapes still in existence today if possible. There is also an ongoing discussion of creating art for natural history museums, popular scientific publications or for release to the press to help publicise a new find using traditional media versus digital media. I've always found that art created using traditional media feels much warmer, stylistically unique and more natural looking but art created using digital media often seems cooler, more impersonal and somewhat artificial looking though of course using digital means to update an older hand painted image does make sense.... Interspersed throughout the book are illustrated two page descriptions highlighting a particular species of prehistoric animal, presumably hand chosen by the artists who over the years have developed an especial fondness for depicting it in their artwork, or that the publisher chose and asked them to provide illustrations for. The wide variety of animals featured in these segments include both the familiar and unfamiliar; Brachylophosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Smilodon, Coelophysis, Aerosteon, Scelidosaurus, Nyctosaurus, Bonnerichthys and perhaps the oddest Concavenator. On the last page or so there's a glossary of terms and also a timeline spanning the various epochs the animals within its covers lived in which is helpful. With dinosaurs no longer being seen as dull witted, cold blooded and lumbering beasts that dragged their tails on the ground (like lizards or crocodilians) but as fast moving, warm blooded and superbly adapted creatures that were in many instances feathered (and sometimes quite smart) paleoart has had to keep pace with the science. This superb book discusses and illustrates that dynamic process, and how in turn, paleoart can sometimes inform the ongoing scientific investigation and inspire the palaeontologists themselves to think out of the box. Over the decades both palaeontology and paleoart have evolved together in an almost symbiotic relationship which has fostered a link that's helped make it one of the most popular fields of science to this day. Yet many of the artists clearly feel it can be a difficult, thankless and underappreciated job with talentless hacks sometimes being employed to illustrate books on ancient life with little or no knowledge of the basic science behind the art. Though when looking through this volume it's easy to see paleoart isn't just another form of illustration, but at best a unique branch of science in its own right.

While I agree with another reviewer here who criticised the inclusion of ancient marsupial species in this book when the title says Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, the publishers did actually make it clear in the description that there was some non dinosaurian art featured as well. I think they should probably have titled it Ancient Life: The World's Greatest Paleoart or something along that line just to be more accurate in the description of the contents, even though well over three quarters of the book does indeed cover dinosaurs. Although I do understand their logic as words like "Tyrannosaurus Rex" "Dinosaur" and "Jurassic" hold a larger cache with the general public but that's a gripe best left for another time! If anything I was in fact the exact opposite to my fellow reviewer, as I'd have loved to see yet more non dinosaurian paleoart of extinct megafauna from the geological periods preceding the evolution, and following the extinction of the dinosaurs and related flying and marine reptiles included. For me dinosaurs were only one family of amazing, wonderful and often bizarre prehistoric creatures that ever lived and hopefully they won't be the last and also because at the end of the day I'm fascinated by the evolutionary story of all ancient life whether they be dinosaurs, mammals or other. Especially when you consider that 99.9% of all the species which have ever lived are now extinct, an extremely sobering statistic when you think of it! The artists lucky enough to have been chosen for inclusion in this book are; Julius Csotonyi, Gregory S Paul, Mauricio Antón, Douglass Henderson, Todd Marshall, John Sibbick, Luis Rey, John Conway, Robert Nicholls and Raúl Martín. As for suggested artists there's one well known individual living here in Australia named Peter Trusler who's a wildlife illustrator and talented paleoartist to boot and several others as well mentioned by yet another reviewer of this book; Mark Hallett, Larry Felder, James Gurney, Michael Skrepnick, Bill Stout, Karen Carr, Bob Walters, David Peters, Carl Buell and Jorge Blanco. As something of a paleoart novice I don't know many of the artists listed but it would be a shame for them to not get the same treatment as those in these pages have. I also think it's a shame female paleoartists have been completely overlooked which is a bit disappointing as there must be quite a few out there whose work is as good, rigorous and beautiful as their male counterparts. This however is not a criticism of the book at all merely pointing out that the subject so fascinating and the art so beautiful I wish its scope had been expanded even further, as the merging of scientific investigation with artistic creativity one finds in paleoart is an excellent way to offer a tantalising window onto the past. Although who knows perhaps they could all be included in a book two one day, I hope so for it'd be most welcome! Till then I'll be more than happy to pore over the fabulous art while thinking of all that once was, now lost to us in the mists of time.

In the end more fascinating to me than any imaginary, legendary or mythical beast could ever be because they actually once existed dinosaurs and the multitude of other extinct prehistoric animals will continue to hold sway over the minds of people for generations to come, And books like this can only feed that fascination and maybe help inspire the palaeontologists, paleoartists and prehistoric dreamers of the future. Just so long as the fossil record keeps on giving up enigmatic new secrets, wonders and treasures I think that outcome will surely be guaranteed for many years to come. Read more ›