palaeoart

Book review – Europasaurus: Life on Jurassic Islands / Urzeitinseln voller Leben

6-minute read

One appropriate way to start this review would be with “once upon a time…”. Europasaurus uses the unusual medium of a graphic novel to tell the story of Europe’s very own dwarf sauropod dinosaur that roamed the continent some 154 million years ago. The brainchild of palaeontologist Oliver Wings and palaeoartist Joschua Knüppe, this beautifully illustrated bilingual book is the perfect gift for the younger dinosaur enthusiast. The realistic tone of the story and the addition of a more serious factual section at the end, however, make this book attractive for a mature audience as well.

(more…)

Book review – Life through the Ages II: Twenty-First Century Visions of Prehistory

6-minute read

When it comes to modern palaeoartists, Mark Witton has become a leading light in my opinion. Next to bringing a background as a professional palaeontologist to his artwork, he also wrote The Palaeoartist’s Handbook, which is a unique resource for this field as far as I can tell. Who could be better suited to produce a homage and sequel to one of the most iconic palaeoart books of all times: Knight’s Life through the Ages?

(more…)

Book review – Visions of Lost Worlds: The Paleoart of Jay Matternes

7-minute read
keywords: art, paleontology

If you ever visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. sometime before 2015 and visited their fossil hall, you will have come face to face with a series of six large murals by palaeoartist Jay Matternes, showing different stages in the evolution of mammals. For nearly five decades, these were part of various exhibits until they were dismantled in 2014–2015. Unfortunately, I have never had the opportunity to visit the museum. But, luckily for me, Smithsonian Books has now published Visions of Lost Worlds, a beautifully produced love letter to Matternes’s palaeoart. Written by the museum’s Curator of Dinosauria Matthew T. Carano and director Kirk R. Johnson, in close collaboration with Matternes himself, this large-format art book offers an unparalleled look at these murals and the artistic process of making them.

(more…)

Book review – The Palaeoartist’s Handbook: Recreating Prehistoric Animals in Art

Given that dinosaurs are no longer around, everything you think you know about what they look like comes from illustrations, models, movies, and merchandise. But how much of this is actually accurate, and how much of it is rather geared towards appealing to our sensibilities? Mark Witton is a man with a mission: to elevate the genre of palaeoartistry to one depicting scientifically accurate renditions, based on informed speculation and careful study of fossils and anatomy. Rather than a book that shows you how to draw a dinosaur, The Palaeoartist’s Handbook is a fantastically useful primer for both aficionados and budding artists into what actually can and should go into making good palaeoart.

(more…)

Book review – Dinosaur Art II: The Cutting Edge of Paleoart

In 2012, Titan Books published Dinosaur Art: The World’s Greatest Paleoart, showcasing the artwork of 10 famous palaeoartists. That book is still on my wishlist. Five years later they have followed this up with Dinosaur Art II. The title may not be terribly imaginative, but, by Jove, the artwork is! The child in me got all giddy at the chance to review this book.

(more…)

Book review – Paleoart: Visions of the Prehistoric Past, 1830-1980

Palaeoart (not to be confused with Palaeolithic art, i.e. cave paintings) has a long and rich history of artworks that have helped us imagine the prehistoric past, from dinosaurs and mammals to cavemen. As an art genre though, it is largely ignored and looked down upon a bit, popular as these images are with children and the unwashed masses. This book aims to set the record straight and celebrate a carefully curated selection of palaeoart covering some 150 years, from the first works in the 1830s up to the 1980s. The book calls itself a two-fold time machine. Or, to paraphrase American artist Walton Ford in his preface, the book is a look back in time at what looking back in time looked like.

(more…)