Eagles are Pretty Cool

Apologies for not updating for 24 days - I've been pretty lazy. I'll make up for that with some eagle awesomeness though.

Otto, Nessie, and Independence

First of all, happy July 4th and Independence Day!

Well, now the holiday greetings are over and we move on to Otto, the Sciurumimus.



Otto is the dinosaur everyone (okay, some people in the palaeontological community) was talking about last year, with a near-perfect beautiful fossil of a juvenile. I thought at first it was probably Juravenator (which some people still believe); there was also talk about it being a new compsognathid or megalosauroid. Well now it's been described as Sciurumimus albersdoerferi (that's gonna talk a while to learn how to spell) and it is apparently a megalosauroid. But wait! A few people believe it is a coelurosaur. The most remarkable thing about the fossil is the feather-like filaments preserved. If it was a megalosauroid, it could be possible for megalosaurs to have feathers. I personally have no idea at this moment.

Oh, by the way, Louisiana is employing the Loch Ness monster to teach the kiddies that this means dinosaurs could still be alive! Perfect sense, of course.


(Even though most of the Nessie sightings come from a faked photograph taken in 1932)

Paleo Interview #7: William Stout

Whew, we pulled off an interview for the month in just the nick of time! And with none other than William Stout. Stout is a great guy; he's an artist, designer, film producer, conservationist, and a researcher as well. His book The Dinosaurs is one of his most famous works, and Michael Crichton said he wrote Jurassic Park because of it. He's worked on films as well as murals for the San Diego Museum of Natural History and Disney. He's been in Prehistoric Times and he will also be at Comic-Con this year. Please give a warm round of virtual applause for William Stout!

Stout's zombie self-portrait.

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1. Our mandatory question; when did you first get interested in dinosaurs (or other prehistoric life)?

When I was three years old my parents took me to see my very first movie at the Reseda Drive-in. It was a re-release of the original 1933 King Kong. Shortly after that I saw the Rites of Spring sequence from Fantasia on the Walt Disney television show. I think those events caused damage to me at a genetic level. I have been nuts about dinosaurs (and prehistoric life) ever since.

2. As noted in one of your books, you've done quite a bit of murals for the San Diego Museum of Natural History. For anyone who hasn't read this book, could you describe what the process is like?

Go to the Journal section of my website (www.williamstout.com) if you’d like to see a step-by-step (with commentary) examination of the painting of my two new murals for the San Diego Zoo (one depicts Pleistocene San Diego), from thumbnails to full size finish.

Briefly and simply, though, here’s my process: After the negotiations are over and the contracts are signed, I begin my designs with a series of thumbnail sketches. After I’ve got one I like, I draw up the design in scale (1” = 1’) to the final mural. I submit my pencil design to the museum (or zoo) for criticism and commentary. I keep doing this until we’re both satisfied. Then I do a same scale (or, as in the case of the twelve San Diego Natural History Museum murals, a quarter scale) painting to establish the color scheme. Once that is approved I begin work on the full size mural.

I block out the design in browns and umbers on my full size canvas, doing what is called a “value painting” --- a simple painting to establish the picture’s dark and light systems. When I’m happy with that, I lay in the “local color” (the average color of each object). Then, it becomes a simple matter of rendering each plant and animal in the picture until the mural is finished. After it's completed I have it professionally photographed. In the case of the SDNHM murals, the original paintings were installed directly on the museum walls using a clay adhesive. This special adhesive allows for the mural’s relatively easy removal in case a pipe inside the wall bursts (this happened not long after my murals were installed) or if the architecture changes.

3. How does it feel to have your artwork on public display in a museum?

It’s an incredible feeling; these paintings are a huge part of my artistic legacy, to be examined, savored and enjoyed by the public forever --- hopefully, just the way I examine, savor and enjoy Charles R. Knight’s work.

4. How long does it generally take to finish a piece?

That varies depending upon a number of factors like size, complexity, deadline and style. My Pliocene Bay mural for the SDNHM is my largest (14’ x 34’), most complex mural. It took about five months to paint once the design was approved by the museum.

5. You also do quite a bit of artwork that doesn't feature prehistoric life, such as your fantasy artwork. Do you prefer one over the other?

I love doing a variety of work, although, of everything I do, I like painting murals the best. I would be a pretty happy guy if I had nothing to do but paint murals the rest of my life.

6. Did you teach yourself or did someone teach you?

Both. I learned how to paint from studying the paintings and methods of Norman Rockwell and Frank Frazetta. I also attended the California Institute of the Arts (and got my Bachelor’s Degree there), majoring in Illustration. I studied privately with Harold Kramer, my best teacher at CalArts, for over twenty years. I also took a wildlife painting workshop with Bob Kuhn (his last). I am still constantly on the lookout for ways to make my paintings better.

7. Has anyone influenced your work?

I feel influenced by all the good stuff I’ve ever seen. My earliest influences were Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson. Then Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, Roy Krenkel and Al Williamson. Also Harold Foster, Moebius, Russ Manning, Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Alex Toth, Robert Crumb and Will Eisner. That list is just the main comics guys who have influenced me.

In the traditional painting and illustration world my main influences are Charles R. Knight, Thomas Moran, William R. Leigh, the Symbolist painters, Alphonse Mucha, Bob Kuhn, John William Waterhouse, Harry Rountree, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, the Detmold brothers, N. C. Wyeth, J. C. Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell and Howard Pyle. I really could easily add another hundred names to this list.

8. Who would be your favorite paleoartist if you could pick one, or even a few?

Charles R. Knight, hands down. Zdenek Burian was pretty amazing, too. I’m always inspired by the ideas, designs and creativity of Doug Henderson, Mark Schultz and John Gurche, just to name a few of my talented contemporaries.

9. Are you looking forward to Comic-Con this year?

Always! I’ve been to every one since the very first one. Drop by my booth and say “Hi!”

10. According to your site, you worked on the Disney film Dinosaur. What was that like?

It was a great job --- it just took me forever to get it! I was first approached by Disney to design it way back in 1988! When the gig finally came through about eight years later I worked at home, bringing in my designs to the Disney studio every Friday.

The first challenge Disney gave me was this:

“We have a film that’s centered upon a family of iguanodons. To us, all iguanodons look alike. Can you design our iguanodon characters so that they are all distinctive and instantly recognizable from each other --- yet are still accurate depictions and reconstructions of iguanodons?”

I love tough problems like that and jumped right in and solved it. They were so pleased that they let me do my own takes on all the main and secondary dinosaur and pterosaur characters. Fun job (although I had to fight quite hard for my meager credit).

11. Anything you would like to say to anyone interested in prehistoric life and/or becoming a paleoartist like yourself? 

I completely covered all the various aspects of that topic in “The 10 Rules of Being a Paleoartist”, an article I wrote for the Summer 2006 (#86) issue of Prehistoric Times (copies should soon be available on my website store: www.williamstout.com). In essence: keep your day job.

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Thanks once again to Stout for the interview; it is a wonderful honour. As mentioned above for anyone in the San Diego area, William Stout will be at Comic-Con July 12-15 at the San Diego Convention Center. If you plan on visiting, make sure to stop by and see him, be like "Hey, you were on the blog I read!" Stout has quite a few books out and I highly recommend reading them. 

All images belong to William Stout and all (except Pliocene Bay) are from his website, http://www.williamstout.com/. None are mine.

Luis V. Rey

Turns out Luis Rey has a blog now, with some never before seen (at least by me) artwork. If you're into his art, check it out.

http://luisvrey.wordpress.com/

A Coelacanth Is Not Proof

Trolling through the Internet, one might come across an article. This article could be about "the living dinosaurs of the Congo". Mokele-Mbembe, Kasai Rex (while the two photos are proven to be fakes, people still believe in it), Emela Ntouka, Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu, and other stuff I can't even pronounce. Pterosaurs show up too, like the Kongamato from the Congo and the Ropen from New Guinea. Enter proof that all of these could still exist today:

Many of these people are so-called, amateur "cryptozoologists" and they usually say something along the lines of, "The coelacanth was thought to have gone extinct 65 million years ago with the [non-avian] dinosaurs, and yet we found it. Obviously, [non-avian] dinosaurs could still exist today."

I'm going to make the answer clear, short, and simple: No. Just no. A coelacanth is a 5ft long fish that lives 90-700m underwater; its environment has scarcely changed over the years. Meanwhile, the terrestrial world got hotter, tropical forest sprung up over the world, many getting gradually displaced by grasslands, deserts were once swamps, etc. That's a huge environment change. Plus, Mokele-Mbembe is reported to be at least 30ft long. How does a school bus-sized animal (which would eat as much, if not more than an elephant daily) go unnoticed for all these years? Same with the other "living" non-avian dinosaurs. A five foot fish that lives in the abyss is not proof for a school-bus sized, highly specialized creature that eats more than 200lbs of food a day existing! Get over it.

Big Paul - Sounds like a Mafia Name

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0038207

Hey, long time, no update. Mostly due to my laziness. Anyways "Lambeosaurus" laticaudus has been renamed to Magnapaulia laticaudus. Yep, it means "Big Paul". Now I can't stop thinking about Big Fat Paulie from Family Guy. Sounds like a nickname, like "Big Al" or "Jane". And ironically, its feminine too.

Magnapaulia has also been down-sized to 41ft, still large but not as huge as Shantungosaurus. Now the latter's only competition (considering Huaxiaosaurus is synonymous) is Hypsibema. M. laticaudus might also be a species of Velafrons. She's been through a lot lately.

Paleo Interview 6: James Gurney

Yes, you read that right. We finally have an interview for the month! And with none other than the esteemed creator of Dinotopia! James Gurney has acted as an inspiration for me, as I first picked up Dinotopia when I was in 3rd grade and was hooked on it immediately. Now having read all four books as well as Imaginative Realism, it's about time I asked for an interview. Gurney is currently at a convention so he provided me with these questions and answers; that still doesn't take away the honour of talking to him though. So give a warm round of applause for James Gurney!

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Did you study art in college?

I went first to UC Berkeley and majored in archaeology, a subject I that always fascinated me. I then went to school for a couple of semesters at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where I learned some very helpful material about perspective. However, most of what I have learned has been self-taught. 

How did you teach yourself?

I developed my own curriculum of self-teaching based on The Famous Artist’s Course from the 1950’s, Andrew Loomis’s book Creative Illustration, and the teaching methods from the 19th century French academy, which involved fairly detailed anatomy and cast drawing. The best book for learning about French academic painting methods is The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century by Albert Boime, 1971. 

I had never really painted up until this time, so I felt like I was starting from square one. All this self-teaching from books was combined with daily outdoor sketching, which became such a passion that I ended up coauthoring a book on the subject for Watson-Guptill called The Artist’s Guide to Sketching in 1982.

Who were your main influences?

Norman Rockwell was my childhood hero.  I also always loved MC Escher. Both artists really succeed in pulling viewers into their work. I also greatly admire the Dutch book illustrator Rien Poortvliet. Other artists I admire: Frederic Church, William Bouguereau, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Tom Lovell, and Howard Pyle.

What were your first jobs like? 

As a high school student, I learned how to do hand-lettered calligraphy, and made my first income from designing wedding invitations. I got a job doing engraved line illustrations for ring ads in the newspaper. It wasn’t paying the bills. My big break was getting a job painting backgrounds for an animated film called Fire and Ice, co-produced by Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, and released in 1983. It was a marathon of painting, because I had to paint about 600 paintings in a year and a half.

How did you break into the illustration field?

I didn’t really start in the freelance illustration business until I was about 20, when I started doing paperback covers for science fiction and fantasy books. I never used agents or sourcebooks, instead sending samples directly to art directors. 

How did you get hired by National Geographic?

I sent them samples and went in for an interview. They didn’t like the samples at first (because they were fantasy-related), but liked my attention to detail, and gave me a chance. They work with their illustrators on a freelance basis, though in the past they used to have artists on staff. 

How did you get the idea for Dinotopia?

I traveled to Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome on assignment for National Geographic, and it was a huge inspiration to see those famous old cities. I spent time with Rick Bronson, an archaeologist who was just like Indiana Jones. He led me through overgrown jungles to find little known Etruscan ruins, and we descended down ladders into newly-discovered tombs. Sitting around the campfire at night, Dr. Bronson and I would talk about dreams of discovering a lost city like Machu Picchu or Troy. I realized that I could always make a painting of such a lost city, and that led to Dinosaur Paradeand Waterfall City.  After that, I drew a map of an unknown island and came up with the idea of a Victorian explorer who discovers this island and reports about it in his journal.

Can you describe your working environment?

My studio is part of my house, right above the garage. There’s a four-foot square skylight above the painting area, flanked by color-balanced fluorescents. The countertops are covered with dinosaur models and toy robots and the closets are full of costumes and props. I have a pet parakeet named Mr. Kooks who hangs out on a big playground right next to my painting area. My window looks out past a bird-and-butterfly garden to an oak forest, inhabited by pileated woodpeckers, a flock of wild turkeys, and families of foxes. I typically work from 8:30 to 5:30 five or six days a week, listening to classical music and books on tape as I paint and draw. I usually sit down when I paint indoors, but stand up when I paint studies outdoors from nature.

How long does it take to make a picture?

Some pictures only take a day.  Most take a week.  Big ones with lots of people take about a month.  Most of the time is spent in the preparatory stages. Each Dinotopia book takes me about three years to write and illustrate. 

What is your favorite medium?

All the pictures are painted in oil. Oil is my favorite. I often use oil in transparent washes over a line drawing that has been sealed with acrylic matte medium. I’ve been using just turpentine and Liquin for the painting. All the Dinotopia paintings are done in oil. Sometimes I’ll start with a pen and ink drawing or an acrylic wash-in. I often work on heavy weight illustration board, and sometimes on oil-primed linen canvas.

Could you describe the research and reference process?

I start with small thumbnail sketches in marker or pencil, sometimes dozens. If the painting requires scientific or historical accuracy, I consult with experts at every stage of the process and incorporate their suggestions. If it’s an architectural subject or a dinosaur, I’ll often build a little model or mockup to establish shadows and angles.

If necessary I enlist models to pose in costume, usually friends or neighbors. I either take photos or do tone paper sketches of the models. I have a large mirror mounted in the studio and often develop tone paper studies of myself posing in costume to get the basic action. I also have a scrap file of color magazine photos that I use for texture and form ideas. 

After all these studies, I work up the line drawing—and sometimes a full charcoal drawing—and finally begin the final painting. The place to really see the process is in my book, Imaginative Realism.

Are there moments of struggle in most paintings?

I find that the early stages of the painting, when the major areas are being established, are generally the hardest to get through. The reason is that the actual painting is very far from the original vision in my head. When this happens, I try to take one area to finish, and build from there.

You mix real and fantastical elements, often to make an impossible scene look believable. What is your thought process in this kind of work?

Some people have called this kind of work “reality-based fantasy,” but I think it’s really what artists have always done through history in portraying scenes from myth, literature, and the Bible. Basically what I’m trying to do is to create a realistic image of a scene that could never be photographed. My guiding philosophy is the old Latin saying “Ars est celare artem,” which means that true art conceals the artifice of its making. For me, creating depth and illusion is one of the most exciting goals of painting, but it’s just a first step, because the higher goal is to select, accentuate, and subordinate all the elements of the picture to communicate a particular mood or feeling, and that goes beyond mere illusionism. 

What is your advice about style?

Forget about style. Try to learn from nature with close observation and humility. Don’t model your work after any living illustrator (including me). If you must study the work of other artists, pick ones from the distant past, and look at many different ones, not just one.

What is your feeling about computers in art?

I’m personally committed to traditional painting and drawing. I have a deep love of the tactile quality of brushes and pigments and the physical presence of framed paintings. Nevertheless, I am fascinated by the new visual ideas that digital artists introduced, and I have enjoyed working with digital artists who have helped translate Dinotopia into other realms. Of course image-making is always in a time of transition. Traditional painting will always be around, but it will constantly evolve to fill new niches in the art world.  

What is the nature of the art business these days, and what advice would you have for aspiring artists?

It is competitive but not cutthroat. Nearly everyone I’ve met in the field has been congenial and welcoming to new talent. Of course there is always a surplus of young (and older) artists who want to be working in the field, but there is always room for a new voice with a new song. Keep in mind that desire and hard work are worth more than talent. Genius, as Thomas Carlyle once said, is the infinite capacity for taking pains.

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Thanks again for the great interview, James, and for saving me the time of coming up with questions, ha ha! For more of James Gurney's stuff, visit his blog:

http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/

All images belong to James Gurney and are from his blog.

Julio Lacerda, Part II

As you (hopefully) know, I started off my interview series with Julio Lacerda four months ago in January, when the blog was just in its toddler days. No, this is not another interview, but I would like to feature some of his newer art to show how he's improved over that four-month period.

Lacerda's Yutyrannus has to be one of my favorite representations of it so far (no offense to anyone else). The white feathers and snowy background reminds me of his Gorgosaurus pieces.

Anyone remember how I said "Diplodocus Parade" was one of my favorites? Yeah, it just got even better. This was done for his one year deviantART anniversary, if I recall correctly. Purely magnificent.

Julio's Pterodaustro is only the second one I've seen without pink colouration (one of those paleoart memes), and the first I've seen based on the white ibis.

An elegant Microraptor in flight.

Lacerda's prehistoric creatures are very natural-looking and this one reminds me of a nature documentary.

Julio pictures Dsungaripterus as elegant and beautiful, the first one I've seen. It's based on a great crested grebe, it looks like, and how could you ignore that smile? Wonderful. Keep doing what you're doing, Julio, you're getting even better.

Romanian Enantiornithes

Wonderful image by Julio Lacerda.

Another great theropod discovery for 2012! A nesting colony of Romanian enantiornithes (the diverse family that occupied many niches) was found in, well, Romania, where fossils have yielded such wonderful discoveries like Hatzegopteryx and Balaur, as well as Telmatosaurus. The cause of death? A flood is most likely. I also have to agree with Mr. Naish here when I say Julio seemed to reconstruct the enantiornithes to look like birds, not crazy feathered-dragon monsters. Oh yeah I found my new favorite word: dortokids. It's the family those turtles in the image belong to.

Prehistoric Elephants

Recently I drew a Platybelodon and uploaded it to Deviantart, proclaiming my love for extinct elephants (and other afrotheres, and other "pachyderms"). So let's talk about elephants, shall we?
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Elephants, formally known as proboscideans, first appeared in the fossil record some 58.7 million years ago, in the late Paleocene. The first of the proboscideans known is named Eritherium and it was the size of a large rabbit (~5kg). Yeah, you heard the books call  Moeritherium small. The  slightly bigger (fox-sized) Phosphatherium followed about two million years later. Both of these tiny elephant ancestors hailed from Morocco, home of Casablanca. The amphibious anthracobunids followed next, and were probably ancestral to moeritherids and desmostylians, and possibly the sirenians. This family existed from the Early-Middle Eocene.

More proboscideans began to rise in the Eocene. One of these was the somewhat famous Moeritherium, the rotund little hippopotamus-niche filler. It is often stated as one of the earliest elephant genera, but has seen above, Eritherium came earlier before they were cool. Fellow proboscideans Phiomia and Palaeomastodon, the latter already similar to modern-day elephants coexisted with Moeritherium. Phiomia probably used its upper tusks to strip bark off trees, while Palaeomastodon is thought to have scooped water plants into its mouth. Also from the Late Eocene was Barytherium, which sported eight (though short and stubby) tusks. Showoff.

During the Oligocene, families were either diversifying or dying off. Brontotheres were part of the latter decision, as were embrithopods and multituberculates. As forests gave way to plains, horses, camels, rhinos, entelodonts, and oreodonts diversified. Elephants also diversified. By the late Oligocene, a bizarre family had sprouted up; the deinotheres. Chilgatherium was the earliest known deinothere,  the size of a small hippo. It is unknown if it had the bizarre downwards pointing tusks that makes the family famous and earns them the nickname "hoe-tuskers". Time went on, and in the middle Miocene, when Prodeinotherium died out, Deinotherium arose. This deinothere proved to be the most successful as it only went the way of the dodo in the Early Pleistocene. D. giganteum was one of the largest terrestrial mammals ever known, exceeded only by a few mammoths and the giant rhino Paratherium.

Equally as bizarre were the gomphotheres, a family from the Miocene to the Pleistocene eras. A very diverse family, they flourished and enjoyed ecological success. One of the most famous is the "shovel-tusker" Platybelodon, seen above. With tusks on its long lower jaws, and the typical tusks found on modern elephants, it is thought to have scraped bark off of trees and consume branches. There were other "shovel-tuskers" as well, such as Amebelodon and Archaeobelodon. Another somewhat well-known gomphothere was Anancus. Why? Just look to the upper right and you'll see why. It's those really long tusks that make it stand out. Yep, each tusks measures 13ft long, slightly longer than the elephant is tall. How's that for a trophy?

Another famous gomphothere is the one that gives the family its namesake. Gomphotherium, 10ft tall, sported four tusks and probably inhabited dry wooded regions by lakes, or perhaps swamps to boot. It was also one of the most successful gomphotheres as it spread into Afro-Eurasia, North America, and possibly South America (in Chile) as well. The last gomphothere we'll talk about is Cuvieronius, a 9ft tall elephant with spiral tusks. It is the most recent of the gomphotheres, dying out just 6,000 years ago. Named after George Cuvier, it has been found in the US, Mexico, and South America.

Now we touch on the most famous prehistoric elephants of all: mammoths and mastodons. While the former term is often used to describe something large in size, it technically defines anything that belongs to the genus Mammuthus. Of that genus, eleven species have been described: M. meridionalis, M. trogontherii, M. imperator, M. exilis, M. subplanifrons, M. africanavus, M. columbi, M. lamarmorae, M. hayi, M. creticus, and most famous of all, M. primigenius, the woolly mammoth. In common terms, that's, respectively: the southern, steppe, imperial, pygmy, African, North African, Columbian, Sardinian dwarf, (no common name), and the Cretan dwarf mammoths. Despite their large numbers, the mammoths existed in a short window of time, only 5 million years. Despite these numbers, there were able to inhabit Afro-Eurasia and North America, ranging in size from 3-17ft tall. The woolly mammoth isn't actually as "mammoth" as some may think, standing "only" 9ft tall, and when compared to the steppe and southern mammoths, it looks quite small.

Mastodons, known by the genus Mammut, are often confused with mammoths by laymen, by there are several differences. Mastodons were usually smaller and lacked the classic dome head, and had different dentition than mammoths. Seven species have been described in the genus: M. furlongi, M. matthewi, M. raki, M. spenceri, M. pentilicus, M. cosoensis, and the classic American mastodon M. americanum. It would have lived in spruce forests, as well as warmer lowlands, and it went extinct only 10,000 years ago.

All in all, elephants proved to be one of the most successful families in history, carrying on a legacy that has lasted for 55 million years. From the tiny Eritherium they blossomed into the five ton African elephant and became some of the largest terrestrial mammals.
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In respective order:

© Vladimir Nikolov.

© BBC and Impossible Pictures.

© Dmitry Bogdanov.

© Boris Dimitrov.

© Remy Bakker.

© Charles R. Knight.

© Mauricio Anton.

© Sergio De la Rosa Martinez.