In this slightly-delayed-by-the-heatwave episode, Gemma, Marc and Natee finally get around to discussing some of the best-known and most widely reproduced and copied palaeoart of all time – Neave Parker’s monochrome saurians as published in the Natural History Museum (or rather, British Museum (Natural History))’s 1960s book entitled Dinosaurs. Then, Marc interviews American artist and author Timothy J Bradley on a career that encompasses Dinamation (see episode 49), toy design for Hasbro and literally hundreds of illustrations for the Jurassic Park Institute Dinopedia, as well as more recent forays into the world of children’s books. In addition to having a highly distinctive, vibrant art style, he’s responsible for perhaps the most coveted unreleased Jurassic Park toy…which is saying something.
(You can tell Gemma didn’t write this.)
In the News
- Marc’s been on a jolly jaunt to Lyme Regis, and as well as going fossil hunting and beer hunting, has visited the Lyme Regis Museum, revisited Dinosaurland Fossil Museum, and headed over to nearby Seaton to check out Jurassic Discovery. Hard to resist robot dinosaurs that are actually quite good! Here’s a review.
- Check out Patrick H Willems’ interesting take on why there aren’t more dinosaur movies.
Vintage Dinosaur Art
We discuss Neave Parker’s work as published in Dinosaurs, written by William Elgin Swinton and first published by the Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History) in 1962, with this edition arriving in 1974. The art presumably dates from the 1950s, as that was when Parker was most active in the field of natural history illustration and, well, he died in 1961. Below are both scans from the book and more modern reproductions of the original pieces from the Natural History Museum website. Marc wrote a review of these some 15 years ago, although he’d rather you didn’t go back and read it.
Megalosaurus from the book
Megalosaurus
Cetiosaurus from the book
Cetiosaurus
Tyrannosaurus from the book
Tyrannosaurus
Iguanodon from the book
Jurassic Coast, not from the book
Diplodocus from the book
Corvids (courtesy of Somerset & Wood Fine Art Company)
Hornbills
Hypsilophodon (from the book)
Hypsilophodon
Interview
Timothy J Bradley is an American artist and author with a career that has spanned concept art, natural history illustration, totally rad t-shirt designs, sci-fi children’s stories and much more besides. Even if you haven’t heard Tim’s name before, you’ll almost certainly recognise his highly distinctive artwork from somewhere. Among certain geeky circles, Tim is especially famous for his involvement in the nutty ‘Chaos Effect’ Jurassic Park toy line, designed to accompany a cartoon show that never happened. While several of the Chaos Effect hybrid dinosaurs made production, the infamous ‘Ultimasaurus’ – a delirious kid-pleasing mash-up of all the cool parts from an assortment of well-known dinosaurs – didn’t quite reach store shelves. Fortunately, Tim still has a painted sample…
Be sure to check out Sophie’s coverage of Tim’s work for the Jurassic Park Institute Dinopedia, and visit his website to check out his portfolio and buy cool stuff!
Fully painted and unpainted Ultimasaurus product samples. The monitor in the background displays an illustration from Tim’s book, I Am Allosaurus.
The original concept maquette for ‘Velocirapteryx’, a creation that did make it to production. This was Tim’s first design, which helped set the tone for the rest of the line.
A more recent illustration depicting ‘Ultimasaurus’.
A more recent illustration of ‘Velocirapteryx’.
Thank you for listening to the podcast! Our music was generously provided by Rohan Long. You can purchase his music at Bandcamp, and follow him at Twitter.
By becoming a patron on Patreon, you can help us continue creating podcasts and writing this blog. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. See you next time!
No Comments