Ahoy-hoy, whippersnappers! I guess it’s been a while since we did part one of the 1990 Golden Guide to Dinosaurs, illustrated by John D. Dawson. The “D” stands for “Dinosaur”, one imagines. It’s time for some more early nineties Sibbicksaurs from this tiny spotter’s guide. Deinonychus is at least partially based on the somewhat notoriously freaky creature from the Normanpedia. Dawson manages to tone down its creep factor a little bit. All the wrinkles that carried over from Bakker have…
Chasmosaurus
So here I am once more, in the playground of the finer arts. This is the 21st century, and we’re looking at one of the definitive dinosaur books of the year 2000, illustrated or rather painted by the talented Larry Felder. If you’ve seen part one, you’ll know Larry’s depictions of Triassic and Jurassic creatures was, gorgeous though they may have been, somewhat indebted to Walking With Dinosaurs. In the Cretaceous chapters of In The Presence of Dinosaurs, his work…
Greetings my good sir or madam or otherwise! Hark, I come bearing joyful tidings! Have you heard the good news? Although this copy comes from 1994, The News About Dinosaurs was originally wirtten as early as 1989 by Patricia Lauber. Patricia Lauber (1924-2010) was a prolific American science writer for children, and this book is all about her excitement for the Dinosaur Renaissance. As the title suggests, it is a book relaying all the new insights that had been coming…
In LITC’s latest podcast release, Natee, Marc and Niels tackle one of the most often ridiculed works in palaeoart history: the famously idiosyncratic Archosauria by John McLoughlin. Of course, we need to talk about that Triceratops… but there is so much more to this book, some of it crazy, some of it beautiful, much of it downright visionary. Natee interviews palaeoartist Cameron Clow, and things quickly devolve into a horse girl geekout. In the news, there’s baby theropods nomming on…
Having done the obligatory theropods, it’s time to take a second look at The Strange World of Dinosaurs, one of those dinosaur books where the author – John Ostrom – is considerably more well-known than the artist. Joseph Sibal’s pencil illustrations, printed in either red or green, are competent and lush and amusingly of their time, but also highly derivative of older artists, especially Burian and Parker. Let’s see if Ostrom and Sibals’ herbivores are as exciting and forward-thinking as…
In Episode 4 of the fabulous Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs Podcast, Natee, Marc and Niels discuss the final nail in the coffin of Nanotyrannus, the surprising truth behind Rudolph Zallinger’s famous mural, some Triassic weirdos and whether the best Tyrannosaurus might be a dead Tyrannosaurus. We discuss the works of Wayne Barlowe, the legendary sci-fi artist who sometimes painted dinosaurs with spectacular results. Marc then interviews palaeoartist Chris DiPiazza, who talks us though his recent projects, learning to…
While old dinosaur books are a finite resource, as this blog grinds inexorably on – as years become decades, as countless sentient beings live, die and are consigned to oblivion by the unfeeling laws of an immeasurably vast universe, as my bones weary and ache and my teeth develop irritating, expensive faults – so we are able to increase the scope of our Vintage Dinosaur Art posts. Our sole criterion has always been that the books we cover should be…
Hello again! It’s been a while, but our deep submersion into Jan Sovák’s artwork as it appears in The Great Dinosaurs continues today! For those who missed it, we’ve already looked at the theropods, sauropods and ornithopods featured in this massive book. That beings us to the ceratopsians! This isn’t the first time we’re doing a ceratopsian-centered article at LITC, so I’m sure we’re all comfortable with them. Let’s pick up where we left off! Here’s a herd of Pachyrhinosaurus…
Theropods this, theropods that. It’s always them good-for-nothing toothy chickens what are hogging all the spotlights around here. Let’s give the noble ceratopsians some love! The Horned Dinosaurs is the kind of dinosaur book we need more of: A highly specialized scientific deep dive into one limited clade of animals, written by a respected palaeontologist (Peter Dodson) and bringing the reader fully up to speed on current research. “Up to speed” is relative, of course. The book is from 1996,…
Ever bought a dinosaur toy but were super bummed it looked nothing like the scientific reconstructions? Are you done with pronated hands on commercial theropod figures? Have you had it with that Papo T. rex plastered everywhere on the Internet? Well, have we got a toy designer for you. Based in New Jersey, David Silva is a toy designer and founder of Creative Beast Studio. A graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, he has spent almost two decades…