Artist Highlight: Raul Martin

The giant crocodylian Dienosuchus attacking a tyrannosaur.

This is one of my favorite paleo-artist, probably tied with Douglas Henderson. Raul Martin lives in Madrid, Spain. He considers himself to be influenced by hyperrealists, which is a great influence for illustrating paleo-scenes. The point of paleo-art in my mind is to portray that which we have not been able to see. To be able to capture the awe of the extinct animals that once existed on this planet. The goal is to portray them as accurately as possible for we have no able to "see" extinct taxa except their bones. Accuracy, not mere fantastic artistic expression, is key for paleo-art. I believe that Raul Martin does just that. I do wish that he would have a bit more of an "earthy" feel that Douglas Henderson has. He has worked a lot with acrylics which is one of my least favorite mediums but he still does a good... excellent, I mean, job. One of the best digital art pieces have seen comes from him.
Raul Martins interpretation of dinosaurs, I think, has not been matched by many artists, as far as behavior and anatomy. His dinosaurs are balanced, lack any outlandish coloration and soft tissue add-ons. Their behavior is realistic and not fanciful. I am sure that the soft-tissue of dinosaurs could have been extreme and that their behavior could have been interesting to say the least but often, from what I have seen of some paleo-artists, sometimes the animals just are a little odd and outlandish to me.
To be honest, I really don't know anymore than that about Raul Martin. I have been unable to find any good biography about him anywhere. Here is his website, enjoy

This was done with pencil!