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!

Why Paleontology is Awesome!

Awesome is a good word. One that has a lot power. However, it is a word that is often overused. Anything that is cool, interesting, or beneficial is awesome and the result is either exhaustion from an overuse of emphasis or awesome loses its power and meaning.  I do not use it often. When I say that something is awesome I want it to be for something that is awesome! Paleontology is awesome!

Many people do not have a strong interest in paleontology. Within pop culture, Dino enthusiasts are limited to little boys. Those who are not little boys with a serious interest in paleontology are far and few between. There is an epidemic ignorance of the extinct creatures that once roamed the earth. It is embarrassing. Everything is a T. rex even if it walks on four legs and is covered in fur.

For the next couple of posts I will be giving reasons why Paleontology is AWESOME! From giant snakes to gorilla-horses, so stay tuned.

 



Artist Highlight: Douglas Henderson

It has been a while since I have written. I have been out of town for a while and the internet on my wonderful computer has been working flawlessly so I have been bottled necked from any constant writing but know that I do have a couple of posts in the works including one on the sharks of Illinios. So stay tuned. For now I thought that I would write a quick post highlighting an inspirational artist.
    The artist that I am mentioning is a fellow by the name of Douglas Henderson. He lives in Whitehall, Mt. which is right in between Bozeman and Anaconda. It would be neat if we lived closer to there. He has been around a while and his art is used for many paleo-illustrations. He illustrated a very good children's book on the Ghost Ranch find of the South-West. Some of my favorite paleo-art pieces ever are his Coelophysis illustrations in that book.
    His work seems to be influenced by early landscape artists such as Thomas Moran, Frederick Church, and Albert Beirsdadt who were 18th and 19th century landscape artists. I like such influences in paleo-art, as much paleo-art often just isn't as fine as more main-line art may be. Often times paleo-artist seems to tend to be a little fantastic in their art and many paleo-artist are starting to heavily use digital media for their art which just isn't a good substitute for traditional media, in my opinion.
   His artwork seem to incorporate much landscape and his art is somewhat earthy which is something that I also like. Also, I would say that he is reminiscent of Charles Knight and Zdenek Burian except his dinosaurs have better anatomical accuracy.  
    His work isn't perfect and I must admit that I have seen better tyrannosaurs. Some of the best tyrannosaurs that I think I've seen would have to be from Raul Martin and possibly Gregory Paul.
     You can see his work and read more about him at his website and you can read an interview with him at the blog Archosaur Musing. Enjoy.