News:

Poll time! Cast your votes for the best stegosaur toys, the best ceratopsoid toys (excluding Triceratops), and the best allosauroid toys (excluding Allosaurus) of all time! Some of the polls have been reset to include some recent releases, so please vote again, even if you voted previously.

Main Menu

Disclaimer: links to Ebay.com and Amazon.com on the Dinosaur Toy Forum are often affiliate links, when you make purchases through these links we may make a commission.

avatar_Sinornis

The Surprising Evolution of Dinosaur Drawings

Started by Sinornis, November 29, 2017, 09:30:24 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Sinornis

Here is a very interesting article about the evolution of paleoart. This article coincides with the acquisition of a long-lost dinosaur book I've been searching for. The artwork in this book, Dinosaurs, Books for Young Explorers (1972), features artwork by Jay H. Matternes, who is one of my favorite artists.



https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/11/paleoart-and-dinosaur-art-2/544505/

Here is a paragraph from the article;
While paleoart is a form of scientific art, its value doesn't always lie in its level of accuracy. According to Lescaze, while researching Paleoart, she met a Smithsonian paleontologist who showed her an original Knight dinosaur painting he had in his office. He'd fished it out of a dumpster after a new director disposed of outdated art to make space in the collections. "They're complex artifacts, and vulnerable in a way that other works of natural history illustration aren't," Lescaze said of vintage pieces of paleoart. "Nobody's going to throw out the John James Audubon, but works of paleoart that are rendered obsolete regularly get discarded. ... It's really important to look back at some of these and say, yeah, they're not scientifically accurate anymore, but who cares? What else can they teach us?"

http://avianmusing.blogspot.com/


Halichoeres

In the kingdom of the blind, better take public transit. Well, in the kingdom of the sighted, too, really--almost everyone is a terrible driver.

My attempt to find the best toy of every species

My trade/sale/wishlist thread

Sometimes I draw pictures

Ravonium

Thanks for sharing this article with us, and congratulations on the acquisition of a book you've been looking for.

Sinornis

Quote from: Ravonium on December 01, 2017, 07:53:48 AM
Thanks for sharing this article with us, and congratulations on the acquisition of a book you've been looking for.

Thank you! Paleo-artists like Matternes had a profound impact on me as a kid, hence the reason, and need, to have this book back in my hands again after 40 years!

zatrex99

Caption for the book cover: Oops, I didn't see you standing there. My fault. let's exchange insurance information and I'll take you to the hospital.

Thank you for sharing.

To me the old art is priceless. It's not about accuracy, though it is an invaluable piece of history that shows how how science has changed and become more accurate. To me it's the original inspiration of my love for dinosaurs. This is where it all begin and I want to always be able to go back to that to remember that. To remember that one time as a child I thought magic was possible.

Neosodon

Outdated dinosaur art has sentimental value for me. Even though I'm not that old allot of the books and thrift shop encyclopedias my parents got me as a child had older depictions of dinosaurs.

"3,000 km to the south, the massive comet crashes into Earth. The light from the impact fades in silence. Then the shock waves arrive. Next comes the blast front. Finally a rain of molten rock starts to fall out of the darkening sky - this is the end of the age of the dinosaurs. The Comet struck the Gulf of Mexico with the force of 10 billion Hiroshima bombs. And with the catastrophic climate changes that followed 65% of all life died out. It took millions of years for the earth to recover but when it did the giant dinosaurs were gone - never to return." - WWD

Support the Dinosaur Toy Forum by making dino-purchases through these links to Ebay and Amazon. Disclaimer: these links are affiliate links, so when you make purchases through them we may make a commission.