New book about dinosaur sculpting

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I am unsure if there is information here on the forum for this book or not, but I was emailed the details by Bob Morales, a friend of mine. I am just going to paste the email for your benefit, as I recieved it and you are welcome to proceed as you find best for you, thanks. If the posting is misplaced, admins please place or merge it properly thanks.

Dear friends,

I am excited to invite you to check out our new book, DINOSAUR SCULPTING-A COMPLETE GUIDE, 2ND EDITION ! My co-authors (Allen and Diane Debus) and I have been working hard for many months to complete our book, and we are thrilled that the book will be released this June! When you have a moment, please go to the link below, and please pre-order your copy today! You can also check it out on Facebook. Blessings for all of you for a good rest of your week.

http://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Sculpting-A-Complete-Guide/dp/0786472057/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358467356&sr=8-1&keywords=dinosaur+sculpting%3A+a+complete+guide%2C+2013

Bob Morales
[email protected]

[Spino-rex13]

Looks interesting.

[Joel]

They can count me in to buy a copy!

[tyrantqueen]

Yes, I'm sooo happy Is this just a reprint or is there going to be new content added? I'm glad to hear Bob Morales is still around, I think he is an awesome sculptor.

I'm going to pick this one up, for sure.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I would assume since its a second edition they are adding new material but I honestly do not know. Bob is of course doing quite well and continues marketing his work on ebay privately . I am fortunate to own one sculpt of his as well as a Jorge Blanco piece he built and painted for me as well.
I did post his email within the original posting for those having enquiries about the book itself and what it would contain. This should allow you all to pose your questions and so forth directly to him about the book, as much as possible. Bob made it clear he himself will not be selling the book , and it has to be ordered through amazon.com.   I also posted the link for pre-ordering the book I believe.



  I did exchange emails with Bob and notify him I had posted the book to the forum . His comments were.....

I hope you will have the opportunity to purchase a copy of our book. By the way, the books will be sold through Amazon, from the publisher, Mcfarland. I will not personally be selling books, except if the publisher requests that my co-authors and I attend some book signings...I hope so! Take care, always good to hear from you...thanks again.

Bob

[tyrantqueen]

I emailed Bob Morales about this (hopefully he won't mind me sharing this mail), and he said the following:

this is a 2nd edition of our book in that it contains a lot of the original material of our first book, but it also will contain much more, including new photos, some drawings, and of course a lot more writing and info. And this time it will not be a private publication, but one produced by a bonafide publishing house, and made available through Amazon.com  If you thought that our first book was expensive, then you may not like the price on our second edition, which is about $50.

Our book will have chapters on sculpting, armature building, painting models, how to sculpt pre-baked parts such as eyes, teeth, horns, etc, and a lot more. Thanks for writing, happy to help.

All the best,

Bob Morales
Dragon Attack! Studio

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I thought to share the two pieces Bob Morales has done for me, for those who havent already seen them . The first is his own sculpt of Brachiosaurus, built and painted by Bob Morales of Dragon Attack Studio for me.
One of my favorite pieces. Bob asked me if I would trust him to come up with a one of a kind paint scheme for the dinosaur so I turned him lose.


The second piece is the Jorge Blanco sculpt of Amargasaurus, built and painted by Bob Morales. When I commissioned the piece I told him I wanted it so colorful and brightly patterend that it would push the edge for possible colors for the dinosaur. I think Bob managed his task masterfully.


Anyway, just thought it would be neat to show a few of his models and work since we were discussing his new book.

[mmfrankford]

First off I love the pattern and colors on that brachiosaurus, beautiful piece! And I will definitely be interested in the book when it is available.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Bob has done some awesome work and apparently continues to !   I haven't heard from him much since the early days of PT though.

[Libraraptor]

Those are sensational, great sauropods!!!

[tyrantqueen]

Only one more month to go until Dinosaur Sculpting is released to the masses

Can't wait 'till my copy arrives.

[Gorgonzola]

Anyone get their hands on this book yet?  I'm seeing it listed as either being published July 15th or August 15th of this year, yet Amazon is still set to "pre-orders only" for it.

[tyrantqueen]

Anyone get their hands on this book yet?  I'm seeing it listed as either being published July 15th or August 15th of this year, yet Amazon is still set to "pre-orders only" for it.

I emailed Dan about this today actually. He said there is no exact date given. See here:

Thanks for contacting me. No specific release date is available for this book, or indeed most items. Release dates are inherently unpredictable, and many companies (even sellers) provide a specific estimated release date that is one whole season in advance. Presumably they believe a false date will make the consumer feel more secure than an honest "I'm not certain yet". I will share more information on Facebook as I receive it, but this will likely be no more than a few days before it is available, when they have sent me tracking information, etc. These details may be different for you however, since you have placed your order through Amazon.

I'm desperate for this book to come out too

[Justin_]

I imagine they are wanting pre-orders to give an idea of how many to print. From what I can tell, McFarland operate a bit more like a self-publishing service for authors rather than a traditional publisher, so the pre-orders couldl be funding the print run.

UK wholesalers are giving a date of August 30th, but McFarland are just saying Fall/Winter.

http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7205-5

[tyrantqueen]

I imagine they are wanting pre-orders to give an idea of how many to print. From what I can tell, McFarland operate a bit more like a self-publishing service for authors rather than a traditional publisher, so the pre-orders couldl be funding the print run.

UK wholesalers are giving a date of August 30th, but McFarland are just saying Fall/Winter.

http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7205-5

Sigh. They said the book was going to be released June (originally) and now it gets pushed back to Autumn? This is annoying.

[tyrantqueen]

I ordered my copy of Dinosaur Sculpting through The Book Depository (via Amazon) . It is in stock and they're dispatching tomorrow *is happy* 

[tyrantqueen]

I just finished reading the book. My opinion is that is very good. There is a good scope of species covered (theropods, sauropods, duckbills, ceratopsians, as well as mammals and non dinosaurs like pterosaurs, plesiosaurs etc)

However, some people might be wanting something that is more in depth and visual. Don't expect to open this book finding an exact step by step guide on how to sculpt, for example, a Velociraptor, because that is not what this book is about. It is very text heavy, there are many more words than images.
And there are no colour images whatsoever (apart from the one on the front cover) This might bother some people, who expected more for a $50 book, but it didn't bother me so much.

Instead, the books describes methods of construction the armature, skin textures, claws, teeth etc. You can use this information as a guide to get started, but don't expect to have your hand held for every single step What I'm trying to say is this-  it's not one of those paint-by-numbers type books. You have to take this information and figure out the rest with experience and practice.

A couple of things that bothered me about the book- the text early on the book that talked about paleoimagery, and how it has evolved over the centuries. Some people may find this very interesting, and that's fair enough. However, I did not. I just wanted to get to the sculpting parts, and to be honest this part felt like it was added to pad the book out.

Also, there was small (almost miss-able) bit of text in the glossary that talked about macro and micro evolution, and described how Bob Morales did not believe in macro evolution and his reasoning behind it. I respect his beliefs, but I don't really think it was necessary to include in a book about sculpting. It was just provocative and unnecessary. I hope Bob Morales and Allen Debus aren't offended by this, just sharing my opinion

My final verdict on the book is this: it's excellent and very helpful Well done to everyone involved, it's definitely an improvement over the first edition.

[Gorgonzola]

So TQ, what's different from this edition compared to the first?  I've never seen either, so this is more curiosity for me than anything else.

Still planning to pick it up since I rather like the idea of it just showing "Here are techniques to achieve these certain things" rather than "Today we're gonna make a dinosaur, and by the end of this one hour cooking segment your dinosaur should look like this" sort of thing that a lot of art books have.

Any chance you could post a table of contents on this thing?  Would love to know what the meat of this book is.

[tyrantqueen]

So TQ, what's different from this edition compared to the first?  I've never seen either, so this is more curiosity for me than anything else.

Still planning to pick it up since I rather like the idea of it just showing "Here are techniques to achieve these certain things" rather than "Today we're gonna make a dinosaur, and by the end of this one hour cooking segment your dinosaur should look like this" sort of thing that a lot of art books have.

Any chance you could post a table of contents on this thing?  Would love to know what the meat of this book is.

I don't own the original book, but I have heard things from other people about it. One of things I heard was that it was very thin and didn't have much information about sculpting techniques. I would say that is not the case in the 2nd edition. 200+ pages is a good amount for anyone's money.

Yeah, I agree about the cooking segment thing. Those kinda books always annoy me. I just thought I'd point it out since everyone looks for different things in an instructional book.

Here are the contents, since you asked

Foreword by Mike Fredericks
Introduction: The Circle of Life

1. Recipe for a dinosaur
2. An Overview of Paleoimagery
3. Why do it? Brainstorming Ideas and Exploring Ideas in Paleosculpture
4. Constructing Trustworthy Armatures
5. Pre Baked Parts
6. Sculpting Bloodthirsty Theropods
7. Sculpting Super Sauropods
8. "Can Do" Stegosaurs!
9. Sculpting "Sharp Looking" Horned Dinosaurs
10. Sculpting Iguanodontian and Duckbill Dinosaurs
11. Sculpting Miscellaneous Mesozoic Creatures
12. Sailing on to Distant Projects: Finbacks and Winged Reptiles
13. Sculpting Prehistoric Birds and Feathered Dinosaurs "On the Fly"
14. Sculpting Prehistoric Mammals- "Just Do It!"
15. Putting It All Together, A to Z: Sculpting Liopleurodon
16. A Word on the World Of Dino-Diorama Building (Model Bases and Painting)
17. Molding Prehistoric Animal Sculptures
18. A Painting Primer
19 What to Do if Your Model Cracks and Other Eventual Matters

Glossary
Chapter Notes
Index
Bibliography

I'd love to hear what you think of the book when you get it, too

Oh, I bought my copy from Amazon.co.uk, but looking at the site again today, it seems the book has returned to pre-order status Odd.

[Gorgonzola]

Much obliged, TQ!  That table of contents definitely moves the book up my priority list a bit, it looks like a keeper.  Also love how all the sculpting chapters have word play except for the hadrosaur one, lol.  It's like they just looked at it, shrugged, and said "Well, I've got nothing."

It'll be a little bit before I can get it, since my budget this month will probably be taken up by some test prints of the Amargasaurus, but I'll definitely be getting this before the end of the year.