Dinosaur Artwork – Palaeoart

Illustrating prehistoric life, whether it is drawing Devonian landscapes, colouring in Cambrian scenes, painting pterosaurs or sketching Silurian fishes is extremely important as these artworks help to inform, educate and fire the imagination of the public.  At Everything Dinosaur, we are very lucky as we get to meet so many talented palaeoartists, from the very young to the young at heart.

When visiting a school, we often get given some pictures of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals that the children have produced, perhaps, inspired by our dinosaur themed workshops in school.  We also get the chance to work with professional palaeoartists who make a living providing illustrations for books, museum galleries and exhibitions.

Late Cretaceous China – Superb Artwork by Zhao Chuang

Northern China in the Late Cretaceous.

Picture Credit: Zhao Chuang

Helping to Illustrate Prehistoric Life

The illustration above, depicts the Late Cretaceous of China, this artwork was created by the very talented illustrator Zhao Chuang, who describes himself as a science artist.  Mr Chuang, a founder member of PNSO (Peking Natural Science Organisation), has collaborated with numerous leading palaeontologists and natural history museums including the American Museum of Natural History (New York), the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Natural History Museum.

The scene above shows China around 77 million years ago (Campanian faunal stage of the Late Cretaceous), a herd of duck-billed dinosaurs arrive at a waterhole, these large herbivores have nothing to fear from the beautifully feathered dromaeosaurid on the left of the image, whilst the ankylosaurine Pinacosaurus, confident that its body armour will keep it safe, wanders away from the water having drunk its fill.

The artwork on the boxes of the prehistoric animal figures made by PNSO is also excellent too.  To view the range of prehistoric animal figures available from Everything Dinosaur: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs.

Take for example, the artwork on the large Triceratops model within the PNSO model range.  The model is placed in a forest setting and the low light effect shows the scales on the figure very well.  The background is in soft focus, whilst in contrast, the Triceratops is very prominent.  The superb detail on the PNSO Triceratops can be clearly seen.  The strapline on the box is “every life should be respected”, a core message that is depicted across a range of Zhao Chuang inspired products.

PNSO Box Art – Triceratops (T. horridus)

The PNSO Triceratops box art.

The Importance of Palaeoart

Palaeoart helps to portray ancient life and plays an extremely important role in helping to depict long extinct creatures.  The best examples represent the animals and landscapes using the very latest scientific thinking, helping to directly contribute to the public’s knowledge and understanding with regards to life in the past.  It is often these images, those seen in books and increasingly, images viewed on-line, that help to inspire the next generation of palaeontologists.

Zhao Chaung’s Illustration of the Theropod Concavenator

A beautiful illustration of the theropod dinosaur Concavenator.

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