To see accurate pricing, please choose your delivery country.
 
 
United States
£ GBP
All Shops

British Wildlife

8 issues per year 84 pages per issue Subscription only

British Wildlife is the leading natural history magazine in the UK, providing essential reading for both enthusiast and professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. Published eight times a year, British Wildlife bridges the gap between popular writing and scientific literature through a combination of long-form articles, regular columns and reports, book reviews and letters.

Subscriptions from £33 per year

Conservation Land Management

4 issues per year 44 pages per issue Subscription only

Conservation Land Management (CLM) is a quarterly magazine that is widely regarded as essential reading for all who are involved in land management for nature conservation, across the British Isles. CLM includes long-form articles, events listings, publication reviews, new product information and updates, reports of conferences and letters.

Subscriptions from £26 per year
Academic & Professional Books  Palaeontology  Palaeontology: General

The Palaeoartist's Handbook Recreating Prehistoric Animals in Art

Handbook / Manual Out of Print
By: Mark P Witton(Author)
224 pages, 195 colour & b/w photos and colour & b/w illustrations
Publisher: Crowood Press
NHBS
A fantastic and unparalleled book showing how to research and prepare artwork of prehistoric life forms.
The Palaeoartist's Handbook
Click to have a closer look
Average customer review
  • The Palaeoartist's Handbook ISBN: 9781785004612 Paperback Sep 2018 Out of Print #241654
About this book Contents Customer reviews Related titles Recommended titles
Images Additional images
The Palaeoartist's HandbookThe Palaeoartist's HandbookThe Palaeoartist's HandbookThe Palaeoartist's HandbookThe Palaeoartist's Handbook

About this book

Extinct worlds live again in palaeoart: artworks of fossil animals, plants and environments carefully reconstructed from palaeontological and geological data. Such artworks are widespread in popular culture, appearing in documentaries, museums, books and magazines, and inspiring depictions of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals in cinema. The Palaeoartist's Handbook outlines how fossil animals and environments can be reconstructed from their fossils, explaining how palaeoartists overcome gaps in fossil data and predict 'soft-tissue' anatomies no longer present around fossil bones. It goes on to show how science and art can meet to produce compelling, interesting takes on ancient worlds, and it explores the goals and limitations of this popular but rarely discussed art genre.

Contents

Acknowledgements   6

1. An Introduction to Palaeoart   7
2. A Brief History of Palaeoart   17
3. Researching, Resource Gathering and Planning a Palaeoartwork   37
4. General Reconstruction Principles, Skeletons and Trackways   56
5. Reconstruction Principles: Guts, Muscles and Fatty Tissues   75
6. Reconstruction Principles: Skin and Colouration   86
7. Reconstruction Principles: Facial Tissues   109
8. Reconstruction Principles: Cave Art, Speculation and Tissue Depth   133
9. The Life Appearance of Some Fossil Animal Groups   148
10. Recreating Ancient Landscapes   169
11. Composition, Mood and Purpose   184
12. Professional Practice   203
13. Some Final Advice for Aspiring Palaeoartists   214

Contributing Artists   216
References   218
Index   222
Image Credits   224

Customer Reviews (1)

  • A fantastic and unparalleled source of information
    By Leon (NHBS Catalogue Editor) 21 Sep 2018 Written for Paperback


    Given that dinosaurs are no longer around, everything you think you know about what they look like comes from illustrations, models, movies, and merchandise. But how much of this is actually accurate, and how much of it is rather geared towards appealing to our sensibilities? Mark Witton is a man with a mission: to elevate the genre of palaeoartistry to one depicting scientifically accurate renditions, based on informed speculation and careful study of fossils and anatomy. Rather than a book that shows you how to draw a dinosaur, The Palaeoartist’s Handbook is a fantastically useful primer for both aficionados and budding artists into what actually can and should go into making good palaeoart.

    Witton first gives a short history of palaeoart, covering the idea that the mythology of our ancestors might be influenced by fossils finds (a view espoused by Mayor in The First Fossil Hunters and Fossil Legends of the First Americans – Witton does not think it likely), the historic palaeoart of the 1800s and 1900s that includes luminaries such as Charles Knight and Zdenek Burian (see also Lescaze’s Paleoart and Rudwick’s Scenes from Deep Time), the reformation from the 1970s onwards under the influence of people such as Gregory S. Paul and Robert Bakker (author of The Dinosaur Heresies), and the developments of the last decade (see Dinosaur Art and Dinosaur Art 2 for some spectacular portfolios).

    The bulk of this book, however, gives sage advice from a seasoned professional on how to prepare and research your artwork. Basically, it is really, really important you do your homework: understand the jargon, study the fossils (in person if you can), stay on top of the literature, and understand how modern animals and landscapes function and what they look like.

    Witton then works from the inside out. He discusses skeletal reconstructions and the lessons that can be drawn from trace fossils and footprints once you get to decide on posture and gaits. Guts, muscles and fatty tissues rarely if ever fossilize, but we can infer a lot from a skeleton. Skin colour and texture similarly don’t fossilize well, though spectacular fossils have been found. In a very informative chapter, Witton reveals just how much you can deduce from details on bones about the overlying structures. Faces, often being a focus, get a separate chapter, discussing details on how to reconstruct eyes, nostrils, cheeks, lips, etc. A final section talks about the utility of cave art, the role of (informed) speculation for those details you cannot infer from fossil data, and tissue depth and the questionable tendency to depict animals with minimal soft tissue (often referred to as a shrink-wrapped appearance).

    Advice is also given on restoring the landscapes and plants that surround your animals, and matters of mood and composition (what are your animals doing?). Finally, some very useful guidelines regarding professional practice as an artist are given, covering such topics as contracts, collaborations with scientists, managing commissions and expectations from clients, and turning your hobby into a professional career.

    A theme that runs through the book is how to avoid tired clichés when depicting animals and how to create original and innovative artwork. Palaeoart has developed a fair number of stereotypical depictions, some of which are not very accurate of natural animal behaviour. Looking at artwork, you might think that the prehistoric past consisted exclusively of dinosaurs thundering around, fangs bared, while roaring and fighting. These tropes and memes, and the unfortunate tendency of some artists to copy poses seen in classic pieces, were explored in-depth by John Conway, C.M. Kosemen and Darren Naish in All Yesterdays (a book I haven’t read, but I should really get).

    As mentioned, this is not a book on how to draw a dinosaur, so Witton does not go into the actual artistic process of sketching, drawing, painting, what media to use, making digital artwork etc. That is a topic that could fill a book in itself and we can only hope that maybe one day he will write such a book. Nevertheless, The Palaeoartist’s Handbook is handsomely illustrated with artwork of many accomplished artists and a large number of very useful schematic drawings.

    I am not an artist (I couldn’t draw if my life depended on it), but I found this book absolutely fascinating. Some of this information has been floating around the web, and those into palaeoart might have exchanged ideas or discussed some of the advice Witton writes about. But in bringing all of this together in this handbook, Witton has done the palaeoartist community a huge service. There simply hasn’t been a dedicated book like this before*. So, for them, this book is an ab-so-lu-te must. However, anyone who enjoys artwork of dinosaurs and other prehistoric lifeforms should not hesitate a moment to pick this up. It will instil a new sense of appreciation for palaeoart and might even give you the means to more critically look at existing artwork and recognise the great.

    * Correct me if I’m wrong, but the most recent I could find was Witton’s reference to Gregory Paul’s chapter “The science and art of reconstructing the life appearance of dinosaurs and their relatives: a rigorous how-to guide” in the 1987 book Dinosaurs Past and Present, Volume 1 – obviously thoroughly outdated by now.
    6 of 7 found this helpful - Was this helpful to you? Yes No
Handbook / Manual Out of Print
By: Mark P Witton(Author)
224 pages, 195 colour & b/w photos and colour & b/w illustrations
Publisher: Crowood Press
NHBS
A fantastic and unparalleled book showing how to research and prepare artwork of prehistoric life forms.
Current promotions
Best of WinterNHBS Moth TrapNew and Forthcoming BooksBuyers Guides