Thursday, February 2, 2017

Let's Read _Recreating an Age of Reptiles_

Mark Witton's Recreating an Age of Reptiles (or "Rec-A-Rep" to its friends) is first and foremost an art book.  If you want to learn about dinosaurs or art techniques, you'll have to look elsewhere.  That said, it is the kind of art book I savor: gorgeous art, introduced and explained by the artist.

It seems like a simple, obvious thing, but I really don't have many art books in my collection like this (the magnificent 1995 volume The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe has a very similar format and oh, what would I give for an updated version).  Here, Witton gives us the grand circle tour of his paleoart, all along telling us what is speculation and what is based on solid evidence.  Pterosaurs are the stars, of course, but we get a lovely tour of the Triassic, unusual depictions of sauropods and ceratopsians, and even us lousy synapsids get our own little chapter.  This really is a beautiful book and an essential addition to your paleoart library.

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Art of the Day!

A Merry Moleskein Marshtomp.  (Don't ruin his mood and tell him Janphibianuary was kind of a flop.)

1.30.17 - Merry Moleskine Marshtomp