Recreating an Age of Reptiles

Mark P Witton

Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals have always fascinated people but they pose vast problems for the artist. How do you go about recreating the anatomy and behaviour of a creature we’ve never seen? How can we restore landscapes long lost to time? And where does the boundary between palaeontology – the science of understanding fossils- and artistic licence lie? In this outstanding book, Mark Witton shares his detailed paintings and great experience of drawing and painting extinct species. The approaches used in rendering these impressive creatures are discussed and demonstrate the problems, as well as the unexpected freedoms, that palaeontological artists are faced with. The book showcases over ninety scientifically credible paintings of some of the most spectacular animals in the Earth’s history, as well as many less familiar species.

ISBN: 9781785003356

Published: September 30, 2017

Format: Ebook

£16.99

Buy Paperback

ISBN: 9781785003349

Width: 216mm

Height: 280mm

Pages: 112

Published: June 12, 2017

Format: Paperback

Mark P Witton is a leading palaeontological artist, author and researcher at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He has produced artwork for museums and universities worldwide, including the Natural History Museum and The London, and American Museum's of Natural History. He has also acted as a consultant for documentaries and films, including the Walking with Dinosaurs franchise, the BBC, National Geographic and research institutes around the world. His palaeoart works have also been featured in numerous research papers, news reports, books, television shows, museums and art galleries, and he has consulted on the appearance of fossil animals for numerous television shows and films. He has written numerous books on palaeontology and palaeoart, including three books for Crowood.

This book is an enjoyable and at times humorous discussion of the artistic reconstruction of Mesozoic reptiles by palaeontologist and palaeoartist Mark Witton.

Emma Askew reviewer
Open University Geological Society