Imaging prehistory.

[Roy]

Calling all artists and illustrators,

We already have a wealth of superb scientific illustrations courtesy of Joe and Lucy, which will be added to the OATH website drawings gallery as the site develops.

We would like to think that together we can all produce some pretty amazing images on a sound scientific foundation. A cursory glance around the internet shows quite clearly that there is a lack of high quality illustration evoking the world of the Trilobites.

Images are often indistinct and innacurate and fall short of doing justice to the depth of scientific knowledge about these amazing creatures.

I suppose a direct comparison would be illustrations of the wreck of the Titanic prior to Ballard's exploration and the publication of his books in collaboration with the Illustrator Ken Marschall.

Marschall's illustrations revolutionised our understanding of the subject through the combination of meticulous accuracy, attention to detail and his wonderful evocation of light and atmosphere.

www.transatlanticdesigns.com/t5.html

As someone once said:

"....the dream of every palaeontologist is to see things come back to life through illustration ..."

An exciting challenge wouldn't you say?.


Roy.

[Joe Botting]

Now you've put down the challenge and had some time to regret it (although we haven't exactly been overwhelmed by submissions yet... come on, people, it's your chance to be famous!), I think it's about time some of yours went on the website, Roy... :-)

How about it? Hopefully it'll get people reaching for their watercolours, pencils, oils, clay, scraperboards, charcoal, crayons....

[fossilcrazy]

Six years after this thread was started, I'll reply. I have noticed a lot of Paleontologists and Citizen Paleontologists are very good artists and most have never been formally schooled in Art.
Natural science is a very subject rich place for illustration. photography and imagination. None of the individuals I have met, illustrate for income, it is for their own pleasure and fun of sharing. Be honest, Paleontology is not a high profile, high income interest area. Only the top Titans of art will be able to more than eek out a living with Paleo Art. Carving out a nitche for ones Paleo Art is a job in of itself. Promoting ones porfolio is tireless peddling to every form of publisher; or landing a job as a museum illustrator, makes winning the lottery look easy. Fellow fossilphiles the talented Prehistoric artists are out there and we are them.

[Joe Botting]

What's six years in a geological context..? ;-)

I agree completely. There are one or two people recently who have tried to advertise their services to academics wanting reconstructions fot their papers, but I don't know whether they've succeeded. Part of the problem is, as you say, that there are a lot of researchers who take great pride in their drawing skills. Some, like Peter Van Roy, are truly incredible, but there are many others who are very good. What we wanted to encourage here are the more playful reconstructions of fossils as living creatures, rather than the beautiful but diagrammatic pictures in the academic press. If you've got any (particularly Ordovician) artwork to put up, we'd be happy to oblige...