Earlier in February, I read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. Mostly because it’s an early piece of literature containing dinosaurs/paleontology as a focus. Also because it sounded fun. Despite the degree of time separation between now and then, the book was entertaining to read. Honestly some books published in the last twenty years were harder to parse than The Lost World. As paleontological fiction, it is vastly outdated. The story takes place in the eponymous lost world, an enormous tepui in the Amazon. In it are a variety of mostly European fauna (Iguanodon, Pterodactylus, Megaloceras) and some contemporary animals that may have been unintentionally airlifted from other parts of the world. Doyle described “a scaly anteater” which I was at first willing to give the benefit of the doubt that it was a way of describing a gylptodont, but is more likely to be him not knowing South America doesn’t have pangolins. It’s also really racist. Challenger is apparently able to tell Malone is Irish by the shape of his skull (which… like… there’s flesh in the way dude…), the black character is happily subservient to the British protagonists, and at one point they commit a near genocide of ape-people. More subtly there are a bunch of references to the inherent superiority of the British to the rest of the world which is really hard to take seriously some times. Also I’m like 75% sure at the end of the book Roxton and Malone return to the lost world to start a diamond mining company. Which is, to put it lightly, an enterprise that is consistently exploitative of their workers.
So why did I draw the main characters? I’ve done this with a few books. Especially ones with characters who are described in specific terms. To get a picture of what they look like, because when I read I imagine the events visually, I, er, make a picture. An, unlike the monstrosity that is A Song of Ice and Fire, the story had only a few characters I thought necessary to sketch as I read.
Roxton is an archetypal British safari adventurer with red hair and a mustache, Challenger is described with drooping eyelids and a big beard like an Assyrian statue, Malone is described the least but is also the youngest, freshest faced, and a big simp, and Summerlee is older with a goatee and a drone, sarcastic wit. They are fun to read divorced from reality. Challenger and Summerlee get into petty scientific debates constantly. Roxton is the most practical but also really wants to shoot dinosaurs. And there is a lot of fun poking at the seriousness with which 19th century scientists take themselves.
Signed, high-quality giclée art prints, drawn for the officially licensed 30th anniversary edition of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park novel, published by Folio Society (foliosociety.com).
Published by Folio Society, with binding / endpapers / title page / map and 6 internal illustrations by me. Out now only on foliosociety.com!
Huge thanks to AD Sheri Gee, editor Rob Davies & everyone over at Folio Society. What an incredibly talented and hard-working team. Also massive thanks to the hoards of people who contacted us about doing this book over the past year; keeping quiet about it was so difficult.
I only wish he’d written more books for this series so we could keep the party going…
Here it is, the final Jurassic June piece. And, instead of going for a baby, I gave the existing baby T. rex an edgy teen phase!
This juvenile T. rex is based on Jane, the fossil specimen argued to be a juvenile T. rex(orNanotyrannus to some). This makes the animal a lot more sleek and lithe, perfect for fast pursuits before it turns into a chunky tankbuster.
Baby JP Compsognathus for Jurassic June! This is based on a mish-mash between animals like SinosauropteryxandCoelophysis, mostly due to the fact that the animal’s name changed during production. I imagine these would be super soft like a kitten, and not potentially ravenous like the adults. A real gamble for a cute pet in a post-Fallen Kingdom world.
I expect I can get 2 more done for the month, and I think they’re interesting subjects. Enjoy!
Here are some baby Pachycephalosaurus for JurassicJune. Some may be more familiar with the name “Dracorex” but it seems unlikely that it was a separate species at the moment.
I know Dracorex already exists as a separate species in film canon (or at least as far as Jurassic World Evolution is concerned), but I liked this idea too much to give up on it. Enjoy!
Here are some hypothetical baby Jurassic Park hadrosaurs that pull from the film designs, fossil specimens of ParasaurolophusandHypacrosaurus, as well as general “baby” proportions the series has used before.
I won’t be doing daily uploads for Jurassic June, but some more JP ontogeny-themed drawings could be fun. Stay tuned!
The Male Tyrannosaurs are done! T. rex has some killer color schemes across the franchise and there’s so much good stuff to pull from. I know there are still some iconic rexes left unaddressed by this post, rest assured they’ll be in the next (and, for the moment, final) piece.
Likely the final entry in my impromptu Jurassinktober, it’s the Male Tyrannosaurus from the Lost World!
I love the way this rex looks from his colors, the scars, and all the extra saggy and pointy bits. It really makes him feel more like an individual character than even the female.
Also, I will likely show off some of the JP-related “project” I’ve been working on soon. Hopefully people will enjoy it. I’ve had a blast doing it.
I like the disgruntled look the JP Stego has with its angry brows and fat cheeks. It looks like some old, posh British man who is displeased at the antiquated insult that has been formally addressed to him.
I finally got to finishing this set of JP Triceratops. It took a long time (mostly due to work and not being good doing efficiency and detail simultaneously) but I feel like it was worth it.
I’ll be doing some other paleo sketches in the meantime but some JP carnivore palette sets are planned next. I’ll be saving the best for last, but carnivores are usually crowd pleasers regardless.
