Growing up as a budding surrealist, I remember with a smile that Alejandro Jodorowsky, my mentor in the seventies, dedicated a phrase to my work: “If it is not excessive is not genius”… well, this amply applies to the work of 余国梁 , a Chinese paleo 3D artist that creates signature dramatic model kits that suits just fine to my dramatic personae, and he is known in the internet (on top of everything) as “Passion Charger”! Not since my collaboration with the excellent Charlie Mc Grady in olden days I have found something that really entices me this way.

First time I saw his models I felt immediately identified with his style (because he DOES have a peculiar style that will always stands out from the rest, sometimes warts and all!)… so I have dedicated a good number of hours to customise several of his models… respecting the work, but sometimes adding details and colours that turn the whole thing into a kind-of collaboration. He liked my extravagance but at the beginning I’m sure he was utterly surprised by the flaming colours and the fact that I even changed skin textures (Tarbosaurus is now feathered too) and added kinetic feathers to his magnificent moving Therizinosaurus guarding its nest.

He never expected to see a titanosaur with that palette and much less the Acrocanthosaurus and Tenontosaurus pair… I enquired about the 1/20 version of the Argentinosaurus but he told me that would take the animal to be one meter long… and the work is normally in solid resin… just imagine!

His latest work has taken me at least 12 hours a day of work during a week and a half… frantic! But you have to admit, there is no better, more fantastic, dramatic recreation of Spinosaurus anywhere! Spinosaurus is startled by beautiful Carcharodontosaurus, and the animal dynamics are astounding… but not only that, Passion Charger is overly ambitious with his scenarios…he is always going over the top adding more and more details surrounding his already scrumptiousfigures. I must admit… his scenarios are many times more complex to build and paint than the figures themselves… and he can go over the top with the extras too! This time it’s a river scene, resin water planks included, with half the scenario under that “water”! Contemporary coelacanth Mausonia and Onchopristis fishes are added to the scene… and even a turtle recreated to the maximum detail! If you consider the size of the carnivores, these fishes were simply enormous and the diorama can’t possibly reflect the real size of the whole thing.

I selected some colours from my own illustrations to go with his creations… and the Carcharodontosaurus tentatively looks like a hippo coupled with a vulture… while the Spinoisaurus is simply a recreation of an old classic, now with the right proportions and posture.

If it is not excessive is not genius… and certainly Passion Charger is! We definitively have quite a bit in common. Mostly accurate at the levels of anatomy… even if sometimes taking some risks and liberties…Sometimes outlandish, always over the top. extremely daring and creative. I support Passion Charger and I encourage everybody to do so.