A sneak preview of the new revamped Dinosaur rEvolution... the one that did the rounds in Australia and New Zealand… only this time with some special guests…
You might remember him? Well, I must admit animatronics have never been my favourite thing… but our Gondwana Studios exhibition needed to be children-friendly and the demand was there, right where it is going to start in Europe: the Horniman Museum, London in February 2024… We needed to have some. Thankfully this time our Chinese partners were listening to some of our instructions and… I had to smile when I saw the progress of this old friend of mine… the female Deinonychus.
Our friends in Chine were familiar with the Jurassic Park critters, but when we instructed them that their arms were more like prospective wings and sent quite a few different sketches… well.. there were difficulties conveying what we needed.
Amazingly enough the first thing they got right was a full head portrait of my female Deinonychus… it might look a bit a caricature, but… I don’t know you… I find it charming!
I had to share this to wet appetites… there are going to be many more surprises in this exhibition…!
We are all aware of the debates about Spinosaurus, the biggest fish eater dinosaur the world has ever seen (insert smile here)… now things take a new twist with a reappraisal of the South Amerrican, Brazilian spinosaur Irritator challengeri...
Gondwana was the land of the spinosaurs. Irritator has been reconstructed many times, mostly with a Baryonyx-like body and Angaturama skeletal elements but it has never been seen like this. A long time ago I did a reconstruction of a Spinosaurus with a big fish sticking out of its jaws expanding the lower jaw sideways as a pelican would do… the new study of Irritator
Marco Schade, Oliver W. M. Rauhut, Christian Foth, Olof Moleman, and Serjoscha W. Evers
…apparently shows that I wasn’t r speculating too much and indeed, Irritator could “do the Pelican” with kinetic jaws that could be expanded sideways… I wouldn’t go all the way and separate completely the tip of the lower jaws as in some reconstructions I’ve seen, but the capability of expansion was there for sure.
Not much is known from the rest of the skeleton of Irritator, but some speculate now that even Spinosaurus itself was capable of doing such expansion, so I think it might be possible that Irritator was similar in other ways too. More like Spinosaurus than Baryonyx. This resulted in this extraordinary looking animal!
You can see here the evolution of the image. Adding a mid-sized sail was reasonable at the end… and to make it even more extreme, I decided to cover the heads with protofeathers, enhancing the pelican look. You have three versions here… your choice!
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 daysI 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.
The process of learning is continuous and endless… and this one was too special to miss. It had been one of my greatest ambitions to built a complete life-size Velociraptor skeleton, bone by bone.
I jumped at the opportunity when I was offered a printed 3D skeleton. I thought it would be straightforward and it came recommended… little did I know that my problems would start even before beginning to build… I got >most< of the skeleton but, to my horror many bones were not there when I got it… and they were key bones… couldn’t build the skeleton with virtually missing most of the hands and feet, no tibias and an incomplete tail. That is indeed a lot of missing bones!
On top of everything: I was provided with NO instructions… just imagine trying to compare every single vertebrae by shape and guess a sequence without guidance . Building on such limited information seemed impossible! I finally found that what I have been offered was available somehow in the site “Cults” that has plenty of 3D files at very reasonable prices… at last I could start comparing with something tangible. Since I do not have any paper with full description of each of the Velociraptor vertebrae, at least I could start guessing by comparing them visually. Not the easiest of tasks! Having the pieces originally numbered would have been dead easy!
So, I started with what I had… that is obviously the skull, thoracic plates and part of the arms. Hands were incomplete but came soon enough.
Next was to try to find professional printers that would do the printing seriously and professionally… I’m not giving names (I might have been unlucky) but I found out that most of the approached didn’t dare and cancelled the order just when I thought they would do the job: the pieces were very light and fragile… the vertebral processes of the tail, both vertebrae and chevrons of the stiff part of the tail were as thin as needles in places… All this meant more waste of time,.
So what I thought would be a cheaper, straightforward process has taken months and much more effort than what I expected. Every time I managed to get a missing bit I ran and try to get it going… I had to cover and polish a lot of the printed bones with epoxy putty to fix some of the errors… the 3D printed material can be very brittle and flawed in the printing, especially if you are trying to use cheaper material.
The last and more elaborate part (the end of the tail) had to be printed entirely in liquid white resin (the rest has been fibrous materials that are too brittle for those vertebrae)… that was the only way the processes had the strength to be bent without breaking them (although as you can imagine. many broke!). Fortunately I had a glue from England that is miraculously fast and resistant (and resistant)… I don’t know what I would do without Mitre Bond! Recommended!
When I finally had the tail, getting into resin “macrame” was close to be an ordeal…I’was not even quite sure if some of the vertebrae were in the correct places… Sounds insane but, I had to “feel them” click and fight with the chevrons to fit afterwards, sometimes using a sharp knife to clean the pieces!… Weaving with resin strands is something else.
When I finished it, that was the last part to be inserted in the extremely fragile skeleton. To my horror, it was a bit too heavy for the rest of the skeleton and some bones started to crack.. High drama! … .I called my friend Juanvi to weld a base that could support the virtually floating skeleton with its tail without breaking! He did a splendid job.
And suddenly there he was… a dream come true in plain Raptor attack mode!
The painting process was furious and fast… such a release! I tried to convey the colours of the original Velociraptor fossils that are normally creamy white with a terracotta soil background. I reached a compromise, but that doesn’t mean it is quite finished yet!
Here you can see the comparison between the mounted skeleton and the old McGrady/Rey fleshed out mode, that I always thought had the ideal proportions for a life-sized Velociraptor.. However, the skeleton is bigger than the model and the proportions are also quite dissimilar. Arms and tail are smaller, the skull is bigger and legs are longer. What it means to have more than 20 years of difference between them. I still find that the skeleton is much bigger than most Velociraptor fossils I know in any case… it may be a different species.. I also have a partial Gaston cast that shows definitively a smaller animal… I suppose we should give a critical appraisal of this skeleton and see what is the source … I suspect ithe proportions are taken from Scott Hartman’s new reconstructions…
I still find the whole affair an extremely rewarding experience.
From all the original artwork I did at the end of the 1990’s and beginning of the 2000’s, no other are dearer to my heart than the New Chinese Revolution Saga (1 to 4). They have been protagonists of several famous books including “Extreme Dinosaurs” (Luis V Rey Chronicle Books), the Gee/Rey “Field Guide To Dinosaurs” (Quarto Publishing), “Dinosaurs, The Ultimate Encyclopedia” by Holtz/Rey (Random House), “Extreme Dinosaurs Part 2, The Projects” and many more. I have used these originals in many exhibitions over the world, from the US to Mexico to England, Copenhagen and Italy. One of the last ones were in TetZoo in 2019. Digital murals of them are still part of our exhibitions with Gondwana Studios, like Hatching The Past and Dinosaur rEvolution (coming soon to the Horniman Museum in London).
No digital copies or murals this time: the items for sale are the very originals… I have decided to put them for auction on eBay too!
The printed pictures have never done them real justice. I remember showing the first New Chinese Revolution original painting to the staff at Dorling Kindersley in London around the early 2000’s… it was the beginning of the computer generated art and it was starting to be ubiquitous. I remember the people touching the originals feeling the texture as if it was something done in another planet! They are acrylics and inks on cardboard, in a mixed-media style that includes airbrush and an assortment of other techniques, including a unique use of acrylic “relief” that is impossible to appreciate when published. They are also sizeable: 75 X 55 cm. approximately.
These were a real part of the late Dinosaur Renaissance, immediately after we had the hard evidence for dinosaur feathers from the Yixian, Liaoning Province. They were a real tribute to my own personal dreams and science quest come true, and include some of the first depictions of a unique fauna like never revealed before in those ages… the then still not well known Beipiaosaurus, the more famous Caudipteryx, Sinosauropteryx, Confuciusornis, Jeholornis, Jixiangornis and the first depiction of the quilled Psittacosaurus as bone scavenger ever. Most of the art has aged fairly well in science terms, I think. Some, like Microraptor, look like relics… we still didn’t have the evidence for colours in those ages! And the depiction of Epidendrosaurus as a grub eater is still not found very often. It might have been a relative of Yi Qi!
They are in mint condition. If you want a piece of paleo art history now is the opportunity! They are searching for a good home that will appreciate them… As special offer, you can also contact me via email or message me here, in case you would like to purchase all four of them and we could reach an agreement!
You wander around a shop or market anywhere…and suddenly… there it is: yet another modern-day dinosaur toy atrocity! Yes, this time another Schleich model, a label that is famous for its deranged, schizo dinosaurs (c’mon, not because “it’s for children” you shouldn’t be more careful!)… There’s obviously more than one designer in the company… and this new atrocity belongs to a series from the same designer.
And yet… just looking at it I saw possibilities that appealed to me… I had to rise to the challenge. I have a passion for these things (like James Pascoe would say…) … and when I saw this figure. I thought “this might just end up becoming a bearable model”.
A camel,-legged short-snout badly finished Edmontosaurus that boasts even a well-informed, late-minute head crest pretending to be “accurate” ?! You bet! Let’s get the scalpel… or the Dremel, whatever you prefer!
Then it’s epoxy putty time!… Wanted to add a big big nose to my Edmontosaurus this time.
And finally, paint time… it makes all the difference.
Customising models can be serious business for so many great artists… Take for example my next project… here’s just a taste of it… while waiting for the tail and legs to be added. This will be subject of another blog post when it’s finished… and is becoming a gruelling, but a long-time dream of mine… a life-sized Velociraptor bone by bone.
In the meantime, I leave you with the treat of some street art that needs no commentary… except an earthy ‘thank you’ to anybody that’s done it… finally Tlatolophgus, Angel Ramírez and… myself are taking to the streets in Mexico City! Pictures courtesy of Google Maps!… this is really beyond fun…
I think we have seen them all… from the ubiquitous bare teeth grin, to the sedated, solemn face of the T. rex from Prehistoric Planet.
In my quest for a new look for Tyrannosaurus I would like to start 2023 with a portrait of Stan that would defy convention and make him more avian than ever. I have tried it before but not to this extent: instead of having an extensively scaly snout, it has now a full horny coverage that is more like a beak… and these are the results… might be successful or not, but I had to try once again.
Yes, the toothy T rex is gone and for good reason. Every possible skull (including Stan) have the teeth virtually out of their sockets and, when you closely examine the teeth themselves, the enamel traces show very clearly what part was “out” or “in” the gums… as it happens most of the teeth were inside soft tissue and the roots were enormous. So much for the “banana” teeth grin… still the thickness and power of those teeth were bone crunching remarkable. Quite a few of them would show for sure, but not like the earlier reconstructions.
How long was it since at the last up close and personal TetZoo Meeting in London? 3 years, four years? I’m starting to show my age… but never forget the importance of being present and interact in person. I’m looking forward to meet all those friends that I have seen only by Zoom all this time!
So if anyone else wants to meet we will be >in person< at:
I’m preparing to bring a good chunk of recent material that has not been published yet, and some of it is in progress… not even finished! However I will also be bringing plenty of copies of Extreme Dinosaurs Part 2... a very important chronicle of all the exhibitions I have been part in the last years.
But before all that… I’ll be appearing on Wednesday 30 at the:
Check your local times… everybody probably lives somewhere far away … so if you can and are interested, please do check when it is convenient for you and we will surely meet trans-oceanically in an interesting discussion about what has happened to the dinosaur iconic image after all these years… and what will happen in the future if we are not careful!
In the meantime I’m preparing myself and having fun constructing a life-size Velociraptor skeleton from scratch at my studio… vertebrae by vertebrae… a puzzle that I wasn’t expecting! Yes… anatomy is >my< thing!
As special news, I can announce that Dinosaur rEvolution will be at the Horniman Museum in February 2024… yes,Gondwana Studios is finally bringing it to Europe and we are searching for more venues. It might also be going to Mexico and America but for the time being the exhibition is being refurbished and revamped to an extent never see before.
Day of the Dead at the Geology Museum in Mexico! First time ever Geoexplora could run an “in situ” paleo art class after years of the Covid scare… the Museum especially opened the doors for us! As you can see the decorations of the Day of the Dead around the Mammoth were dutifully performed by masters of their craft…
Ricardo Servín Pichardo gave us a guided tour to start with… and then we all sit down on the floor the best we could … right in front of the old Isauria (Latirhinus) skeleton, that served us well for the basics… that pesky articulation of the limbs was finally understood by most of the attendants. We also spoke about the fact that Latirhinus is no longer a kritosaur but a lambeosaur… still learning the basics of the anatomy was what counted.
And then… the nextweekewas quite a surprise… it was Rock Show time!… The greatest toy display in Mexico happens around the Metro Hidalgo, where thousands of dealers bring collector’s toys and other items to selll… and especially Dinosaur model dealers like Arturo PC and Tienda de Dinosurios have a field day., I was surprised greatly by several dinofans that brought the two editions of my Extreme Dinosausbooks for signings!Year after year Mexico never disappointsExif_JPEG_420Exif_JPEG_420Exif_JPEG_420Exif_JPEG_420
And, as in every trip I got lucky with some tailor-made new masterwork by Aldo Fomisaurus… this time he successfully raised to my challenge of Bajadasaurus and the new Jakapil!
Needless to say, last but not least, Héctor Munive provided me with a kit of his “fatty” Triceratops… I just customised and it is surprisingly VERY effective for such a chunky version of the animal… he definitively has done a great job at making graceful that what is definitively not
I thank especially Adriana Miranda for making the event possible (GeoExplora, the hardest working woman in Mexico) and Ulices Carrillo; Ricardo Servín and Arturo PC for their gracious support and inspiration. And also Hector Munive, Dalia Castillo, Eliot Munive, Aldo Fomisaurus and Yadira, Fede and family for being always there for us!See you all in TetZoo next…
Hailed as a “mini-Godzilla”, although frankly I can’t see the resemblance (sorry Hector Munive)… this enigmaatic, tiny, newest of dinosaurs has been assigned to Thyreophora, and reconstructed as a close relative of Scutellosaurus,Scelidosaurus and sundry stegosaurs and ankylosaurs. It would be the first-ever obligatory bipedal armoured dinosaur with arms as puny in proportion as those of a theropodian Abelisaurid.
Problem is: First of all it is too fragmentary. There’s a lot of guess work here. We cannot be as certain as we would like of the distribution of the armour, in a case that reminds me of Acantholipan and its bogus spines on the hips. Second, the mandible is deep and, according to Thom Holtz, closely resembles ceratopsids… something that would make Jakapil a Marginocephalian, not a Thyreophoran. Third, to reconstruct it as a scelidosaur it would be an incredibly late, Cretaceous surviving relative of the Triassic/Early Jurassic Scutellosaurus or Scelidosaurus… and a running bipedal ankylosaur is unknown to say the least. The evolutionary trend in the evolution of Thyreophora has been in getting bigger and heavier, not towards slim runners.
So. is it a really completely different branch of Ornithischian armoured dinosaur? Or is it a ‘missing link’ marginocephalian as I propose here?
I have dared to reconstruct it in a different view… here Jakapil is really a primitive armoured marginocephalian between pachycephalosaurs and ceratopsians… we do not have the top of the skull, so it might be possible that it was as armoured as the rest of the body.
It would be the first armoured pachycephalosaur for sure. An almos perfect ancestor to the rest of pahycephalosaurs linked to the ceratopsians (but also linked to Thyreophorans somehow) via a characteristic different mandible. A puzzle. A fascinating missing link! More of the skeleton is needed to reach more conclusions. Hypothetical primitive bristles paired with the armour? Why not? The rest of the animal is almost as hypothetical at this stage.
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