Robinson Requests: LOOK at ceratopsians!

Mark Robinson is a long-standing reader of the blog who has contributed a great many very...amusing comments over the years. In his latest, he noted his disappointment that I failed to include any ceratopsians from the so-so '60s children's book LOOK at Dinosaurs in my VDA post. Well, damn it Mark, I hope the following will suffice for you. While (as you correctly pointed out) I just don't have the time to scan every single page of these books, here's every single ceratopsian illustration from LOOK. All three of them!

Firstly, here's a life restoration of "Triceratops provsus" [sic], in all of its stout, proud, Knightian glory. I suspect there may be something of a perspective fudge going on with the tail, but otherwise, it's quite a serviceable depiction for the time. At least it looks quite perky (tail aside) and muscular; indeed, the text describes a battle with its erstwhile sparring partner and superstar saurian diva, Sexy Rexy, in which the horned one emerges as victor. Hurrah for noble herbivores!

We're also given a look at what's left of Triceratops these days, in what appears to be an illustration of the famous mount at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (although I may be wrong; the same casts tend to end up all over the place). As with the other depictions of fossils in the book, it's pleasing that this was included alongside the life restoration, and it's actually a very decent likeness.

Protoceratops also pops up, but sadly only in hatchling form, which means we don't get the usual treat of a bizarre, pudgy, sprawling fellow hanging around some sand dunes and looking cross. Note that the eggs look suspiciously...oviraptorish. If only they knew!

And finally...just in case you wondered which other books appeared in the LOOK series, here's a complete listing. LOOK at the Navy sounds particularly frightening, written as it was by Commander Peter Kemp. Mind you, I'm sure it wasn't any worse than LOOK at Puppets. Brrrr.

1990s-style saurians: the winner!

The decision was, as ever, a very difficult one, but in the end I just had to plump for Jessica R's Archaeopteryx. It was a perfect fit for the brief, and I loved Jessica's explanation, particularly as she flipped my advice for entrants on its head:

"...You said that naked maniraptorans would be pretty obvious so I decided to throw you for a loop with a feathered maniraptoran...Archaeopteryx with pebbly head and wings with hands, dry cracked earth underfoot, and a single cycad."

It's well observed too (even without colour), getting a number of Urvogel tropes just so; the ground-dashing roadrunner incarnation became increasingly prevalent in the '80s and '90s* (as opposed to the previously ubiquitous arboreal version), and the 'palaeobotany is for losers' approach to foliage is strongly reminiscent of a lot of early '90s art. The earlier issues of Dinosaurs! certainly gave me the impression that the poor beasts lived in a permanently parched, arid environment. Like Tatooine, only with Triceratops roving around in place of distinguished, bearded, bitter Shakespearean actors.

Well done Jessica! Please send a message to the LITC Facebook page to claim your, er, prize (or if you can't do that, leave a comment below and we'll work something out). Proost!

*Having arguably been popularised by Ostrom - John McLoughlin was also ahead of the curve, as he often was. In fact, McLoughlin's 1979 Archaeopteryx rather resembles Jessica's...

1990s-style saurians: the contenders

I'm a bit prone to tucking away wacky drawing contests in my posts, which the cynical among you might take to be my way of measuring exactly how many people are reading them all the way to the end. But that's a terrible thought, and you are quite awful and horrid people for contemplating it. On the contrary, it's simply the case that I'm well aware of the great many talented artists we have among our readership, and love to encourage them to produce the sort of glorious, preferably very amusing and quite meta artwork that you just wouldn't see pop up on any other blog (except Pteroformer. And possibly Mark Witton's blog. Oh, whatever).

In any case, back in December I requested that readers submit a satirical '1990s dinosaur' - the sort of mildly barking restoration of a dinosaur that would have slotted in nicely inside a popular book from that decade (95% of which were written by Dougal Dixon). The winner will receive my copy of How to Draw Dinosaurs, along with a nice card or something that I'll seal with a kiss. First, however, I'd like to throw the entries out to the floor, to see which one LITC readers is most worthy of being crowned The Glorious Winner. Onward!

Gareth Monger's entry, while recycled from a blog post, is nevertheless an amusing take on an '80s or '90s-style speculative reconstruction, sporting a modern-style Paulian look while remaining horribly outdated. It depicts Deinocheirus, then known only from its arms (the rest of it having been lost down the back of someone's settee), as a knuckle-dragging ornithomimosaur of murderous intent, with claws able to tear off a sauropod's vulnerable lower leg with ease. Those of a certain age will remember many therizinosaur reconstructions along these lines (if normally without the brutal carnivory).

Ralph A Attanasia Mk3 (aka Doctor Rat) submitted this lovely sepia-toned piece, depicting another animal given a dramatic overhaul last year - Spinosaurus.  Some may argue that this piece is a little too retro, given the animal's upright posture. However, I'd draw attention to the very birdlike legs and sunken face as evidence that it does fit the bill better than a cursory glance might suggest. While croc-snouted spinosaurs did start to appear in the '90s, there were still a large number of the old 'carnosaur head' versions around, and the head and arms on Ralph's creation are gloriously generic.

At the other end of the chubbiness spectrum, we have Orcface's swampy hadrosaurs. The plumpness is the result of a certain stylisation (in keeping with the rest of the artist's deviantArt gallery). This one probably is a little too retro for the '90s - hadrosaurs tended to be out and about on the land by that time, typically getting mauled by various slobbering theropods. All the same, a very charming piece with great attention to detail (I love the webbed fingers on the Parasaurolophus).

In the original post, I mentioned that a naked maniraptor would be a safe, but rather obvious bet. Jessica R (aka Pok�mon Lover Wally) thought that she'd "throw me for a loop" by submitting a feathered dinosaur, but one employing as many '90s-style clich�s as possible. Hence, one butt-ugly Archaeopteryx, complete with featherless 'raptor' hands, body-hugging fuzz and a bafflingly pebbly head, chasing a dragonfly past a lone cycad over a cracked patch of dirt. Colours would've been welcome, but I still think this one nails it.

And finally...Chris DiPiazza (who he?) has submitted a typically bold and colourful painting, which doubles as concept art for Jurassic World (although Colin Trevorrow wouldn't approve of the dromaeosaur mohawks - they're far too progressive). Mostly naked dromaeosaurs? Check. Wildly coloured Archaeopteryx-like  bird with lizardy head and superfluous digits? Check. Angry angry mountains? Check. The terrifying demon-pterosaur thing flying overhead may be a silly step too far, but for the most part, this is a good 'un.

Please do weigh in! I'll announce the winner in a week or so. My decision is final. So there.