1. Todd Marshall
Utahraptor
Image Credit: Todd Marshall. Used for non-commercial purposes.
There seems to be a "love-it-or-hate-it" trend with Todd Marshall's artwork. His work is very frequent with Paleontologist Paul Sereno's, but a fair share of critics bring up his overuse of adding spikes. I do see a few works of his where such criticism is fairly applied (I.E. his Spinosaurus reconstruction), but more often than not I feel they are greatly over exaggerated. If All Yesterdays has taught us anything, it is that "a significant amount of morphological and behavioral characteristics are forever lost in time." Marshall's art is both stylish and realistic to me, making him one of my favorite artists, and to see more art by him in dinosaur books would be a wonder.
Tyrannosaurus
Image Credit: Todd Marshall. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Todd Marshall has his own website. You can visit it here: http://www.marshalls-art.com/
2. Michael Skrepnick
Jobaria tiguidensis
Image Credit: Michael Skrepnick. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Artist commentary: Two dominant males assume an upright, combative posture and engage in an aggressive shovingmatch/intraspecific display. Komodo dragons and other modern monitors frequently engage in similar behaviours when resolving mating or territorial
disputes.
Michael Skrepnick's art is fairly popular. He teamed up with Dr. Thomas Holtz to produce books for the Jurassic Park Institute in the early 2000's, and, unless time has changed, murals of his work can be found in the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Skrepnick has a real talent for producing incredibly life-like paleoart. Most impressive is how well his work holds up today, given the fact that much of it is from the early 2000's. Quite possibly one of my favorite aspects of his work is how well he renders feathered dinosaurs. Depicting feathered dinosaurs is always a challenge, and many that do (including myself), seem to always draw them unnatural. Skrepnick does not. The only real complaint I can point out on his various feathered dinosaurs are the lack of primaries. If natural histories want murals for their dinosaur halls, Michael Skrepnick should be one of their first choices.
Oviraptor
Image Credit: Michael Skrepnick. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Skeleton-Musculature-Outer Integument of Sinosauropteryx prima
Image Credit: Michael Skrepnick. Used for non-commercial purposes
Visit Skrepnick's website here: http://www.dinosaursinart.com/
3. Fabio Pastori
Cryolophosaurus
Image credit: Fabio Pastori. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Fabio Pastori is rather underrated, as far as I know. As of July 2015, Pastori has only illustrated one book: Dinosaurs: The Grand Tour (however, his artwork has been the cover of various Prehistoric Times magazines). A vibrant use of colors not unlike that of Luis V. Rey (another great paleoartist, but not featured in this post) makes for very pleasing to the eye artwork. One of the most common remarks your less science-focused enthusiasts will say are, "Feathered dinosaurs are simply not scary." Again, much of this stems from artists not drawing feathers properly. his Gorgosaurus is feathered, but it's no pushover:
Image credit: Fabio Pastori. Used for non-commercial purposes.
I'd say the best way to describe Pastori's work would be, "Think Luis Rey, but more realistic. And less digital." At his best, Fabio Pastori makes images that the most renowned museums would be proud of.
Chasmosaurus goes up against sub-adult Albertosaurus
Image credit: Fabio Pastori. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Utahraptor vs Gastonia
(the addition of primaries make this blogger overflow with joy)
Image credit: Fabio Pastori. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Sinorinthosaurus milleni
(Hands down one of my favorite reconstructions of any feathered dinosaur)
Image credit: Fabio Pastori. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Visit Fabio Pastori's DeviantArt page here: http://paleopastori.deviantart.com/
You can also visit his website here: http://www.fabiopastori.it/default.asp
4. Julius Csotonyi
Brachylophosaurus
Image credit: Julius Csotonyi. Used for non-commercial purposes.
For all the flak I've given digital art, it can be done right in good hands. Julius Csotonyi is undeniable evidence of this. Like Skrepnick, Csotonyi take inspiration from Rudolph Zalinger's "Age of Reptiles" mural, and aspired to create realistic portrayals of prehistory. The result is digital art at its finest. Unsurprisingly, Julius Csotonyi's fantastic art was recognized by science magazines and museums throughout the world. To me, it's quite amazing how someone can portray every exquisite detail of a creature in the manner Csotonyi is able to. With his and Brian Switek's new book Prehistoric Predators hitting store shelves, readers can get a fresh break from those horrid CGI produced models.
Triassic turf war
Image credit: Julius Csotonyi. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Suchomimus and Kryptops
Image credit: Julius Csotonyi. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Csotonyi also made several of the dinosaurs seen on the Jurassic World website, including a striking Edmontosaurus and Pachycephalosaurus. Be sure to check those out if you haven't already.
Visit Csotonyi's website here: http://csotonyi.com/
5. Melnik Vitaliy
Nanuqsaurus
Image credit: Melnik Vitaliy. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Vitaliy is a DeviantArt artist who, quite frankly, is one of the best in my opinion. Every piece by him is worthy of being in a book by even the most professional paleontologist. Just compare his tyrannosaurid to Pixel Shack's Tyrannosaurus, which does get featured in books by professional paleontologists:
Image credit: Melnik Vitaliy. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Image credit: Pixel-Shack.com. Used for non-commercial purposes.
No arguments as to which one is superior. Unfortunately, the cost to make cheap CGI is considerably low compared to independent art, and, as one person said, "A lot of publishing paleontologists just do not care about how extinct animals looked and lived." It's an undeniable truth, and it's why so many books have so many paleoart failures. On the flip side of the coin, independent research gives you a higher probability of getting information from more trustworthy sources.
Siats meekorum
Image credit: Melnik Vitaliy. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Visit Melnik Vitaliy's DeviantArt page here: http://malvit.deviantart.com/
6. Alexander Lovegrove
Suchomimus tenerensis
Image credit: Alexander Lovegrove. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Another artist I met by way of DeviantArt, Alexander Lovegrove does mainly theropod art, and it is absolutely stunning. If there's a remake of Tyrannosaurus: The Mesozoic Monsters (like what they did for The Big Golden Book of Dinosaurs), Lovegrove matches Joyce Powzyk's style perfectly, albeit more updated.
Daspletosaurus attacks!
Image credit: Alexander Lovegrove. Used for non-commercial purposes.
Visit Alexander Lovegrove's DeviantArt page here: http://alexanderlovegrove.deviantart.com/
There are plenty of other artists out there that I consider to be top-notch (I.E. Luis Rey, Gregory S. Paul). I also wasn't able to cover sculpters, such as David Krentz (future post, maybe??). For now, I consider these 6 paleoartists to be the very best in my personal opinion. Hopefully, what this post has done is convince you to...
Image credit: Mark Witton.
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