ART HISTORY

I’ve been drawing since I was a little kid. My parents would go to a local newspaper and buy the end rolls of the paper. I would lie on the front room floor and draw on the rolls. One time I drew a life-sized oarfish, 20 feet long. Why I don't' know. I'd draw fish, birds, crabs, dinosaurs, octopus, etc. In high school my friend, Gil said I should make my own book. I bought 3 x 5 cards and started to draw on them on one side and write what they were on the other. I bought numerous cards, and I still have one. One summer, when I was older, I thought I'd draw all the skeletal elements of dinosaurs to a one-tenth scale. I used 3 x 5, 5 x 7, 8 x 11.5, 11 x 15 and larger paper for the really big ones. I still have the drawings.

As my friendship with George Olshevsky grew, he told me he wanted to publish his own newsletter, Archosaurian Articulations. I told him I could draw and he said he needed pen and ink, however, I only used a pencil. I told my father this and asked him what I should do. He was a technical illustrator.  He said I should stipple. I asked what that was. It is illustrating with dots. He showed me how to do it and I've kept using that style. For me, I'm more of a jackhammer when I illustrate. I know others who stipple, and they are slow and methodical.  I did some drawings for George and he liked them. I drew several illustrations for George. Gakken Mook (a Japanese publisher) contacted George about doing articles for them. He wrote the articles, and I did the illustrations for his articles. That was a good gig, I made thousands of dollars a year for a few years until the publisher passed away. 

George Olshevsky was going to write a book for The Dinosaur Society, the Dinosaur Society Dinosaur Encyclopedia. I was going to illustrate all the obscure, not well-known dinosaurs, which was about 500 illustrations. As the book progressed the publisher kept telling George to keep up with what he was doing. Then he was told to dumb down the book, he said no and he was off the project. I was still on it. I kept illustrating, I had a list and was going alphabetically.  When started the ‘T’’s I got a call and the editor said they should have called me earlier. They only wanted 100 illustrations, and I was just starting on my 400th…I decided I was going to finish my illustrations even though they were going to use 100 of them. I did finish all 500 of them, which I've used in various places. Back then I was drawing on a white poster board. I was using a nonreproducible blue pencil (that my father told me about), then pen and ink. I’d make the drawings larger than the original illustration. I’d take measurements, make dots, connect the dots then ink it. I would do this while sitting on my bed, with a drawing board on my legs. I didn't have a drafting board at the time. And, I never got paid for the use of my illustrations. I still have some of those illustrations. I don’t illustrate like that now thanks to the internet and computers, now I use tracing paper, scan the image, then 'fix' them on the computer.

Since then I must have illustrated thousands of images. I am currently finishing a huge project with more than 1500 illustrations.

   
YulongSSpin

Spinosaurus

Suchiomimus

Tyrannosaurus rex

Carididon teeth

Apatosaurus

Brontosaurus cervical vertebra

Diplodocus

Goyocephale

Magnapaulia

Chasmosaurus

Psittacosaurus

Iguanodon

Ankylosaurus

Gastonia

Stegosaurus

Dacentrurus

Didymocerus

Shavripteryx

Diplocaulus

Megalneusaurus

Rhamphorhynchus

Dimetrodon