Finally, a few words on All Your Yesterdays

The original All Yesterdays, with art by John Conway and the mighty Memo, caused enough of a stir last year to break free from its 'niche publishing' status and make it into the mainstream media - even into delightful tabloid newspapers normally filled with right-wing batshittery and celebrity boobs. Now - or rather, a month ago, but I've only just caught up - the dream team brings us the fruits of their All Yesterdays art contest, which inspired artists far and wide to produce fine works of palaeontological speculation. All Your Yesterdays might be choppier than the original - that's to be expected, given the number of artists involved - but it's free, damn it, free! And considerably chunkier, too.

John Conway's bubble-headed Allosaurus, as featured in All Your Yesterdays.

The Prize

Regular readers may dimly recall that we held some sort of daft art contest here a few months ago, based on the concept of some well-known palaeoar...palaeontography book or other. Hopefully, you were all paying attention when we announced the winners - with first place going to one Andrew Dutt of New York. Naturally, it wasn't enough to simply send a copy of Dinosaur Art - it had to be enhanced with some glorious Himmapaanification first. (Oh, and slightly ruined by me.)

Now, I should definitely point out that these were drawn completely freehand, which in Niroot's case is pretty damn remarkable. Sure, he took it home to finish off, but it was started in a pub near Oxford Circus (see below). If you're having a hard time reading Niroot's writing, which is sufficiently beautiful to drive grown men to weep uncontrollably in public (now that was quite an evening), then allow me to transcribe:

For Andrew
Many congratulations on winning the LITC All Yesterdays contest. Thank you so much for your beautiful entry. Enjoy this fantastic book!
With very best wishes from the Chasmosaurs Team.
(It was inevitable that Marc chose to draw a theropod and I a hadrosaur).

Meanwhile, the smeared mess on the opposite side reads as follows:

Andrew,
Congratulations on your win.
I hope you enjoy the book.
Please excuse the allosaur, as I drew it in the pub.
Cheers!

Andrew received the book only recently, hence this post only arriving now; we wouldn't want to spoil anything. Happily, it only had a few jacket scuffs from where I had kept it stacked in a pile of all the rubbish I buy to review on this blog. Hearty congratulations to him again for producing the winning piece! Oh, and there will be a new Vintage Dino Art post in the next few days, I promise (I've been on leave). Until then, here's Andrew's bone-dropping Dsungaripterus once again.

All Yesterdays Contest Winners!

The time has come, friends. Some months ago, we asked for submissions for our very own All Yesterdays Contest. Since then, we've gotten a veritable tsunami of entries, and have had to winnow down a flood of excellent entries to a mere three. It's been an incredibly difficult task, fraught with hair pulling, gnashing of teeth, and quiet weeping in the night. But finally, the white smoke has lifted from the roof, the decisions are made, and out we come, bearing our choices for the winners of the LITC All Yesterdays Contest. We're very sorry to have kept y'all waiting, but we think you'll like the results.

So what were we looking for? We judged the entries based on whether or not they delivered an interesting artistic style alongside that All Yesterdays inspired speculation we all love. The submissions below represent, to us, the best mixtures of style and imagination.

And so, without further ado.... the winners!

3RD PLACE WINNER: JESSICA PILHEDE

"TROODONT COLLAGE"

Here at LITC, we're all suckers for a bit of collage, and Jessica Pilhede's sparring troodonts deliver in spades. The simplicity of the image is charming, calling to mind a child's storybook while expressing an artistic style not often used in dinosaurs. While this submission is not quite as speculative as others, the uniqueness of the medium makes it stand out. 

Jessica explains her reasoning thusly. 

The idea for this is basically looking at the vast number of theropods with their enlarged toes and thinking, did ALL of them really use them for the same purpose (usually listed as hunting)? Especially when they vary so much otherwise? They always reminded me of the spurs and spikes of birds like roosters and pheasants and I wonder if some species didn't use them for interspecies conflict, like fighting over a female or territory or what have you. Not saying they would be used ONLY for that, but perhaps as an additional usage? I mean, many unique body parts in the animal kingdom can have multiple uses, just look at giraffe necks. 

As for the dinosaurs themselves, they are meant to be troodonts in a cold climate - much of my references came from looking at photos of capercaillies and black grouses fighting over females in cold environments.

Jessica will get a signed sketch from Asher, depicting any prehistoric creature she so desires.

2ND PLACE WINNER: MIKE KEESEY

"MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS"

Mike Keesey's Pop Art Dimetrodon presents a radically different vision of everybody's favorite mammal-like reptile (or, perhaps, reptile-like mammal.) Taking inspiration from Andy Warhol and, apparently, Gary Larsen, this piece is grotesque in all the best ways, suggesting an animal that looks believably ridiculous and strange. The negative space of the background and the subdued coloration really make the art pop.

Mike's thoughts on his piece follow. 

Dimetrodon and its kin have often been described as "mammal-like reptiles", but in fact they are just as closely related to modern reptiles as we are (in terms of shared descent). Creatures like Dimetrodon, Moschops, Lystrosaurus, Cynognathus, Morganucodon, etc. are more properly termed "stem-mammals", meaning that they are not mammals, but are more closely related to mammals than to any other living organisms. 

We can infer, in the absence of direct evidence, that all stem-mammals probably possessed any characteristics shared by us mammals and our closest living non-mammalian relatives, the sauropsids (turtles, tuataras, lizards [including snakes], crocodylians, and birds). But mammalian characteristics not shared by sauropsids are trickier. When did hair evolve? When did lactation evolve? We have a few clues but no definite answers. 

In this piece, I have pushed fur back to an extremely early time – Dimetrodon is one of the furthest stem-mammals from Mammalia proper. While we know that a later stem-mammal, Estemmenosuchus, had glandular skin without any sign of fur, it is possible that fur evolved earlier and was simply lost or reduced in some lineages, as it has been in many mammalian lineages. 

I have also posited parental feeding, but not, strictly speaking, lactation. Other lineages of tetrapod, including caecilians and pigeons, have evolved ways of feeding the young from foodstuffs produced by the mother. The mother Dimetrodon's sides are swollen with nutritious substances which seep out as her pups gobble it up. Is it milk? Sort of and sort of not.  

Finally, I have scrupulously avoided any suggestion that these are in any way reptilian. They do retain some plesiomorphies evidenced in some reptiles and amphibians, such as a sprawling gait, belly scales, and acute color vision, but they lack the dry skin and derived scales of true reptiles. These are moist, glandular creatures, like amphibians and ourselves.

Mike will be receiving a hand selected book of vintage dinosaur art from David Orr, our dread lord and master, himself.

1ST PLACE WINNER: ANDREW DUTT

"BONES AWAY"

Andrew Dutt's illustration of a bone dropping Dsungaripterus is a thing of beauty. It oozes with style and a simple, yet arresting composition. The graphic design pops beautifully, and the illustration rewards close examination. Not only that, the behavior posited seems not only reasonable, but obvious. It all adds up to an illustration that effortlessly communicates a bit of speculation, with very little explanation necessary. 

Andrew has this to say about his work. 

Dsungaripterus is usually thought of as a “shell-crusher”: its upturned beak tip would have been used to remove shellfish from sandy, muddy beaches and its knobbly, flat teeth at the back end of its jaws would have been ideal for crushing the shells and exoskeletons of its prey. However, Dsungaripterus remains are found in locations that were many kilometers inland at the time it lived, and carbon & oxygen isotope analysis of bones and teeth confirm that Dsungaripterus inhabited terrestrial environments as opposed to marine. 

So what does a flying reptile with crushing jaws living in a terrestrial environment sustain itself with? Surely Dsungaripterus wouldn’t pass on small terrestrial vertebrates if it came across them, but it probably put those knobbly teeth and strong jaws (for a pterosaur) to good use. Its beak could have probed into carcasses and with its jaws it could have crushed bones to obtain nutritious bone marrow. If its bite wasn’t strong enough to shatter larger bones, it could have engaged in a behavior similar to the one practiced by today’s Bearded Vulture: fly high up over cliffs and rocky outcrops and drop the bone in order to smash it against the rocks below. 

As for appearance, I depicted Dungaripterus with an erect mane of pycnofibers along its neck, yellow facial skin, and dark facial bristles forming a “beard”, all of which were inspired on Bearded and Egyptian Vultures. I also expanded the bony crest with keratinous tissue featuring black and white bands for intraspecific display and red gular skin for some extra pizzazz.

Andrew will receive a beautiful copy of Dinosaur Art from Marc, with sketches from both Marc and Niroot themselves!

Lets have a big hand to all of our entrants, and thank you so much for making this contest such a success! Keep drawing, folks, and may all your yesterdays be amazing.

Mouthtopia Explained

Recently, Asher shared a comic book cover that featured a Gurney-inspired feathered Therizinosaurus, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the models that brought Jurassic Park to life. Today's post is of a piece with those, I think. You don't have to look at the highest forms of art and popular culture to see how public perspectives on certain topics are changing. You should also look at those things pitched at the general public. Nothing fits that description better than advertisements for McDonald's. Ad agency Translation, recently rolled out a set of stylish commercials for the Big Mac, and one of them, titled "Mouthtopia," features a pair of dinosaur-ish creatures which look quite different than what we were used to in the Jurassic Park era.



When I saw this, I was intrigued by what sure seemed to be a pair of therizinosauroid theropods, bearing a suite of display features that are positively All Yesterdays in appearance. Plus, the animation is honest-to-goodness stop-motion, bringing me back to childhood mornings spent at Pee-Wee's Playhouse and watching Harryhausen flicks on VHS.

I had to know more about this commercial. In an advertisement, I'd have expected to see boring, rote characterizations of prehistoric animals. This is altogether different, so I set myself to some sleuthing and learned that it was produced by Buck, a Los Angeles production company, with animator and designer Jon Gorman serving as art director. (you can also watch the clip at Buck's site). Jon was kind enough to respond to my questions about the spot. He was generous in his response; blockquotes below are his words.

I began by asking about how the idea for this commercial came about.

Our initial brief from the agency was that the world that the spot takes place in had to be a sort of savage utopia: something that is fantastical and untamed but still inviting, kind of like a friendlier version of the 80's Conan films. Additionally, it was important for the campaign, and for us, to be as true as possible to the period of film-making in terms of production as we could feasibly be — hence the matte painting, miniature set and stop-motion animation process typical of the time.

When I first wrote Jon, I asked him if therizinosaurs were indeed the inspiration for the creatures. They weren't, as it turned out. "Wow, a few depictions of Therizinosaurs are really close to where we ended up!" he wrote back. "I would have loved to get those arms/hands in there, despite being a little terrifying." He went into more detail about how exactly they designed the dinosaurish creatures.

When we did some initial concept art of the layout we tried out a few things to find that balance between realism and fantasy in the landscape — Most of which you can see in the final spot; the cliche waterfalls, the sweeping mountain vistas and so on. A logical addition seemed to be the addition of an animated creature that hit the same balance of believability and fantasy.

Sébastien Iglesias and myself did the initial concept art, taking a lot of reference from large ground birds like emus and cassowaries along with more recent depictions of similarly proportioned dinosaurs and a lot of period design stuff from the likes of Harryhausen. The basic framework we built from is that of a brachiosaur, but playing with a lot of anatomical stuff that we kind of guessed at for display and producing sound (you can see from the early art that we had a lot of frills, bird-like wattles and vocal sacs). After that first round we pretty quickly narrowed down the direction and started on detail work, again taking a lot of inspiration from modern birds. The colour choices were partly a contrast choice with the background environment and the (I think) reasonable assumption that there is no reason and prehistoric beast shouldn't be as colourful as something like a Cassowary or Peacock.

Iglesias features some of this concept art at his blog, in which more of the creatures' bodies are revealed; they really are like Cassowary-sauropods. Of course, all this didn't mean anything until there were real, physical models to bring to life. Gorman shared that process, as well.

The build was sculpted, molded and them made in to a silicone/latex cast over a foam armature, made by Kelly Goeller and Victoria Arslani, who also built the landscape. It was then was hand-painted by Victoria. I animated 5-6 takes of the creature on set, which we then retimed and composited in to the scene. Honestly, I think they kind of made the spot and perfectly hit the tone we were going for in terms of both design and animation, as well as being an unexpected climax to the slow camera push on the product.

I'd like to thank Jon getting back to me; I really had little hope of finding out this much about the commercial. While these aren't meant to be totally accurate depictions of prehistoric life, I'd argue that an effort like this, geared for the masses, should be of comfort to those of us eager to see the public's imagination expanded when it comes to how dinosaurs and other extinct animals may have lived. Even if these "'brachiocassowaries" don't register as dinosaurian to most people, it's nice to know that a spirit of daring, All Yesterdays-esque exploration is alive among the concept artists, VFX workers, sculptors, and animators who make imaginary worlds come to life.

Fuzzy Sauropodlet

Well, perhaps a juvenile rather than a 'sauropodlet', but I hope that got your attention, at any rate.

Brian Switek (who surely requires no introduction here) commissioned this highly speculative fuzzy little Apatosaurus from me for his forthcoming book, My Beloved Brontosaurus, to 'visualize a point' and to 'shock readers a little and then explain the image'. It is reproduced in greyscale in the book, but this is the original drawing. I had Brian's permission to share this a while ago, but quite forgot to do so here (chiefly because I still feel ill-qualified as a contributor. Sorry, folks). It is perhaps timely that I chose at last to post this today, since it also happens to be Brian's birthday. I hope you'll join me in wishing him many very happy returns.

As usual, please open the image in a new tab for best viewing!

N.

C.M. Kosemen talks Bullet Point Paleontology

Artist and researcher C.M. Kosemen has begun a series of video blogs, and in his first installment, he rants about a certain habit of publishers when printing material about prehistoric animals: using "item mentality" or bullet points to describe them. He argues that it takes them out of ecological context and reduces them to mechanical objects.



A review of my library is in order to really respond to this, but I generally agree, and wouldn't you know it, I see it as a design problem. I think about my treasured DK Visual Dictionary of Dinosaurs, and one reason it was a favorite was that the spreads put all of the animals and their anatomical features in context. A reason I love the old Rourke books is that it does the same, though through narrative rather than informational graphics. I'm not quite sure how prevalent this "item mentality" is, but it may simply be that since I'm pretty stingy and choose where to spend my money carefully, I'm not paying attention to the lower-quality projects where it may be used as a quick way to fill in content.

And there's more! Kosemen recently uploaded a short video from 2008 called Tetrapod Zoology: the Movie, in which his All Yesterdays comrade Darren Naish shares his collection of animal toys and talks about how even the silly, inaccurate toys in his plastic menagerie can be useful for education.



Delightful stuff. Keep an eye on his Youtube channel for more.

The LITC All Yesterdays Contest: Update

Just a quick note to thank all of our submitting artists for the LITC version of an "All Yesterdays" contest. They've been coming in regularly, and I'm thrilled that some new names are among the creators. I know there's plenty of excitement around Naish, Conway and Kosemen's book and their own contest, so it's nice to know that our twist on the idea has gotten a response. The more the merrier, that's how I see it! Anyway, to review our contest rules and requirements, as written by Asher in the original contest announcement:

• A distinct sense of style. Give us a break from the detail oriented realism that's so common. Experiment a bit. Cubism? Art Nouveau? Impressionism? Gesture drawing? It's up to you. 
• Interesting speculation. At the same time, we're looking for interesting and unusual subject matter. Dust bathing proto birds? Symbiotic pterosaurs? Odd soft tissue? We'd like to see all of it. Hit us with your craziest stuff. 
• Accuracy. Your only guideline is that the animal must at least adhere to current knowledge. No naked raptors and tail dragging sauropods, please.
• Feel free to send along an artists statement explaining your influences or ideas!
• All art is due March 1st, 2013. Send all art to chasmosaurs@gmail.com.

The first place winner will recieve a copy of Dinosaur Art, as supplied by Marc.
The second place winner will recieve a vintage book of dinosaur art, hand selected by David himself.
The third place winner will receive a signed sketch from myself, depicting any prehistoric creature he or she so desires.

All art we receive will be displayed here, at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs. Niroot, Myself, David, and Marc will all be participating, of course, but for obvious reasons we will be ineligible to win.

Happy creating!

The All Yesterdays Art Contest

Heads up, artists: Irregular Books, publisher of All Yesterdays, is holding a contest for artists who are willing to take daring leaps into prehistory. I have an idea of my own, and am working out how I want to achieve it. Contest details in the graphic below:



Note that the deadline is February 28, 2013 instead of 2012! Don't go to any crazy time-travelling lengths to submit your work. Though if you do have a time machine, not much need to speculate, is there?

Conway, Kosemen, and Naish Discuss All Yesterdays

C.M. Kosemen has uploaded videos from the Friday, December 7 launch event for All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals to his Youtube channel.

First, Darren Naish introduces the book and the thinking behind it.



John Conway discusses his artistic process and rationale for his speculations.



And Kosemen chimes in as well, talking about "lenses of distortion."



Great to see what Marc, Niroot, and the rest of the rabble got to enjoy at the launch event.

The Paleoartistic Kaleidoscope of All Yesterdays

John Conway's Allosaurus and Camptosaurus, from the new book All Yesterdays.

This has been a wonderful year for Mesozoic publishing ventures. Paleontology enthusiasts are being treated to Dinosaur Art, the new edition of The Complete Dinosaur, the recently-published Field Guide of Mesozoic Birds by Matt Martyniuk, and of course, the collaboration between Darren Naish, John Conway, and C.M. Kosemen, All Yesterdays, featuring a meaty introduction from Naish and vital support from skeletal diagram master Scott Hartman. The team, web veterans all, have done a fine job of spreading the word, and reviews have sprung up across the web. It is available in ebook and print editions.

We've begun covering the book here, thanks to Marc and Niroot's attendance of last week's book launch event, and there is so much meat on this bone that we're not limiting ourselves to a single review. I'll kick things off by putting the book in context based on my personal experience. I plan on also writing from my perspective as an illustrator, though one who does not present my subjects in anything resembling a technical light. That will be a post for another day.

Reviews that have hit the web so far have been overwhelmingly positive, with notable pieces by Mark Witton, Emily Willoughby, Andrea Cau, Mike Taylor, and Brian Switek.

For readers unfamiliar with All Yesterdays, here's the skinny: in the face of the woeful lack of material the fossil record preserves, the intriguing glimpses into integument we've gained since the '80s, and the incredible diversity of soft tissue adornments and behaviors among extant animals, many of our artistic reconstructions of prehistoric animals may be far too conservative. Half of the book is dedicated to Conway and Kosemen's evidence-based speculations of Mesozoic fauna, with a second half devoted to showing what reconstructions of extant animals might look like if some future paleoartist took a too-conservative, skeleton-only approach.

Instead of being presented as a bold declaration of war on the establishment, Conway, Kosemen, and Naish see the book as rising out of a movement in paleontological illustration which has been building for a while (a point also made by Andrea Cau in his post linked above). This "All Yesterdays movement" (which I'll abbreviate AYM here) may not be the sole creation of these authors, but I think it's fair to say they they are its most important voices, if only for having the nerve to put the ideas to print (and e-print). To fully understand AYM, All Yesterdays is essential reading.

When I took part in the ScienceOnline 2011 panel discussion on science-art, I used Brian Engh's Sauroposeidon as an example of what has become the AYM. Sharing a work-in-progress of an illustration of the sauropod bearing a speculative display sac on its neck, with SV-POW blogger and sauropod expert Dr. Matt Wedel, Engh received this advice:

I think it rocks. But not nearly enough. Look up some pictures of prairie chickens, hooded seals, singing frogs, and everything else with inflatable display sacs. They don’t look like they just swallowed a stick of Mentos–they look like freeze-frames from half a millisecond after the the detonation of that bomb they swallowed. Real display sacs are so big and so colorful that no other animal could possibly mistake them for anything else. Therefore if you want to draw speculative display sacs they must be so big and colorful that none of the people who see the piece could possibly mistake them for anything else.

For Engh, this was a green light; he writes of having had a nagging feeling before consulting with Dr. Wedel.

When I look at illustrations of dinosaurs, even very technically good ones, I’m often left with the uneasy feeling that it just doesn’t ‘feel’ like a real animal. Its as if only two simple layers have been added to the still-recognizable skeleton – while living vertebrates often look nothing like their skeletons...

It's no secret that I am a devout admirer of Conway's work, and am thrilled to now have it in two different volumes - in print with Dinosaur Art, and the Kindle version of All Yesterdays. I'm also happy to have Kosemen's work; the two artists compliment each other by being as daring stylistically as they are in their anatomy. If only as a way to have this art available as a conversation piece, it would warrant a recommendation. It's the richness of the explanatory text which couches the restorations which makes it essential, for here the speculation is put into context, and there will likely be new information to even knowledgable readers; I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the shoulder joints and humeri of abelisaurs such as Carnotaurus, which allowed for much more range of motion than was possible in most large theropods. Both Conway and Kosemen take advantage of this to depict Carnotaurus in unique display postures. In other places, they write about the bizarre behaviors witnessed in extant animals, and the possibilities they may open up in dinosaurs, perhaps most outrageously in a pair of Morrison herbivores.

C.M. Kosemen's randy Stegosaurus and rather alarmed Haplocanthosaurus.

A more speculative approach to paleoart is a precarious enterprise, and All Yesterdays makes clear that speculation should be grounded in what has been observed in the natural world. As Naish writes in his introduction, "Science and speculation are happy bedfellows, so long as we remain grounded in our speculations, and so long as we state the core evidence we have in the first place." I see no reason to fear such speculation. Granted, it has the ability to drive us up the wall; just see the reaction to any given televised documentary. But one of the promising possibilities AYM presents is what could happen if other media truly embrace the approach. Imagine a documentary which does not present paleontological theory in narratives, as in Walking With Dinosaurs or its spin-offs. Instead, it could present a whole set of hypotheses and reconstructions, flipping the traditional script of talking heads serving the needs of narrative. Instead, narrative and reconstructions would demonstrate the living process of paleontological science, multiple hypotheses presented with their strengths and weaknesses in kaleidoscopic variety. Viewers would see science being done instead of stories which grant certain hypotheses, some tenuously supported in the paleontological community, the weight of fact.

I see AYM as an essentially modern phenomenon. Facilitating contact between illustrators, researchers, writers, and paleontologists around the world, the web has allowed a call-and-response culture in which one artist, blogger, or scientist can propose something and set off a chain of works and writings inspired by it; browsing work on the paleo-hotbed of deviantArt reveals a culture of constructive criticism and an iterative approach to reconstruction. An artist need not be isolated in his or her studio, referring only to literature and a limited number of advisors; conversations in cyberspace and the mutability of digital artistic processes allow for flexibility and fearlessness. All Yesterdays and the global constellation of artists who make up AYM have taken a bold step forward. It is a true paradigm shift. It will leave plenty of practitioners cold, as paradigm shifts must. But count me among those thrilled to live during this era of paleontological restoration, excited by the possibilities and eager for the conversation to continue.

All Yesterdays: Appendix

Following on from Marc's reliably sterling report of the 'Live Spectacular' itself, this post is an appendix indeed in that it serves no real purpose whatever, but is merely my own brief, insubstantial reflection on the event. However, it does illustrate very well the level of vacuity which my contributions henceforth will consist of. You have fair warning.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the talk given by Darren Naish, John Conway, and C. M. Kosemen; and the book signing which followed. I think Marc will agree that it was worth every travel hiccup we encountered during the journey there and back (of course they had to occur that evening). I must confess I was preparing to feel slightly intimidated, but I was very happy to have had all such feelings dispelled, even in the presence of all the authors and a number of other palaeo-luminaries such as Dave Hone, Mark Witton, Luis Rey and Robert Nicholls (does this constitute grotesque name-dropping?).

Marc queues for the book signing.

In conversation with Dave Hone. I think it is just as well my hair obscures my expression at this moment. 

My copy of All Yesterdays, with the authors' drawings and signatures.

For my own part not only as a geek but as an 'improper' palaeo artist (or 'palaeontographer' out of courtesy to Mr. Conway), even though I understood the premise of the talk prior to the event, I still found it highly illuminating. And even as I had no complacency regarding my own approaches to dinosaur restoration, I nevertheless came away with a great deal of food for thought. Perhaps I may share some of these in greater depth another time.

By the by, the hug which John Conway bestowed upon me, as seen in Marc's post, was specifically requested by fellow artist and blog reader, Tiffany Turrill. David Orr then supplemented the request with a demand. The things the Chasmosaurs team would do for our readers.

My sincerest thanks to the authors and everyone else involved for the event, and to David Orr too for sanctioning our attendance and report. And to make sure that the uselessness of this appendix is thorough, I close with a silly drawing inspired by the spirit of All Yesterdays: A Shantungosaurus adorned with a huge dewlap (reminiscent of Brahmin cattle) perched atop a precipitous rock to reach a tiny morsel of leaves.

All Yesterdays: the live conference room spectacular

If you're a dinosaur enthusiast with the means to access the internet, you've surely heard all about All Yesterdays by now. It's managed to garner quite the publicity, appearing everywhere from io9 (whoever they are) to the website of the terrifyingly popular British tabloid the Daily Mail, where it inevitably attracted comments from Young Earth Creationists (of course). There may be plenty of reviews already out there, but the champagne wasn't smashed across the bow of All Yesterdays until December 7, when it was launched in London by John Conway, C M Kosemen and Darren Naish. And wouldn't you know it, Niroot and I turned up - attracted by the promise of an intriguing presentation, book signings and free box wine. No disappointments!

A very spiky Triceratops, by John Conway.

The night opened with a lecture from Dr Naish of raccoon corpse-identifying TV fame. Darren delivered a highly insightful, but concise history of palaeoart - its origins, evolution, and of course its pitfalls. He reminded us of something that's all too easy to forget - that the first life reconstructions of prehistoric animals arrived at about the same time as the first skeletal reconstructions, and the two have gone hand in hand. Animals were being restored when the science of palaeontology was still in its infancy, and spectacular reconstructions like the Crystal Palace models raised the bar in terms of what the public expected to see.

In other words, dinosaur life restorations have been in demand since the word 'dinosaur' was coined, and now more than ever. In attempting to explain some of the 'memes' of palaeoart - blatant copies of previous works, repeated again and again - Darren mentioned how artists are often on tight deadlines, paid little, and have trouble gleaning advice from scientists disinterested in life restorations. (Publisher pressure is also a factor - during the Q&A, Luis Rey informed a fellow audience member that he had been asked to illustrate unfeathered feathered dinosaurs, but had declined.) There are also precious few 'how to' guides when it comes to restoring prehistoric animals, with Greg Paul being the last person to provide one, some years ago now.

I hope you're keeping up. L-R: Conway, Kosemen, Naish.

Darren described the current palaeoart era as the "Age of Paul". However, some people have adopted Paul's sleek style and run too far with it, in the process creating "zombie dinosaurs" - emaciated husk-o-saurs with virtually every bone on show through a paper-thin draping of skin. There is also a certain conformity, or conservatism, in palaeoart, with animals retaining certain looks and stereotyped behaviours in every work that they feature in. This was something that C M Kosemen (aka Nemo Ramjet) would pick up on later on.

After Naish came Conway, who talked us through both the process of restoring an animal and phylogenetic bracketing, and how things had changed since the "bad old days of the Clumpers". With the focus on Velociraptor, he illustrated how and why approaches to reconstruct the animal had changed over the years. Nothing that most readers of this blog won't already be familiar with, but John is an absolute delight to listen to, and the presentation was clear and straightforward enough that I'm sure the non-scientists/enthusiasts in the audience were very well informed.

John Conway gives Niroot a very manly hug.

Last up was Nemo, who talked about what he dubbed 'lenses of distortion' - the glasses that everyone looks through when they envisage a long-dead animal. Scientific consensus and pop culture feed into one another, and both exert a grip on people's imaginations that can prevent boldness and necessary speculation (or educated guesses). He argued that there was a need to 'de-mystify' the past by encouraging people to think more creatively when they produce palaeoart. There was also talk of 'known unknowns' and 'unknown unknowns' which, I must confess, really did remind me of Donald Rumsfeld.

As you can probably tell, my note-taking got progressively worse as the evening wore on (hence Darren's talk getting the most words...sorry!). Fortunately, all of the presentations were recorded and will soon be uploaded to the internet for posterity. Hurrah!

"So, how long would you like the penis?"

Following the lectures, the book-signing marathon could commence. Here's mine, so that I can gloat and you can be WELL envious. Er, unless you were there.

Tanystropheus, Naish: Tyrannosaurus, Conway: Retro T. rex, Kosemen.

Darren inks an Olorotitan for Niroot.

All Yesterdays is a fantastic book (but more on that to come), and this was a marvellous event that not only critically examined palaeoart, but celebrated it. Darren noted that it's important to remember the history of palaeoart - something that's certainly reflected in the book on one memorable occasion - even as we look to innovate and progress. Hopefully, All Yesterdays will prove potent inspiration for the next generation.

Thanks to all involved for a top evening, and the box wine wasn't that bad either (at least I didn't think so)!

Stegosaurus, doing something...unspeakable. By C M Kosemen.