Earlier this week, I referred to the old illustrator's trope of sticking dinosaurs in front of volcanos at every opportunity. So, here's one that does just that. I really, really like this one. It was drawn by Tom Dunnington for the Pacific Shores volume of a series called "Enchantment of America," published by Childrens Press of Chicago. Before spending some time on the native peoples of the Pacific coast, the book runs through a bit of prehistory, thankfully making a brief stop in the Mesozoic.
That big old theropod (who am I kidding, it's a T. rex), like the Allosaurus from a few weeks ago, has a definite canine character to him. I love that he seems genuinely entertained by the volcanos erupting on the horizon, sitting up like a dog waiting for a treat.
Dunnington is, unfortunately, not well-represented on the net. Google searches turn up plenty of books crediting him, and this site indicates that he may still be active. It's a bummer when I can't find much on these illustrators; something in me wants to know as much as possible. In an effort to inspire others to help save the work of these generally obscure men and women, I started a Flickr group dedicated solely to old dinosaur illustrations. Fittingly enough, it's called Vintage Dinosaur Art. If you've got some old science books with dinosaur art in them, this is a great opportunity to scan it and share the artists' work with the world. There are plenty of groups dedicated to old illustrators, and plenty dedicated to dinosaur images in general. This combines the two.
