Here's the latest from the Csotonyi studio, updated 7 December 2007. To return home, click here.
Airing Sunday, Dec 9, 2007 on National Geographic TV: "Dino Autopsy"
features a 3-dimensional digital animated model that Julius helped National
Geographic and 422 to create, of the new mummified dinosaur, nicknamed "Dakota".
Canadian schedule.
USA schedule.
International schedule.
Julius has completed illustrating a series of interpretive signs for the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, to be placed throughout the province of Alberta. Watch for nine new digital ink illustrations featuring dinosaurs and extinct mammals and reptiles. Here's a sneak peek at some of the drawings:
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Julius is now working on digital paintings and drawings. Although some of his new works will still be completed in 'real-world' media, a digital studio will now take a central role in the artist's illustration. His newest pieces include one of the world's best preserved dinosaurs (see Leonardo Project", below), and the largest member of the oviraptorids (Gigantoraptor).
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| The recently described titanosaurid, Futalognkosaurus dukei, has the most complete skeleton known (all cervical and dorsal vertebrae and hip bones) for a sauropod of its enormous size (estimated at around 34 m), and was recovered from Argentinian Coniacian Cretaceous deposits that also yielded a wealth of other contemporaneous plant and animal fossils (Calvo et al., 2007). |
The early nodosaurid, Sauropelta edwardsorum, from the Cloverly Formation of Cretaceous Montana (110-115 MYA). |
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| The recently described largest known member of the oviraptorids, Gigantoraptor erlianensis, from Mongolia, is shown to scale in the left image with a more conservatively sized member of this group, Oviraptor philoceratops, the latter brooding a clutch of eggs. Although Xu et al. (2007) (Nature 447:844-847), on whose skeletal reconstruction the image is based, did not find direct evidence of feathers associated with the fossils of Gigantoraptor, other members of the group demonstrate such integumentary structures, and Gigantoraptor is oddly more birdlike in its anatomy than its smaller relatives. See also Gigantoraptor incorporated into a landscape. |
The amphibious Triassic reptile Nothosaurus mirabilis gathers itself to launch after the fish Saurichthys on a shore of what is now Germany. |
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| This digital painting from the Csotonyi studio features individuals of Brachylophosaurus canadensis called "Leonardo" (far right) and "Elvis" (far left), and an attacking Daspletosaurus torosus in a 75-million-year-old wetland in Montana. |
Winner of the Museum of the Red River's recent illustration contest celebrating this dinosaur's declaration as the state dinosaur of Oklahoma, this digital painting from the Csotonyi studio features the huge allosaurid carnivore Acrocanthosaurus atokensis stalking the gigantic sauropod Sauroposeidon proteles in Cretaceous Oklahoma. |
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| A metre-long compsognathid dinosaur, Sinosauropteryx prima, forages for prey in a Cretaceous Chinese forest. This dinosaur is among the growing number whose remains include preserved feather-like integumentary structures, strongly suggesting their close kinship with birds. |
A well-camouflaged troodontid called Mei long naps at the base of a tree in Cretaceous China. The well publicized fossil of this species (whose name means "soundly sleeping dragon") was found in an arrangement suggesting that the dinosaur died in a sleeping position that is characteristic of modern birds. |
Julius has recently completed work on the newly opened Ceratopsian exhibit at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. This new exhibit opened 18 May 2007 and was the first major renovation of Dinosaur Hall since its opening in 1985. (Scroll down for more information.)
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| An initial restoration sketch of a fleshed-out Centrosaurus apertus, for the Ceratopsian exhibit at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. |
A restoration of the head of Centrosaurus brinkmani, for the Ceratopsian exhibit at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. |
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| An initial restoration sketch of competing ideas about the postures of ceratopsians, for the Ceratopsian exhibit at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. |
A restoration of Psittacosaurus for the Ceratopsian exhibit at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. |
Julius was commissioned by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology (Drumheller, Alberta, Canada) to create nine illustrations for new interpretive signs that will be placed throughout the province of Alberta to highlight paleontologiclly significant sites.
Julius has been commissioned by the National Geographic Society to illustrate the cover of the forthcoming book entitled Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs and to contribute to creation of dinosaur computer models for the documentary, "Dino Autopsy", to air Sunday, Dec 9, 2007 (check schedules for Canadian, USA and International locations).
Exciting new research on a recently discovered mummified Brachylophosaurus, an individual nicknamed "Leonardo" that boasts an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best preserved dinosaur in the world, has guided the completion of Julius' most recent digital mural featuring Leonardo at the Judith River Dinosaur Institute. This research will be chronicled by a documentary called "Dinosaur Resurrection".
The piece entitled Acrocanthosaurus atokensis recently won "best in show" in an illustration contest sponsored by the Museum of the Red River in Idabel, Oklahoma, to popularize the recent declaration of Acrocanthosaurus as the state dinosaur of Oklahoma.
Julius has been commissioned by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology (Drumheller, Alberta, Canada) to illustrate their new Ceratopsian exhibit. This redevelopment of a corner of Dinosaur Hall opened in May 2007 and features 27 new Csotonyi illustrations.
In October 2006, Julius' work was featured in a gallery on the educational resource website called LiveScience.
In May 2006, Julius completed a project advised by Dr. Matthew T. Carrano (Curator of Dinosauria, Smithsonian Institution), for Scholastic Inc. (New York, USA) on a series of ten children's books on dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, called the 3-D Dinosaur Discovery Series.
In April 2006, Julius wrapped up a contract with the Canadian Museum of Nature (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) to update their educational online resource called the Natural History Notebooks. Watch for the new images to appear on the CMN's website (www.nature.ca/notebooks) in the next few months.
A project was completed in February 2006 with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, NC, USA). NCMNS has a wonderfully preserved Acrocanthosaurus skeleton, which is on display in their "Terror of the South" exhibit. Regretably, however, it seems that most visitors confuse the beast with the more familiar Tyrannosaurus. The project involved highlighting the differences between the two animals using illustrations of Acrocanthosaurus and Tyrannosaurus in similar poses. When the display is finished, it will stand next to the Acrocanthosaurus skeleton.
Julius' work has appeared, and will soon appear, in the following books
by authors such as the well known and highly respected dinosaur book writer
Dougal Dixon:
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The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs (ISBN 0754815730). This book is already in print. It may now be ordered through amazon.com, amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk or chapters.indigo.ca. |
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The World Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures (ISBN 0754816303). As of June 2006, this book is still in production, but watch for it (and it may also be preordered through amazon.co.uk). |
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Julius also paints extant wildlife, and some of his work, featuring whales, will appear in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Animals of America (ISBN 0754816176), by Tom Jackson and Michael Chinery. This book is already in print. The book may now be ordered from chapters.indigo.ca, amazon.com, amazon.ca or amazon.co.uk. |
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A fourth book project with Anness Publishing features living sharks (for The World Encyclopedia of Marine Fish and Sea Creatures). This book is already in print. |
The artist's work repeatedly appears in the periodical Prehistoric Times,
edited by Mike Fredericks.
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Read the article "Paleoartists Speak", in which Julius and 11 other top paleoartists comment on trends in paleo illustration and provide advice to newcomers to the field, in the summer 2006 issue of Prehistoric Times magazine. |
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Julius was interviewed for issue #76, (Feb/March 2006) of Prehistoric Times magazine. |
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The artist's work, featuring the ancient shark Cretoxyrhina and the mosasaur Clidastes, appeared on the cover of issue #77 (April/May 2006) of Prehistoric Times magazine. |
