BIOGRAPHY
I am a freelance natural history illustrator and biological sciences graduate. My passion has been drawing dinosaurs since childhood, but over the years I have expanded my portfolio to include all branches of scientifically inspired artwork. I have collaborated on projects with several major museums and book publishers from around the globe, including the National Geographic Society and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, working closely with scientists and drawing on my own scientific background.
An MSc graduate of Ecology and Environmental Biology (University of Alberta), and a PhD graduate in microbiology (University of Manitoba), I have published scientific papers on mutualisms in Utah and unusual bacteria at alien-looking deep ocean hydrothermal volcanic vents. My scientific background has impelled me to strive to restore as realistically as possible the curiously alien environments that earth has hosted in its deep past. My style ranges from pencil and ink line drawings to watercolour, pastel, 2-dimensional digital illustrations and 3-dimensional digital models, and my work encompasses dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, sharks and other living animals, as well as some space art, fantasy and science fiction themes.
Recent projects include phosphorescent and silver engraved prehistoric themed coins for the Royal Canadian Mint, several life-sized dinosaur murals (up to 150 feet long) for the Royal Ontario Museum’s 2012 exhibit, ‘Ultimate Dinosaurs; Giants from Gondwana’, life-sized murals of dinosaurs for the Dinosaur Hall (2011) at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and most of the artwork for the new Hall of Paleontology at the HMNS. Some of my other projects have included the ceratopsian exhibit for the Royal Tyrrell Museum (2007), a mummified Edmontosaurus for Phillip Manning’s ‘Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs’ (National Geographic Books, 2007) and an African Massospondylus nesting site (Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 2010).
My artwork has appeared in numerous books, and is currently featured in “The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi” (Csotonyi and White, 2014) and also in “Dinosaur Art: The World’s Greatest Paleoart” (White, 2012). In addition to book and museum projects, I also accept private commissions of artwork in a wide range of digital and traditional media. I’ve been honoured with the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s Lanzendorf PaleoArt Prize for 2-Dimensional Art three times (2010, 2012, 2014). This website features a growing portfolio of my work.