Wednesday, September 25, 2013

All Your Yesterdays: Check out that last page!

Earlier this year a dinosaur book was published called All Yesterdays that to an extent changed the way anyone who read it thought about extinct animals.  In a nutshell it demonstrates how little we still know about ancient life by showing illustrations of non-avian dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals in unique ways that have no evidence supporting them but could still be possible.  I highly recommend just buying the book to truly see what I mean.  Even folks not totally obsessed with paleontology can enjoy reading it.


Shortly after a contest was held by the publishing company asking for art of dinosaurs doing unusual things that haven't been thought of before.  Everyone who submitted art, including myself, thought it was just going to be a simple contest and that the winner would be on the website or something like that.  Well as it turns out so many awesome pieces were submitted to this company that a simple few winners wasn't enough.  The publisher, Irregular Books, had a downloadable ebook made featuring many of the submissions instead.  Even stranger, none of the artists who were chosen had any idea this was happening until the book was actually made public and available for download.  Don't worry, nobody was cheated since all credit was given where due and the book itself is absolutely free to download (unless you want to donate, of course).


Some artists who have been interviewed on Jersey Boys Hunt Dinosaurs were featured including Emily Willoughby and Vladimir Nikolov.  One of my paintings was also featured on the very last page. 

My painting that was included in All Your Yesterdays labelled "Cheeky" Psittacosaurus.

The idea behind my painting is that the skull of a Psittacosaurus is somewhat similar to the structure of a rodent's skull.  It has a tough beak in the front instead of incisors and chewing teeth in the back.  I figured it would be neat to give it big cheeks to store food in like a chipmunk.  Am I saying this is what I wholeheartedly believe Psittacosaurus was like?  Absolutely not.  But that isn't the point of this book.  Its purpose is to get the reader to think "Wow that's a crazy idea but hey, we really don't know all that much about these animals, now do we?". 

Unfortunately this book is only available to download right now because after all, they aren't demanding any money for it.  What you can do, however, is download a copy and have it printed as a paperback at any printing company.  Download your copy here!  Also please donate if you can!

2 comments:

  1. I'd love to get it printed locally, but I've looked around a bit and have had a damn hard time finding anyone that will do it. Online companies are probably cheaper, but I've run into various errors and roadblocks with the ones I've looked into so far. If someone in the "community" finds a good one that works, they should let everyone know!

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    1. Same. I have a feeling getting it printed at a store is going to cause pain to my wallet.

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