Wednesday, October 4, 2017

On the Prehistoric Murals of William Stout

Prehistoric Life: William Stout Murals

What a great book! I'm a huge fan of Charles Knight and of museum murals in general, so this book was a real treat for me.

The murals at the San Diego Museum of Natural History have always fascinated me. They are so full of light and detail! Today I bothered to look at who painted them for the first time and almost fell over. They are by Bill Stout, an artist I met at Comic Con 2008, one year after I moved here to the West coast. I remembered talking with Bill for 15-20 minutes (everyone else seemed to be ignoring him) and bought a few signed sketchbooks.

Down in the gift shop I found this book and immediately snatched it up. It is an excellent read and provides lots of not-at-all-boring detail about how the paintings were created from first sketches to final product. There's even a forward by Ray Harryhausen, a friend of Bill's. And of course there are lots of great images - thumbnails, quarter-sized paintings, the finished works, detail shots, etc. - from "the Nat" and other museums.

This was a great end to a great day. I'm sitting quietly now, having finished reading the book, while my wife and kids revisit Toy Story II. The rest of the day was taken up by a morning exercise, a great breakfast, reading, napping, and looking at dinosaur bones (etc.).


No comments:

Post a Comment