How a Monster Led Me to Dinotopia

Going all in on the shadow side

This painting of a brutal monster played a role in launching Dinotopia. It was created for a science fiction paperback series called Total War.

I had been doing science fiction paperback covers for about a decade, and honestly, I was fed up with illustrating battles, weapons and warfare.

We had two babies by then, and I was more interested in painting pictures of young life. Science fiction was — and is — mostly about power and destruction, but I wanted to create something different.

For this cover, the publisher wanted a brutal picture of war, and I thought I’d give it to them. I decided to go all out and make a warrior that they’ll never forget. This is the sanitized version: the original version had a lot more blood dripping down the knife and the jaw. The art director sent it back and asked me to clean it up a bit.

I sculpted a clay maquette first to figure out the form, and I lit it with separate colored lights. This tone paper sketch was the only form reference I used. I didn’t take photos of the maquette, but used the charcoal study for reference instead.

I wasn’t ready to leave behind my shadow side, but I opened the door to a different world, and that world became Dinotopia.