Titanosaur: Life as the biggest dinosaur is published by the Natural History Museum (London) in conjunction with a NEW exhibition.
It’s a little book about a big animal (Patagotitan mayoram) that was discovered in Patagonia in 2014. Well, fossilised bones were discovered in Patagonia – but it was enough to help scientists flesh out this enormous vegetarian.
The story is told through the eyes of Waterhouse the mouse (mus musculus) who is searching for the creature he understands is visiting the Museum (magnum aedificium). But can he find him?
This is the first time I’ve drawn a monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) and I was able to spend time in the summer (aestas) drawing the Museum building from the gardens, and from photos taken from across the road (via). I used this virtual map which helped me get a mouse’s perspective of the interior.
The illustrations were made with an oil pencil, graphite, ink and gouache and a lot of collage with kraft paper. When the two main subjects in a book vary so greatly in scale, it can be tricky to depict them together in one spread without resorting to exaggerated perspective and other tricks and I think I achieved this with all the dexterity of a patagotitan on ice skates. We printed the book in two inks: black and a neon green ink.
Video trailer for Titanosaur: Life as the Biggest Dinosaur
© David Mackintosh/Natural History Museum, London. 2022.
The jacket reverse and case.
Titanosaur joins Dippy, also published by the Natural History Museum.
Waterhouse, the resident mouse.
Front entrance to the Museum.
The monkey puzzle tree.
Tom towers over titanosaur and is much fuzzier.