Sometimes you have to take the good with the good!
I just start blogging again, and I’m suddenly busy with more paying work than I’ve had all year. Out of necessity, I’m posting an older acrylic painting and putting off another post on early whales until next week. I’m sorry, but this is good for me; I do have to make a living. I live in a country of excess and I may have been exaggerating a bit in my “We’re Back” post when I compared my net worth to that of a second rate - third world subsistence farmer, but I certainly am among the blog world’s version of “trailer trash”. The problem is that in my head there are all these things I wanted to do in a certain order, and now I have to change course a little, redirect my energy, and reschedule my timing.
Luckily, the deviation from what I’d planned is fairly small. I’ll still be working on North American ground sloths and other Pleistocene animals and, of course, whales. There might even be a whole new additional website about cetacean evolution and phylogenic relationships.
Today however, I’m posting an acrylic image I did a few years ago. It portrays a time at what is now Fossil Butte National Monument, when southwestern Wyoming looked and felt like Florida.
This image has been seen before at Chris Clarke’s Creek Running North (shameless link, as Chris is back blogging). The head of the massive Brontops emerging from the river can also be found at PZ Myers‘ Pharyngula (another absolutely shameless link - I always get many more hits when PZ links to me), as one of his many revolving header illustrations. Brontops was the culmination of his line. Eight feet (2.3 meters) to the high point of his back, this final “thunder beast” died out at the end of the Eocene, leaving its relatives - horses, rhinos, and tapirs - to carry on the business of being perissodactyls.
Speaking of rhinos, the smaller animal getting out of Brontops‘ path is the early “running rhino” Hyracodon. While small here, its close relatives in Asia would evolve into the largest land mammal yet discovered, Paraceratherium (formerly the Baluchitherium or Indricotherium of my childhood). Hyracodon’s build was very horselike. In fact, while skeletal and dental characteristics identify Hyracodon as a rhino, superficial features may well have been extremely close to its contemporary, the three-toed horse Mesohippus. Had I placed the neck a bit higher on the shoulders and moved the orbit further back on a slightly more gracile skull, I could well have used the same painted image as representative of that small, browsing horse.
And now, just because I can…
This painting is another private commission piece done in the late 1990s. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the previous image except that I painted them both in acrylic on canvas within the same year.
This little prosimian is the lesser bush-baby, Galago senegalensis, a current resident of dry forest and thorn bush regions of Africa.
Both of these paintings were scanned off the originals on my first small scanner and had to be pieced together in Photoshop. At least at this size I did seem to blend the pieces back together well enough. The only thing lost from the originals was some of the subtlety of color (especially in the skies). Back with more whales and other things next week.
December 7th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Congrats on the paying work! I’ll happily ogle that bushbaby till next week.
December 8th, 2006 at 12:12 am
Beautiful, just beautiful. Big fan.
December 8th, 2006 at 2:02 am
Brontops,Bush babies and hyracodons oh my!
I’m sorry about your losses,but very happy to see you back!The Arctodus is to die for!Well, not literally(shudders)
December 8th, 2006 at 10:03 am
Brontops, Galago, and Hyracodon…
Good news for Olduvai George—he’s got new commissions that are keeping him busy—but that means he might be a little tied up for a while. Still, he’s nice enough to give us an eclectic mix of interesting creatures…….
December 8th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Brontotheres are among my most favorite of prehistoric mammals, right after Megatherium
You don’t happen to have any other pictures of brontotheres in your archives, do you?
December 8th, 2006 at 11:22 am
Brontops looks amazing. Thanks for the email, Carl, and keep making beautiful things.
December 8th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
We don’t just come here to admire the pretty pictures; we come here to learn things. I thought I was clever because I knew about Baluchitherii and now I find out that it’s no loger the correct name. Sigh. Congrats on the paying work.
December 8th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
This is great work, interesting in terms of the science and nice to look at. Is anyone out there selling prints of it?
December 8th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
I think we all have a plan mapped out in our head, the way we want our lives to unfold, but (as some wag once said) “life is what happens while we’re busy making plans”. As always, love the painting and the post.
December 8th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
I love that lesser bush baby. When I was studying physical anthropolgy, I especially liked the tarsier. The bush baby reminds me of it, but I think may be much bigger. There’s something about those big, round eyes and tiny grasping hands. Real heart melters!
Glad to hear that you’ve got work, and hope that you are doing something that you enjoy.
December 8th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Hooray for bill-paying work! Your fans are happy with whatever you’re able to share with us.
December 8th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
We’re just happy to get a post at all no matter the subject!
December 8th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
OG, so glad you’re back blogging… and working! Things do seem to come in spurts, don’t they.
Beautiful work - you are so gifted! I’m very grateful that you share your talent online….
December 9th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
` LOVE YOUR PAINTINGS! (No wonder you can make money off of them!) I’m especially envious because these are the types of things I would paint if I could buy and learn to use arcrylics! You are da bomb!!
` …Also, I think your version of Ambulocetus is a lot better than the one I used to draw, because all I had to go by was a description. It looked like a furry, striped crocodile with long hind legs. So funny when I think back on it!
` And I like the phrase ’so they could carry on the business of being perissiodactyls.’ Coming up with sentances like that is so fun!! *sigh* if only I didn’t know so many awesome blogs… my time is overloaded with them!!
December 9th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
` BTW, when I first saw the picture at the top, I thought to myself; THAT’S SUCH AN AWESOME ENTELODONT!!! I feel sorry for my one friend who thinks all these animals were made up by paleontologists.
` …If you think that’s something I also know someone who believes that the earth is flat and that stars and planets are for our amusement. Bwaa hhaaaa!
` I’m shutting up now. …*sigh*… now where’s my darn medication?
December 9th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Yes, Carl! You do your paintings and drawings really great! Best wishes!!!
December 9th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
Blogrolling: O…
Let me know what’s missing - in the past installments I missed some of the obvious biggies (and you did not tell me!) like MyDD, Juan Cole, Crooks & Liars…!!!!……
December 14th, 2006 at 10:58 am
It is good to see you again!
Beautiful pictures, again. I wonder about one feature of this running rhino - curved forehead like modern Indian rhino. Does it have any functional sense? Is it possible that such a small animal still had a horn?
all the best!
December 16th, 2006 at 6:36 am
Happy Birthday, Happy Holidays, and congratulations on the paying work! It is great to see your blog again, but hope the paying work keeps on a’coming!
December 16th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
I’ve been caricatured…again!…
This one is a Carl Buell original. Thanks, Carl!……
April 10th, 2007 at 7:28 am
Carl, your stuff is fantastic!
I’ve always been a sucker for paleontological recreations and yours are some of the best I’ve ever seen. When you combine that with the essays about the animals and the details about creating the works, well . . .
Thanks for your efforts and your generosity in posting this. I’m eagerly looking forward to more. But as a freelancer in a different field (and a fellow third-world farmer) I understand perfectly about the need to put paying work first.
Still one can always hope. (And what does one have to do to get on your Christmas card list?)
–Rick Cook