Palaeoart Gallery: Joe Tucciarone

 Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind. Today, let's try something new and delve into the work of a particular palaeoartist. Specifically, one who you may not know by name but may know his artstyle. 

Joe Tucciarone is not exactly well known as his contemporaries from the tail end of the Dinosaur Renaissance, but if you see his art anywhere, chances are you'll know it. I sure do, as my family used to have a placemat just like the one pictured above. Whether it was on other merchendise, books, or online in edgy tribute AMVs, Joe's dinosaurs were everywhere. Look at them on his (now-archived) website and see how many you recognise.

The man himself

Joe himself (at least according to his website) is an Ohio resident born in 1953 (and likely Italian-American) who specialises in space art as much as palaeoart (he loves both), getting his start at the Memphis Museum's (presumably the Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium - is that right Memphians?) planeterium in 1978, and when he was tasked with a show about prehistory, he began drawing more dinosaurs then he had ever done in his career beforehand.. though dates his website indicates he was drawing as early as 1988 (unless those are typos). Thus, all of his work is of the Paulian variety where they are speedy, strong, and active creatures in dynamic poses, albeit often naked and with the usual suspects (pronated hands, elephant feet).

Joe's work pretty obscure, as he's never really been a main illustrator for say, any book like Luis V Rey or Todd Marshall have been, only individual illustrations licensed out by him, hence why they appeared in so many places online. The closest to such is the nonfiction book Dinosaurus by Steve Parker (which you can read on Internet Archive), which had 14 illustrations from Joe, but even then its only a fraction of total illustrations in it. But enough of that preamble, let's delve into a sample of his palaeoart.

Let's start off with this illustration of Therizinosaurus, for starters. This is because it shows off one of the more recognisable features of Joe's dinosaurs: wrinkles and folds on the skin, made made evident by his technique of acrylics. It's similar to the more well known work of british John Sibbick, only in Joe's case mixed with brighter colours, typically yellows and oranges with contrasting blues, AKA the common colour contrast so prevalent in the decade.

This Parasaurolophus illustration is notable because it seems a statue by Design Toscano available for purchase that's pretty much everywhere was based off Joe's drawing, same pose and dimensions and all. It's become a classic case of a palaeomeme, possibly a subvarient within the Ganglydork Para meme as Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs dubs it, restoring the quadrupedal giant as an obligate bipedal creature with very weak arms, perhaps originating from images like these being misinterpreted when used as reference points.

Western Michigan University's Dinosaur Park

Great Valley Museum

Seriously, it may as well be a cast of ROM 768 with how much I've seen it, only this one is way worse. Overall, Joe's parasaur isn't accurate, but still pretty notable, if for the wrong reasons. And the skin texture seems nice.

Can't say the same for this Tenontosaurus, though. Too bumpy.

Joe usually draws the stock dinosaurs (rex, trike, stego, apato, raptor, spino and so on and so forth), so these next art stand out to me.

These are Chindesaurus, "Syntarsus" kayentakatae, Caudipteryx, and Tapejara, which aren't household names among most laymen, though for younger people they probz are. Presumably Joe drew them because they were a bit of a topic in the Y2K era, especially given half of them appeared in documentaries of the time while Caudipteryx was part of the Feathered Dragon wave coming out of East Asia. Though Chindesaurus stands out, as it wasn't occurent in palaeomedia back then (to my knowledge).

Also, seeing a Tapejarid without a skin crest is... odd to me. I mean, Walking with Dinosaurs got that right with its Tupandactylus (a species of Tapejera at the time) despite coming four years before the illustration's credited date (2003).

Joe normally did mesozoic creatures, but he also did cenozoic mammals too. Here are a few of them:

Woolly Rhino

Hyracotherium

Uintatherium

I admit that I prefer Joe's skin to fur drawing solely by the detail put into it, as seen with the Uintatherium. That's just me though.

Most of Joe's palaeoart were simple profiles on their own, but his most recognisable works of course were ones with actual backgrounds, depicting them charging and being majestic.

"Jurassic Titan"

"Allosaurus on Patrol"

These two dinosaurs from the Morrison are in the same placemat as above and the same vaguely american plain with grass on it. Despite the bit crappy compositing, the poses (especially the former, aping a certain movie scene) are dynamic and convey the power they held when they are alive.

This Spinosaurus is certainly familiar to anyone watching edgy "Tribute to dinosaur" videos, with its wide gape, mid-stride pose, and textured orange skin, all of which could certainly get anyone's. Plus, I never realised it until now, but the upper image with one on the ocean seems to be walking directly on the water's surface. The lighting effects, which make it seem downright metallic, definitely aid in the badass majesty of the theropod dinosaur, even as it only grows more outdated with time

Speaking of light...

I think the best of Joe's portfolio are the ones with a downright psychedelic if not trippy and mystical atmosphere to them, especially thanks to the lighting effects on them and the backgrounds.

For example, this Cryolophosaurus under the Auora Australis is certainly striking as it runs muth open and roaring. Everytime I look at it, I hear cheap angelic synth chorus music like on an early 2000's website, or see it as a computer wallpaper.

King of the North, 2001

Similarly, the mammoth piece captures a truly majestic aura (and not just the borealis), thanks to the backlighting and the shadows on the front. You can almost hear and picture its rumbles among the cold winds as it approaches.

This Apatosaurine is only one of a handful of the wide-with-background illustrations with a herbivorous dinosaur. I admit there is something about it that doesn't click with me. Maybe its the layout which isn't head-on and loses impact, or the lighting effects aren't as good in comparison... key word in comparison. Otherwise, the idea of Brontosaurus, the Thunder Lizard in a thunderstorm, while an obvious route, is metal as hell.

Utahraptors, 2004

Night Stalkers, 1999

These two are meant to be Utahraptor and Megaraptor respectively, back when the latter was thought to be a giant dromaeosaur as opposed to... most likely more basal coelurosaurs. Search results for me have attributed either picture to either genus, likely because there are only a few difference. Regardless, the blurring effect, especially for the Megaraptors, do lend an air of coming danger and mystique to them.

Joe's art of Styracosaurus is the token ornithischian in these illustrations with backgrounds and the only warm-coloured one. Also, rather then just charging or stomping about, its described on the website as taking a dust bath, a behaviour that's not exactly common in palaeoart until the Naishian period and All Yesterdays-style speculative scenarios (hopefully I'm wrong about it).

Then you have these ones that don't care for education so much as looking cool. They certain are in my book.

Extinction, 1996

Death Star, 2001

Masters of the Earth, 1999

All three depict T. rex, the first two in the context of extinction (asteroid impact vs. supernova) while the third is a simple piece of a glowing, godly, and rather thin Rex overlooking earth. Only one of them has anything close to an accurate anatomy even for the time, but honestly, all are amazing, especially the last one: it's about how the dinosaurs were here long before us and lived longer then us (and that's without birds factoring in) and indeed many other lineages of animal, much more worthy of such a title, with the cosmic Rex overlooking the planet we share and roaring its eternal dominance.

By no means do I consider Joe Tucciarone to be the most underrated palaeoartist out there. There are palaeoartists with greater portfolios and more interesting art styles to them. However, I certainly think that he's just one fold of the great tapestry of palaeoart and offered a more mystical and majestic feel then others, which I can chalk up to his work in space art which also has a similar feel; he also offers an example of a palaeoartist whose media trended more online. It's much like how many branches of extinct genera are seemingly dead ends with not extant relatives or descendants yet are still fascinating creatures with stories about the history of life on the planet we all live in, and offering up new proof for how Earth has developed. I hope one day Joe gets more rccognition, even just a bit more then total obscurity online.

Thank you for reading. Do be aware I have been and will be busy with other (mst notably acting as an editor for The Paleontology Documentary Wiki), so I'm not gonna be posting as much here... again.