An illustrated guide to studying and drawing dinosaurs from the best-selling author of the Dracopedia series! Astounding dioramas of the world's biggest, fiercest and fastest creatures line the halls, from a lumbering family of grazing triceratops and a gnashing T-rex to a duo of swift-footed carnotaurs. | Science and Imagination Collide! DragonArt | The Great Hall of Dinosaurs is an illustrated guide to studying and drawing dinosaurs from the best-selling author of the Dracopedia series! Astounding dioramas of the world's biggest, fiercest and fastest creatures line the halls, from a lumbering family of grazing triceratops and a gnashing T-rex to a duo of swift-footed carnotaurs. History's ""terrible lizards"" are more than a thundering Hollywood nightmare. William O'Connor brings these beautiful and complex beasts to life through accurate illustration based on the anatomical and scientific knowledge of contemporary palaeontology. But in The Great Hall of Dinosaurs, our imaginations are not limited by science: We can dream of worlds and scenes that may have existed millions of years ago, of animals we have never seen before, using nothing more than a simple no. 2 pencil and some paper. | Learn the basics of scene setting. Create believable natural dioramas with depth, dinosaurs and detailed Mesozoic ecosystems in which your creatures could live and hunt, such as mountains, forests, deserts and seashores.16 complete step-by-step demonstrations. Build your drawings from initial composition and thumbnail sketching to completed piece through colour concepting, underpainting, texture development and more with both digital and traditional painting techniques. | Master dino morphology. Each demonstration offers a description, history, biological diagram and skeletal composition of the most popular dinosaurs, including personality traits, diet and dates of fossil discovery. | Glossary of prehistoric terms.

Author Biography

Illustrator, concept artist, fine artist and teacher, art became a force in O'Connor's life early on. At 10, he enrolled in the Huntington School of Fine Arts then graduated from high school with scholarships to several art schools. He attended Alfred University, exploring various forms of expression, always returning to fantasy. While at Alfred, he enrolled in programs at other schools, including The School of Visual Arts and Parsons School of Design. Graduating from Alfred, he became a freelancer for Del Rey, Harper Collins, Lucasfilm, Alderac Entertainment, Doubleday, White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast, Bookspan, Dover, Hasbro, History Channel, Underwood Books, Upper Deck and more. He's executed thousands of illustrations for gaming and publishing, as well as production designs, concepts, posters and advertisements. He has been guest lecturer and instructor at the Du Cret School of Art and the Huntington School of Fine Arts. He has won over thirty awards, including Best Artist and Best Monochromatic at the Philadelphia Conference on Science Fiction and Fantasy 2007; Best Digital at the GenCon gaming convention 2006; published in the showcase books Spectrum 12 (2005, $29.95, 1887424946) and Spectrum 13: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (2006, 9781599290010, 1599290014); Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists Chesley Awards nominee 2006; and Judges Choice at the Lunacon New York Science Fiction Society convention 2006. He is a member of the Graphic Artist's Guild, New York; Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists; American Showcase of Illustration; and Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. He is the author of IMPACT's bestselling Dracopedia, Dracopedia: The Great Dragons and Dracopedia: The Bestiary