Pat Ortega began drawing animals, both real and unreal, over 25 years
ago.
Her professional career began in 1978 with an illustration for Isaac
Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Next was the first of many book
covers for Baen Books. Her first color cover was for the book Blue
Bloods. Since then, her science fiction and fantasy art has
appeared in Omni,
Epic and Smithsonian
Magazines, as well as Fritz Leiber's The Ghost Light, Philip
Jose Farmer's The Grand Adventure and Ardath Mayhar's Place
of Silver Silence.
Always a student of paleontology,
Pat began to focus on scientific
illustrations in the mid-1980s. Her first paleo-art to be published was
in Rand McNally's Children's Atlas of the Earth Through Time in
1990. Since then, her work has been featured in Terra Magazine,
Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Natural History
Magazine, to name only a few.
Her current work on Dino Hunt represents her largest project to
date. It has given her the opportunity to illustrate some animals that
are rarely studied, and to give new life to some old theories.
Bob Walters is an internationally known dinosaur reconstruction artist
whose paintings have appeared in numerous books and magazines. His work
is also on permanent display at the Smithsonian, The American Museum of
Natural History, The Creative Discovery Museum, and The Academy of
Natural Sciences, and in the traveling exhibit, "The Dinosaurs of
Jurassic Park," sponsored by the Dinosaur
Society. It has also been seen
on dinosaur television specials on PBS and the Learning Channel.
He is currently working on a book for Random House entitled Bigger
than T. rex, painting some of the first reconstructions of
Giganotosaurus, the largest meat-eating dinosaur ever found.
For years, Dan has been the freelance mainstay of the Steve Jackson
Games art department. Card-game fans know him as the principal artist
for the award-winning INWO
(Illuminati: New World Order) game.
He cheerfully admits that he's no dinosaur expert, but as the
illustrator for most of the Gadget and Expert cards, he worked
diligently with up-to-date references to create creatures like the angry
Pteranodon on the Jet Packs card.
Coloring to professional standards is no trivial task. The colorists
were a vital part of the project, and each card carries coloring credits
as well as the name of the artist!
The Dino Hunt dinosaur logo was created by Jeff Koke, working from Ortega's very first T. rex illustration for the game. Derek and Jeff also designed the game's overall graphic "look and feel," working closely with Steve Jackson to make sure the cards and other game pieces were both attractive and easy to use.
