biography

Michael William Skrepnick is an established, award winning artist
specializing in visual interpretations of dinosaurs and other extinct
Mesozoic vertebrates within their natural environments. He also
focuses on restorations and reconstructions of newly described
dinosaurs with many of the world's leading paleontologists and on
imagery of popular dinosaurs for publication in books and magazines,
museum murals, scientific journals and television documentaries.
Michael works primarily in acrylic paint, as well as graphite and pen and
ink. Original artworks are owned and housed in a number of public and
private collections around the world. Michael lives and works in Alberta,
Canada, close to some of the richest North American, Upper
Cretaceous dinosaur fossil deposits in the world.

"I was drawn (no pun) to dinosaurs at a very early age. Although I
admired the artwork of Charles Knight and Zdenek Burian, the strongest
influence on me in particular was Rudolph Zallinger. The sense of
"realism" employed through his meticulous rendering technique and
artistic vision captivated me. From his timeless "Age of Reptiles" mural,
a collectible teacard set distributed by Red Rose / Blue Ribbon and on to
several illustrated books on dinosaurs, I felt as though I were looking
through actual "windows" into worlds of the past rather than observing
mere exercises in artistic illusion. It would be another 30 years after
being lost in Zallinger's imagery before I would decide on a career that
would allow me to make my own journey of discovery back to a remote
and ancient world. Populated by creatures removed from our ordinary
sense of understanding and yet a significant part of our natural history,
the challenge of making dinosaurs and other extinct animals "come
alive" again, is what motivates me to paint paleo imagery."

Michael's artwork is featured in these more recent popular titles:

"Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs" 1997 Academic Press

"The Complete Dinosaur" 1997 Academic Press

"Dinosaur Imagery" 2000 Academic Press

"Scientific American Dinosaurs" 2001 Byron Preiss/Sci.Am.

"Mesozoic Vertebrate Life" 2001 Indiana U. Press

"The Armored Dinosaurs" 2001 Indiana U. Press

"The Dinosaur Library Series" 2001-2003 Enslow

"Dinosaurs Alive! The Dinosaur-Bird Connection

Jurassic Park Institute" 2002 Random House

Michael has provided dinosaur images for numerous publishers,
paleontological museums and scientific institutions, some of which are
listed below:

Alberta Palaeontological Association

Black Hills Institute of Geological Research

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Chicago Children's Museum

Devil's Coulee Interpretive Centre

Dinosaur Natural History Association

Dinosaur Provincial Park

Field Museum of Natural History

Garden Park Paleontology Society

Indianapolis Children's Museum

The Lanzendorf Collection

Lexington Children's Museum

Project Exploration

Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

University of Chicago

Victorian Institute of Earth and Planetary Sciences

"The New York Times"

"Nature"

"National Geographic"

"Science"

"Time Magazine"

Paleo art is a field devoted to the reconstruction and life restoration of
long extinct animals and their environments. Other than living birds,
we cannot observe dinosaurs in nature and therefore may never truly
know their habits, lifestyles, or for that matter, the color of their skin.
Consider also that the fossil record provides at best only a fraction of
the remains of a wide diversity of life on earth.

While many fairly complete skeletons of dinosaurs have been
unearthed in recent history, others are represented by as little as a
fragment of a single fractured bone, an isolated tooth, or footprint
impression in once wet mud. Often against imposing odds, it is still
possible to create a reasonably reliable portrait of a unique,
previously unknown creature. The accuracy and confidence with which
dinosaurs can be depicted is directly dependent upon and affected by
the following criteria:

1) The quality and amount of actual skeletal material of the
specimen(s) preserved.

2) Discussion and collaboration with a paleontologist familiar with the
fossil material and the locality from which it was excavated.

3) Observation and comparisons to the closest related living forms.

4) Technical artistic ability, skill and disciplined vision of the artist.

The resulting artwork can range from comprehensive and articulate
anatomical renderings to fully realized, dynamic scenes of wondrous
creatures of the past, capable of suspending our disbelief and for a
moment, drawing us back in time to exotic worlds of the ancient.

Among the many who have offered encouragement over the years,
Michael would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their
invaluable assistance during the development of his paleo art career.

Drs. Philip and Eva Currie

Judy Horan

John Lanzendorf

Rose Painter

Darren Tanke

A special thanks to Lisa and Todd "Chachka Man" Marshall, for their
technical support during the initial construction of this website.