Julius Cstonyi is a freelance natural history illustrator and biological sciences graduate. Having achieved a MSc of Ecology and Environmental Biology (University of Alberta), and a PhD in microbiology (University of Manitoba), he has published scientific papers on mutualisms in Utah and unusual bacteria at alien-looking deep ocean hydrothermal volcanic vents. This scientific background has impelled him to strive to restore as realistically as possible the curiously alien environments that earth has hosted in its deep past.
While his passion for drawing palaeoart stemmed from a childhood obsession with drawing dinosaurs, his portfolio has expanded to include all branches of scientifically inspired artwork in a variety of styles. This includes pencil and ink line drawings to watercolour, pastel, 2-dimensional digital illustrations, and 3-dimensional digital models. This work encompasses dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, sharks and other living animals, as well as some space art, fantasy, and science fiction themes.
He has collaborated on projects with several major museums and book publishers from around the globe, including the National Geographic Society and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, working closely with scientists, and drawing on my own scientific background. He even did most of the palaeoart for our very own Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum. His artwork has appeared in numerous books and is currently featured in “The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi” (Csotonyi and White, 2014) and also in “Dinosaur Art: The World’s Greatest Paleoart” (White, 2012). In addition to book and museum projects, he also accepts private commissions of artwork in a wide range of digital and traditional media. He has been honoured with the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s Lanzendorf PaleoArt Prize for 2-Dimensional Art three times (2010, 2012, 2014).