Dinosaur Edition
I have a collection of plastic animals. It started when I was studying natural science illustration, because an instructor recommended using small plastic animals for research — not because you get an idea of what the animal actually looks like or how it lives, but because:
- the toys can provide a cursory idea about how body masses exist in proportion to one another in a side view,
- you can rotate the toy to get a cursory understanding about how the body masses exist in relationship to one another in perspective, and
- they’re good to sketch before you encounter the live animal so you have a sense of how the animal is structured in three dimensions.
Also, they’re fun to collect. (You probably won’t be surprised to learn that I am not alone in this endeavor, although I have not — yet — built shelves dedicated to my collection.) I have quite a few mammals, reptiles, birds, and even some dinosaurs.
I ran across these online, and I was intrigued…
… because they’re cute babies.
They’re from a company called PNSO. I found these models at Amazon.com, but I’m sure they’re available elsewhere. One of the lovely things about these is they come with an informational brochure, so you can get some insight into how the model was created, what design choices were made and why:
I appreciate that these little ones have gestural qualities in the way they’re posed, but they don’t lose the basic structures of their bodies. And they have some of the hallmarks of cuteness that we all recognize: round bodies and large eyes.
These are delightful additions to my collection. As I continue to explore animal and creature anatomy, I think they’ll be really fun to work with.
Carmen Yount 