✧ Alaska ✧

✧ Hi! I'm Alaska, an animator/illustrator who loves history, fantasy, and dinosaurs ✧

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Patagotitan / Buriolestes | The Inca Empire

This one was a lot of fun! I directly referenced the qullqas above Ollantaytambo, Peru for this piece (as well as the use of khipus to record information). The Patagotitans are a little too big but I've always liked exaggerating the size of dinosaurs LOL.

Plus a little Stegouros! The patterns in the background are based off of patterns on an Inca tunic, and the base on which the Stegouros is standing is based off of an Inca lime spoon.

This was all done for my mail club, The Paleo Post! Art marketing below:

Vintage Magazine Cover | Austroraptor

Hatzegopteryx | The Golden Age of Piracy

For May I wanted to do something about the Golden Age of Piracy! This is technically nearer to the end of it (since it features Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and John 'Calico Jack' Rackham - and they only sailed together for about two to three months before being captured), but I thought it would be fun to work with Mary Read's history (as defined in A General History of the Pyrates, by (pen name) Captain Charles Johnson, which means it's likely completely made up... but interesting regardless). The book suggests she was a disguised Dutch cavalry trooper during the Nine Years War before becoming a pirate, so hey, why not have her horse be a Hatzegopteryx instead? One that she brought with her when she traveled to the West Indies? Of course that part of her past is all conjecture, but it worked so well that I had to include it.

I mean, Azhdarchids in naval warfare?? SOO neat. I want to draw more related to this, but illustrating this ship (sloop, specifically... ish) was KILLER so I might need to take a break before exploring that again HAH

And guess who finally figured out how to do a read more link (art marketing below lol):

Spinosaurus Mirabilis | Crocodile Fishing

Looked into the Songhai Empire for this one! It was based on the seventh book of The Cosmography and Geography of Africa, specifically the crocodile section which talked a little bit about how crocodile fishing was done in the 16th century!

Cuju Practice | Caudipteryx

For The Paleo Post this month, I wanted to draw something connected to the Song Dynasty! More specifically, cuju, a game considered to be the origin of soccer (or football). I was inspired by an illustration of Emperor Taizu playing cuju and kinda found a way to shove a dinosaur into it, because that’s what we do here :D

The Tuskegee Airmen | Quetzalcoatlus

The Battle of Monte Cassino | Tameryraptor

This is the print for February’s edition of The Paleo Post! It depicts the capture of the Monte Cassino Abbey by the 2nd Polish Corps after the fourth assault of the four month campaign. The dinosaur is meant to represent Wojtek the Bear (mascot and ammunition crate carrier of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company) - and although he wouldn’t have been anywhere near the front lines, I really wanted to draw him eating a Nazi, so this is what I went with in the end!

A vaquero and Edmontosaurus resting at noon.

A girl playing marbles alongside a curious Bambiraptor.

Bass Reeves | Dilophosaurus

Since the theme for my snail mail club this month is the Wild West, I thought I’d also do some extra illustrations based around that! This one features Bass Reeves, who was a very accomplished lawman; he's credited with over 3,000 arrests and is likely the inspiration for the (whitewashed) Lone Ranger.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West | Tenontosaurus

I've been working to combine a few of my interests into a single concept these past few months! I love history just as much as I love prehistoric creatures, so, I'm drawing the two together. In this case, you'll find the cavalry drill section of Buffalo Bill's Wild West (featuring Roman riding specifically), and four Tenontosauruses (as their fossils have been found in the western United States).

You can also find a research video about Buffalo Bill's show on my TikTok because I don't want to fill up your feeds with an essay :'D

If you're interested in the project, you can check it out at The Paleo Post. I'll be sending out new prints/stickers each month, and they'll be connected to a different period of history each time! Here are a few early concepts of what you might see in future months:

A bestiarii fighting a Deltadromeus during the inaugural games of the Colosseum.

Wakayama Soryu waiting for soldiers fallen overboard during the Battle of Sacheon - part of the Imjin War.