a painter who restores a dinosaur map as a profession

At the age of seven, Zhao Wei began to learn to draw dinosaurs. The 21-year-old works of the ancient sacred beasts were published in the British magazine Nature. This is the first time the magazine used the restoration map of paleontology drawn by the Chinese as a cover. Zhao Wei was a sophomore at that time. He did not go through any art major study. For the dinosaurs, it was a heartfelt love.

Now 29-year-old Zhao Wei is the only painter in China who regards the restoration of dinosaurs as a profession. His peers are few and far between the world. To date, he has created more than 1,000 ancient creature fossil bio-image restoration works. "Maybe everyone liked dinosaurs when they were young, and I used to paint dinosaurs as a career." Zhao said.

Not long ago, Zhao Wei’s scientific exhibition was held at the Chinese Ancient Animal Museum in Beijing. He recreates the world hundreds of millions of years ago with works of art such as paintings and sculptures. The image of life such as dinosaurs, pterosaurs, prehistoric aquatic reptiles, and ancient mammals is resurrected under his pen. The vivid image and colorful colors make the viewers stunned. He is also given the title of a scientific artist with a beard.

I like painting since I was very sensitive to animal names.

Zhao Wei’s parents are railway workers in Shenyang. The locomotive section is where he often goes. Black leather vintage train, 10 red wheels, a big chimney, is the deepest memory in Zhao Xin’s mind. At that time, he often used a chalk to draw a train on the ground.

Before going to school, Zhao Wei was very obsessed with marine animals. "It's like painting "The River on the Qing Dynasty", from the domestic goldfish painting to the squid, grass carp, squid in the river pond, the shark in the deep sea, and he knows himself. Marine animals are all painted all over. He told reporters: "I am particularly sensitive to the name of the animal, but it is very difficult to remember the name. When I was young, I couldn't read it. The word of the shark was difficult to write, but I remembered it at a glance. I also remembered the feature." Zhao Wei was very happy when he recalled his childhood.

"100,000 Why" made Zhao know that the dinosaur was a large animal that existed in reality. He began to read through various books related to dinosaurs. This more realistic little boy compares the dinosaur maps and texts he sees. Once he saw the difference in the number of toe of the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the two pictures, he went to check the text and then modified it with a pencil.

Since then, the dinosaur has become the unique animal in Zhao Xin's heart. When he was painting, he realized that he could not only see it on the picture, but also imagined himself. At this time, his research spirit began to appear. Because most of the dinosaur fossil skin is not preserved, most rely on imagination and speculation about its living environment, Zhao Wei said: "The pattern on the picture is different, I realized that the original dinosaur pattern is uncertain. ""

In order to make the dinosaurs real, Zhao Wei specially organized a library card for the Shenyang Home Library. When he had time, he went to the library to read the books about dinosaurs and watched while taking notes. He had an idea at the time, and he must write a book about Chinese dinosaurs. "I still remember seeing a science book about dinosaurs. There are 36 kinds of Chinese dinosaurs. Now I know that the book is actually 36 genera. But at that time, I didn't have the concept of species and genera. I thought of me. You should draw 36 dinosaur pictures."

During that time, Zhao Wei went to check the information after class. As long as he saw a dinosaur from China that he had never seen before, he wrote down the information on the place of origin, characteristics, and age. In the end, Zhao Wei painted a total of 36 dinosaur maps, using cardboard to make hardcovers. He also left the text part specially, so that the classmates who wrote the class helped to copy it. Zhao Wei named this self-made photo album "Chinese Dinosaur" and still keeps it at home. "Although it seems that it is very messy, there is no kind, it is classified, but it was especially proud at the time. If there is no restoration picture in the book, I will draw on my own impression. For example, as long as it is mentioned in the book, it is vegetarian, and there is on the back. Raised, I think it might be the appearance of Stegosaurus." In this way, Zhao Wei completed his first dinosaur work.

Later, inspired by The Lost World, Zhao Wei wrote a novel about dinosaurs. In the book, he wrote all the dinosaurs he had learned.

Painting is a language

In 2004, Zhao Wei faced the college entrance examination, but it was not until the first half of the exam that he realized that the university had art majors. In Zhao’s hometown of Shenyang, Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts is the best art school in the region, and he is determined to test this school. He had not received professional art training before. He did not pass the pre-test assault. He only followed a master of the painting gallery for a month and began to rush to take exams in colleges and universities across the country.

Fortunately, Zhao Wei has a good painting skills since he was practicing painting at an early age. He has been very good at the Northeastern University, Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, and Hubei Academy of Fine Arts. At this time, Zhao Wei made a difficult, painting is a favorite of his major, but Northeastern University is a national undergraduate college. After hesitating, Zhao Wei chose to study graphic design at Northeastern University.

In the face of Zhao Wei’s choice, his parents are somewhat puzzled, because Zhao’s painting talents are obvious from an early age, and they hope that Zhao Wei will go to art colleges. But Zhao Wei has his own ideas.

He believes that painting really needs to learn some techniques, but mainly in its own practice, just like martial arts and musical instruments require basic skills. The teacher leads the door and cultivates himself. “The absorption of knowledge is the most important thing,” said Zhao Wei. “I feel that my thinking at the Academy of Fine Arts will be limited. It turns out that I am correct. I have been involved in many aspects at Northeastern University, and my thinking has been broadened.”

During the university, Zhao Wei studied psychology, life into chemistry, and physics. In the subsequent paintings, he easily applied some simple theories in theoretical physics and advanced mathematics to the subject matter of art. "Painting is a language for me, a form of expression. I want to say that the most important thing is that I can express physical and psychological thoughts in the form of painting."

Drawing dinosaurs with rigor

In the next semester, Zhao Wei first contacted digital art. The first thing he returned to his bedroom every day was to check the information of dinosaurs online. At this time, he realized that real painting is not as simple as a child. For example, to paint a painting of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, it is necessary to clearly know that the Tyrannosaurus Rex has several knots on his fingers. He began to browse the website of professional organizations, download professional papers, and study from the pictures to the model little by little. In many cases, in order to clarify a point of knowledge, Zhao Wei must go to the English website, which requires a large number of relevant professional English vocabulary, and even the last scientific name may be Latin. During that time he painted a lot of dinosaur sketches and hand-painted works, the paintings became more and more rigorous, and they also knew to see the real fossils.

After continuous research, Zhao Wei gradually became familiar with each type of dinosaur, and knowledge accumulated more and more. The rules of paleontology were formed in the brain. The dinosaur map he painted was very popular in the school forum and became famous in the school.

Zhao Wei has more confidence. He published the special tyrannosaurus and the dragon's colored lead and sketches on the client website of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which attracted the attention of experts.

In 2006, Wang Yulin, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, invited Zhao Wei to work together to map the restoration of the ancient sacred beast. For Zhao Wei, this is the first time to draw a rigorous scientific dinosaur restoration map. After directly communicating with the experts, Zhao Wei completed the draft two weeks later. In December 2006, Zhao Yu’s map of the ancient sacred beast was published in the British journal Nature. This picture, together with a research paper on mammalian fossils with a wing membrane, pushed the history of flying mammals forward. At least 70 million years.

Talking about the process of drawing, Zhao Wei said: "I have drawn countless manuscripts. Every detail in the picture, I have carefully studied every leaf."

After the publication of the ancient sacred beast restoration map, Zhao Wei’s reputation in the circle gradually increased. Although he was only a college student, many institutions invited him to participate in the restoration of paleontology.

Treating "dinosaurs" as a profession

After graduating from college, Zhao Wei entered a publishing house and met his current partner, the scientific fairy tale writer Yang Yang. Zhao Wei is responsible for drawing pictures. Yang Yang is responsible for writing articles. They co-published 10 series of "Dinosaur Experts" series, 5 volumes of paleontological pictorial series, and works of science and art "Starry Sky".

In 2019, Zhao Yu and Yang Yang established the Woodpecker Science Group and launched the “Darwin Project – Life Art Project”, which united many famous scientists from around the world to participate in the restoration of paleontological fossil bioimages. This is also the first time that human society has practiced a large-scale scientific art on the earth's disappearing life system. In the past few years, the project has completed the accurate restoration of more than 500 ancient creatures. A large number of works have been published in famous journals including the British magazine Nature and the American Science magazine. They have published dozens of popular science books and held many popular science exhibitions. Widespread attention in the scientific community.

In foreign countries, there are very few people who specialize in drawing dinosaur restoration maps. In Zhao’s words, “This is not an industry that supports people. Normally, it is difficult to make a living by this.”

Now, Zhao Hao opens his eyes to the studio every day. He usually works until the early hours of the morning, and sometimes he will continue to work when he returns home. “It’s fascinating to do dinosaur recovery work, I can’t stop it.”