William Stout
1949– · American illustrator and artist specializing in paleontological art
William Stout (born 1949) is an American artist and illustrator best known for his paintings of prehistoric life, though his career also spans film, theme parks and record sleeves. He is a leading name in paleontological art, and his work has been shown in more than seventy exhibitions.
His career began in 1973, when he drew album covers for the bootleg label Trademark of Quality. By 1975 he was art director of the rock magazine Bomp!. In film he painted his first movie poster in 1977, for Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, and later worked on storyboards and production design for more than thirty features. He conceived the story of The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984), an Argentine-American co-production starring David Carradine.
His paleontological output includes the book The Dinosaurs (1981) and the illustrations for The Little Blue Brontosaurus, the basis of The Land Before Time. After a trip to Antarctica in 1992-1993, he produced the exhibition Dinosaurs, Penguins and Whales, which was shown in Moscow at the request of Mikhail Gorbachev. His work has earned the Inkpot Award (1978) and Society of Illustrators medals.
Stout is remembered as a bridge between genre illustration, comics and public science communication, and his reconstructions have shaped how many people picture dinosaurs.