Book- Into the Amazon Rainforest — Annie Zhang illustrations

Into the
Amazon Rainforest

A picture book about a look at the evolutionary journey of the Amazon rainforest, tracing its transformation from prehistoric times to the lush forest we see today.

10 x 10 cm, Oil pastels, 2022.08

Inspiration

In my first year of university, we had a class on the origin of species. The teacher talked about the history of the Earth, and there was an evolutionary timeline diagram that really stuck with me.

Originally, I planned to create a scroll illustrating the entire history of the Earth. However, due to layout limitations and a lack of sufficient reference materials, I decided to narrow the focus to tropical rainforests.

Evolution of the Amazon Rainforest
66 million years ago
Coniferous plants, arranged sparsely
Dinosaurs kept rainforest open by constantly eating and moving

Asteroid hits Earth
Dinosaurs and conifers go extinct, creating conditions for flowering plants Ash-rich tropical soil, good for plant reproduction

Modern rainforest
The flowering plants are closely arranged and the biological population is huge

From 2005
Excessive deforestation leads to drought, rainforest begins to die (edge of desertification)

Sketches

Final work

@ Annie Zhang