Thursday 27 October 2011

Before I Go...

I'm off to Chiang Mai tomorrow for two weeks.  This is still in progress, but I thought I would just share it before I go.  



Sometimes, instead of the usual bon voyage when people are going away, I bid them a safe journey with 'Soave sia il vento'.  Since I'm the one going away in this case, I shall pretend somebody else has bid me it this time.  

Saturday 22 October 2011

Tweet



I have, alas, succumbed.  It is as incongruous as it looks and sounds.


Tuesday 18 October 2011

The Mighty Handful

Bonus points and a whole steamer of bean buns for any reader who might have thought that I was referring to this five in the post title.



In a more serious follow-up to the last post, a group of Ornithomimus edmontonicus fend off a marauding young adult Albertosaurus sarcophagus by mobbing it.  You are free to imagine that there are at the very least half a dozen more beyound the picture frame, though I am quite ready to believe that a mere handful are more than capable of disconcerting a tyrannosaur in the right circumstances.  ;)  

I have now also remedied what I mentioned two posts ago about not having drawn an Albertosaurus before.  Hurrah.  Though I'm realising rather too late that I'd neglected to adorn it with more scutes, spiky bits, etc.  I may try to see if anything can be done about those at some point.  I may also have made the brow horns too pronounced and too allosaur-like.   Though mightn't there be something said for keratinous structures such as these being more sizeable than the skull shape alone might suggest?


 I'd also like to point out once again that DeviantArtist Pilsator has another version of his Gallimimus vs Tarbosaurus in progress.
       

Monday 10 October 2011

Ornithomimid Triumphant

The great David Orr of Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs (whom I really think we ought to start calling 'Solomon') mentioned in his latest Mesozoic Miscellany that he wished to see 'An ornithomimid triumphant over a tyrannosaur'.  I do not think this was quite what he had in mind...


I had originally hoped to draw a Kinnareemimus teaching a Siamotyrannus a lesson, but what with both creatures being represented by highly fragmentary remains and Siamotyrannus now being considered a probable carnosaur, I decided against it.  On the other hand, given the absurdity of this scene, I don't suppose it would have mattered much...

And I'm afraid there is a second part to this.  Yes.

In the meantime, however, for a perfectly plausible and far superior version of a triumphant ornithomimid, I highly recommend this excellent drawing by DeviantArtist Pilsator.  I also know that Durbed is working on a 'Deinocheirus jabbing a tyrannosaur in the eye' at Marc's suggestion as we speak. 


Thursday 6 October 2011

Happy Birthday, T.Rex

Peter Bond over at ART Evolved informs us that it's the 106th birthday of Tyrannosaurus rex and Albertosaurus sarcophagus today.   

My playful disdain for tyrannosaurs (and larger carnivores in general) aside, I have sadly not yet had a real opportunity to quite do justice to T.rex and its kin (inasmuch as I can be said to have really tackled anything with seriousness; the Citipati may be the best of the very few examples so far).  But I think this may be as good an excuse as any to share what few sub-par things I do presently have of the king.



This sketchbook spread of T. rex studies is in fact my first saurian work since I resumed drawing dinosaurs  in earnest a little over a year ago, after many years' gap of not having drawn any dinosaurs at all.  Chief among the many wrongs are the too fine and too numerous teeth, and the lack of jaw muscle.  I am perhaps a little embarrassed to be showing this piece now, but I suppose I'm duty-bound to do so for archival purposes, etc...  



'Everybody Loves T.rex' was tangentially inspired by this article by Brian Switek, and by Marc's series of posts based on his undergraduate dissertation (for which he received a first, you know), but for the most part, it is my own gentle and affectionate satire on T. rex mania among the general public and dinosaur enthusiasts alike.  By the by, that's Marc himself clinging on to the tail...  


In between those two pieces, there was this little ACEO, part of a series of gifts drawn for the members of the Dinosaur Toy Forum (more about these another time).  I don't think there is much to be said about it, I fear.  Except that the full view of it here is much bigger than the original, which is 3.5 x 2.5 inches. 



I'm afraid I have never yet drawn an Albertosaurus.  I hope it will forgive me.  But I wish it a very happy birthday nevertheless.


Wednesday 5 October 2011

London Archie Declared Type Specimen

The London specimen of Archaeopteryx lithographica (I love that species suffix) has been formally declared the type specimen by the ICZN.  Hooray.

I have not yet had a chance to draw an Archaeopteryx.  Boo.