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.