Therizinosaurus Birthday Card

A birthday card for another friend and Dinosaur Toy Forum member, Dr. Andre Mursch, biologist and Research Associate at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Dept. of Evolutionary Ecology and Animal Biodiversity.

Sepia ink on card. The original is 12.5cm square.

His saurian portrait is a Therizinosaurus (yes, another one. There are a number of therizinosaurs on the DTF, it seems). Also present is a Dynastes granti beetle, who is supposed to signify Andre's love of insects (among a host of other things) as much as because I fancied drawing it.

Stefan Steps Down

As regular readers will have noted, often, the smallest seed of a picture will plant itself in my head from the vaguest of references, and I would find myself unable to resist realising it in illustrative form.

So it is with this drawing, which perhaps will only have any real significance for the members of the Dinosaur Toy Forum, but which I nevertheless hope will afford you a moment's visual entertainment.

Stefan (the Therizinosaurus), one of the long-standing members of the forum staff (and Dinosaur Toy Blog author), has decided to step down from the team. And although he still remains as a regular member on the forum, the news was a rather sad one. Here, the team says goodbye. They are, from left; Adam (Rhomaleosaurus -- who, by the way, is able to swim through the air much in the manner of the whales in the Pines of Rome sequence from Fantasia 2000), our forum admin and plesiosaur expert, whom you've encountered here before; Lisa (Coelophysis -- scaled up, because this is all in fun); Ashley (Amargasaurus); yours truly (Diplodocus) and Chris (Allosaurus), whom we also welcome as the newest recruit to the moderating team.

And here is an even larger copy of the image.

Thecodontosaurus

I'm almost tempted to begin this post with 'I r a srs palaeo artist too,' for reasons yet unclear even to myself.

 Thecodontosaurus (with sphenodont). Sepia ink on Saunders Waterford hot pressed watercolour paper; 150 x 280mm. I've decided that her name is 'Thesis'. Yes.

(Opening the picture to view in a new tab is recommended)

This was originally conceived as my entry for Bristol Dinosaur Project's Thecodontosaurus Illustration Competition. Sadly (though perhaps predictably), I failed to make the competition deadline. My attempt to rally a few palaeo-minded friends into entering also bore no fruit, alas. It would have been lovely to see familiar names among the entrants.

Close-up detail views.

 

My many thanks to Jon Tennant of Green Tea and Velociraptors for very kindly supplying me with the Thecodontosaurus paper (Adam M. Yates (2003)) and Dr. Heinrich Mallison of Dinosaurpalaeo for his input during the progress. I feel like quite the grown-up palaeo artist.

Another Allosaur

Yet another gift (really, you folks don't know how spoilt you are...) for another friend and DTF member, Joey Fells, who also happens to be a fellow freelance illustrator. 

Watercolour on Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper, 8.5 x 11.5cm. The full view is almost three times larger than the original (dear readers, if you don't do so already, I recommend right clicking the images to open in a new tab, rather than viewing it in slideshow mode). Again, I took a few photographs with a penny for scale.

I feel obliged to repeat the oft-uttered truism among artists that 'the original looks better than the scan'. 

Two Studies from the NHM

I went drawing at the Natural History Museum with the extraordinary wildlife painter, Claudia Hahn, today. I only managed two pieces; it's surprising how time-consuming even observational drawing on location can be. But considering the geological ages I usually spend on anything, two drawings in one day is no mean feat.

Metacarpals of 'European Flamingo,' according to the label; though perhaps more properly, Greater Flamingo; Phoenicopterus ruber roseus.

Shoebill. Balaeniceps rex.

Several people surreptitiously took photographs of this whilst I was drawing. One gentleman finally came to pay a compliment just as I was packing up to leave.

Gibran

You all remember Gibran the Olorotitan infant, don't you? No?

He seems to look richer yet subtler in the original, if that makes any sense at all. This is one of those rarer occasions in which The Miraculous Scanner is... not so miraculous.

The original is 8.5 x 11.5cm. Here is a photograph of an earlier stage.

I have a feeling I may need to introduce a tag for him in future.

'Teanantosaurus'

I once asked the astonishingly precocious Jon Tennant of Green Tea and Velociraptors what dinosaur he was. His answer, to my considerable surprise, was Tenontosaurus. For whatever reason, he had often struck me more as a deinonychosaur of some sort. Perhaps it was that very precocity and pointed wit that did it... I soon learned that Tenontosaurus was in fact the first dinosaur he formally studied; what's more, it had even once been called 'Tenantosaurus'.

So when I recently sent him a tin of loose leaf green tea (some very fine sencha) to supplement his already limitless stock, I had to include this sketch of his saurian portrait in the accompanying note.

I snapped a quick photograph of it before it was sent, but here is Jon's scan of it, too.

I had originally meant to use 'Tenantosaurus' as this entry's title, but Jon went one further with 'Teanantosaurus' when he sent his thanks. I appropriated it at once, as you see.