TRS Gallery -- Paleo

Paleo

Ah, paleo (mostly dinosaurs) was once my foremost passion... I'm not quite sure what happened there. Random paleo-artist people recommended that I draw other things, and, when I finally did, the dinosaur drawing count abruptly and inexplicably dropped. Now my paleo-related output is all but nil, though I hesitate to say the fossilized critters are forever gone from my life. Matt Pollack (the dude who runs avians.net here and so groovily hosts TRS) said, just recently, to me, "it's like learning to ride a bike again...". True enough, though, irrelevantly, I haven't actually ridden a bike in -- well, it's so utterly pathetic, I'll spare further details. Onto my largely-dated batch of drawings we shall proceed, yes?

Untitled still-life -- September 2001
[pencil on vellum]

I'm no mammal person, so I couldn't tell you who the fellow with the large tusks is (still, I'll bet there's a very good chance its name ends in -therium...), though I haven't forgotten my dinosaurs so badly that I cannot immediately identify the doofy beaked critter as Stegosaurus. But would that be S. ungulatus or S. stenops...? Those are the only two species that really come to mind right now, and I could only ever tell them apart by plate size/count -- by skull morphology? yeah right! ::} Well, enough about my own idiocy, about this drawing... This was for my Drawing II class (during my Fall 2002 semester at the local county college), a tedious exercise in 'pencil rendering' in which we were to employ our various Bs and Hs (pencils) and replicate a black-and-white photograph as well as we humanly could. Rather than pull a photo out of a mag and risk getting my arse sued unexpectedly at some later date, I dug up some photos I took from an SVP field trip in, er, years ago, and quite conveniently some of them were already in B&W due to the fact that a roll of my sister's B&W film had quite irritatingly gotten mixed up the color rolls (and I'm such an ignoramus in matters of photography, I naturally didn't notice before the fact).

These skulls -- almost certainly casts -- were sitting around in a lab in some small-town natural history museum the group visited (can't remember the town's name, let alone what state it was in -- either Colorado or Wyoming, though the two always get jumbled in my unreliable cranium). Mike (my Drawing II teacher) sort of picked this particular photo out for me, saving me the trouble, and I can't complain -- came out very nicely, methinks. There's an interesting juxtaposition going on -- the relatively simplistic-looking stegosaur skull alongside the complicated architecture of the mammalian brute... Well, something like that. --March.21-2002

Random dromaeosaurs -- 1&2: March 10, 2000; 3: August 2000
[1 & 3: pencil on sketchbook paper; 2: colored pencil on sketchbook paper]

Like I said, these are completely random. They're supposed to be dromaeosaurs, but not any type in particular. If they actually look like one that exists, that's cool. -- September 24, 2000

Tyrannosaurus rex preparatory sketches -- undated, pre-summer 1999
[pencil on sketch/tracing paper]

My T. rex drawing ("Gathering in the Glade") got ridiculously close to completion, but I kind of lost it during the background work and I never went back to it. I should just leave it as is -- declare it unfinished and finished, if that makes any sense -- and scan it in. Until I do that, take a look at the huge composite scan of my figure sketches. -- 09-24-00

The Stroll II (Dryosaurus altus) -- undated, early 1999
[pencil on drawing paper]

Sheesh, I hate when I forget to date things... One of the last "remakes" I actually finished, so hopefully it'll look familiar to any of you that saw the first version of "The Stroll." All of the photos of this one came out dreadfully blurry, and the GIF you can access above represents my best attempt at tweaking the scan. It hardly does the original image justice, so I just might have to try a composite scan (after I put a guesstimation of the date on it). "Stroll II" isn't hopelessly huge like, say, "What's for dinner," so a composite scan is actually a realistic proposition.

The critter flying in the background is Comodactylus. It's probably about as poorly known as I am knowledgeable of pterosaurs, but, heck, it's the only pterosaur I know of to so conveniently come from the Morrison Formation (though I could be wrong about that...). And about the Dryosaurus himself (I made this one a "he"), for reasons that surpass my understanding, I decided to trash the feathery covering he had in "Stroll I." That seems a little retrogressive, if you ask me ... Didn't it turn out the little ornithopods were good candidates for endothermy (and, thus, integument) after all?
-- September 15, 2000

Walking the Chicks (Daspletosaurus torosus) -- January 1, 1999
[pencil on drawing paper]

This picture should look familiar to some of you, even if you've never seen this exact image before. Yup, it's one of my infamous remakes, which means the pic it was based on never has to be revealed to public eyes again. (Heh heh.) I did a lot of prep work for this one, but that doesn't mean I didn't make a few blunders. It's better than the original, and that's all that counts, as far as I'm concerned.

This is one of my only drawings so far where a computer actually played a part in the planning process. I scanned all of the chicks in (along with their parents), made each one a separate layer in Photoshop, and moved them around 'till I was happy. Here's the result for those interested. Afterwards, I printed the layout sketch so that it was the right size (took two pieces of paper to do so) and used the printouts themselves for transferring the image to the final piece of paper. (Meant I didn't have to retrace the whole blasted thing. I'd had my share of tracing paper by then.) -- September 11, 2000

Velociraptor mongoliensis studies -- June 1998
[pencil on tracing paper]

Preparatory work for a remake of "Thistle" (which hasn't happened yet). They don't look like much, but I drew them quite carefully, paying extra attention to proportion. The chick (Thistle), on the right, actually has different proportions, not to mention a different skull shape, from the adult. I was considering including an adult Velociraptor (named Fern, for the record) in the remake, but that's probably too much of a deviation from the original. Thistle is such a cutie, I really should do her the favor of a revised pic... -- 09-24-00

Beyond the Dunes (Syntarsus rhodesiensis) -- January 14, 1998
[pencil on vellum]

Still pretty pleased with this one. I really wouldn't be surprised if Syntarsus actually did look the way I drew it (give or take the stripes), which I can't say about most of the dinosaurs I draw. Believability is one indication of a good restoration, I think, but it's definitely not the only one. I'm still not sure if ancient South Africa would be this "dunesy," nor am I positive scorpions were around yet (though odds are they were). Ah, looks like Rachel neglected a major part of her research, eh?

"Syntarsus rhodesiensis was a small (as theropods go) predatory dinosaur that lived in the Early Jurassic of South Africa (an arid region at the time). It coexisted with critters like Massospondylus carinatus (a "prosauropod") and primitive ornithischians like Lesothosaurus diagnosticus and Heterodontosaurus tucki, both of which may have winded up on S.r.'s plate from time to time. S.r.'s relatives include other coelophysoids, such as Syntarsus kayentakatae, Coelophysis bauri, and the two species of Dilophosaurus (which, BTW, didn't look anything like its "Jurassic Park" incarnation.)

S.r. has been found in congregations. This may mean that they lived in groups or that they simply died together -- who knows? (I have, obviously, opted for the former theory in my drawing.) There are two distinct "morphotypes" of S.r., one gracile, one robust, which may well represent the sexes. I have tried to portray both varieties in my drawing, the closest one being the robust (?female) morphotype.

The Syntarsus I have drawn are hungry and are traveling across a sea of small dunes, searching for their next quarry. One Syntarsus has stopped in her tracks, the tip of her tail lifted and flicking with excitement, pointing toward something far in the distance, beyond the dunes. A herd of Massospondylus? Carrion? Rival predators? You decide!"
[excerpt from Masterworks: The Real, version 1.2, write-up]

Across the Texan Floodplain (Alamosaurus sanjuanensis) -- January 4, 1998
[acrylic on canvasboard]

Geez, I can't think of much to say here... This painting's a mixed bag for me. I like the way I handled some of it, but the rest... The background could've turned out much better had I actually studied the appearance of large, shallow water bodies. Alas, I succumbed to my usual habit -- focus on the dinos, and just make the background look "good enough.". I really didn't have many refs on Alamosaurus, mostly two drawings illustrating the bones found. Gosh, I really can't remember my prep work for this thing... Erg... I'll fix this write-up if I ever figure it out. -- September 14, 2000

What's for dinner (Tyrannosaurus bataar) -- November 25, 1997
[pencil on illustration board]

This drawing earned me a bit of fame back in high school. Maybe it's because it's so ... "in your face." One of my first attempts to break completely away from the lateral perspective, a habit which I had been virtually chained to all my life. (Interestingly, these days I find it difficult to draw in a straight lateral perspective.) Inevitably, perspective problems rule this drawing as much as the strong shadows. (For a really funny one, look at where the left-hand tree is rooted.) Also, my sense of symmetry was truly on vacation in fall 1997 -- true, nothing is truly symmetrical, but the head of the female tyrannosaur (the one on the left) is truly ridiculous!

Tyrannosaurus rex's closest known kin is the somewhat smaller and slimmer T. bataar of Asia (Mongolia, China, that general area). It's probably better known to the layman as Tarbosaurus, but some paleontologists consider it similar enough to T. rex to be another species of the same genus. (And doesn't Tyrannosaurus bataar sound so much cooler than Tarbosaurus bataar?) My drawing illustrates a female-male bataar pair who had started to munch on a therizinosaur they brought down. Of course, they got interrupted by the smaller-scale carnivores, who were eager to get a few bites off the carcass -- but slightly discouraged after the she-bataar left a deafening bellowing in their direction.

It's hard to tell from the deformed lump in the drawing, but therizinosaurs are these bizarre, huge-gutted, tiny-headed, beaked theropods with the hands of a Jabberwocky. Really, if you thought dinosaurs were weird in general... Therizinosaurs make a lot of their kin look structurally tame in comparison. -- September 15, 2000

Gallimimus bullatus sketch -- undated, fall 1997
[pencil on sketching paper]

One of the finer examples of what boredom in art class yields. This was a fairly spontaneous drawing, but, then, they're usually the best kind. Yes, well, it looks rather Greg Paul-ian, I suppose because I haven't really established my own "look" for ornithomimids. At any rate, after 2+ years, I'm still fond of this drawing. Let's see how long it takes for that to change. -- September 12, 2000

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, untitled sketch -- October 25, 1997
[ink and Sharpie on sketchbook paper]

Rather ambitious for being labeled a "sketch," don't you think? I like the overall feel of this drawing; it flows very nicely. Some of the perspective isn't too bad, either. The head's a bit funny-looking -- I would close the mouth and chop off that cock's-comb crest, for starters. Well, spinosaurs were awfully funny-looking critters, but that's beside the point.
-- September 12, 2000

Brachylophosaurus canadensis head study -- October 17, 1997
[pencil on vellum]

Currently, I can only really appreciate this drawing as a study in textures (well, I still like the eye, too). In an otherwise positive e-mail (not that any of it was negative), Brian Franczak pointed out something regarding the shape of the head. I forget exactly what, but I looked into it, and I discovered, well, this drawing didn't represent Brachylophosaurus as well as I had anticipated. The fact was, sure, I had looked at plenty of pictures of this guy's skull, but those can only tell you so much. I didn't understand the three-dimensional form of the head that well (still can't say I do).

Even though drawings are two-dimensional, being familiar with the 3D form is crucial before you can realistically draw something like Brachylophosaurus in side view, fleshed out. The nature of the structures, their relationships within space, stuff like that, determines how shadows fall and how the textures apply to the surfaces. Hope that makes some sense.

At any rate, this drawing did give me an important lesson... It's good to know your subject well before you spend oodles of hours tediously drawing scales and folds of skin. <G> -- September 12, 2000

Velociraptor-Deinonychus sketch -- October 8-11, 1997
[pencil on sketchbook paper]

These sketches have a few redeeming qualities... but, boy, did I draw them UG-ly! -- 09-24-00

Procompsognathus sketch -- undated, ?June 1997
[pencil on sketchbook paper]

This is from the same sketchbook as Gorgosaurus below, so I'm pretty sure I drew it around the same time. (I drew it during a Latin class, so June works.) Since I didn't have any reference materials with me, this isn't much of a "restoration." Still, it's a cute little critter. The feet came out better than usual. -- 09-24-00

Adolescent Gorgosaurus -- June 1997
[pencil on sketchbook paper]

A sketch that came out quite nicely (consider the date). This tyrannosaur teenager is almost done shedding his feathers (which tyrannosaurs may have been born with -- they would have been beneficial to a rapidly growing tyrannosaur chick).
-- 09-24-00

Two Velociraptor -- June 6, 1997
[ink, Sharpie, and colored pencil on Bainbridge illustration board]

Despite the damage their fumes have doubtless done to my brain cells by now, Sharpies are a truly useful tool... For filling in big, solid, black areas like the front velociraptor's belly, anyway. Colored pencils, on the other hand, even Prismacolors, aren't the best thing for solid color patches, especially on the illustration board. Next time, I'm trying those bottled inks... or maybe gouache... -- September 12, 2000

"This was supposed to be a design for a double-sided T-shirt. I never got around to drawing the design for the back side, and if I finally did, my artistic standards would require that I redraw the front side as well! Perhaps in time. [Additionally,] this duo represents a male and a female pair. The female, in the front, has a less brilliant snout than the male, but she is larger by some percentage. (Whether the fossil record shows otherwise, I don't know... I just draw the beasties!)"
[excerpt from Masterworks: The Real, version 1.2, write-up]

Celerita (Microvenator celer) -- April 28, 1997
[pencil on vellum]

Little Microvenator's gotten some attention recently. Jaime Headden, the Oviraptor nut of Qilongia, did some research into this critter. Maybe there are some techie papers floating around, too.( I'm too far behind in paleo to know for certain.) Odds are, Microvenator probably looks a bit different from my, er, creative restoration. Plus, even outside of the paleontological realm, "Celerita" has a pretty basic flaw -- one leg is too long, or the other is too short, or whatever. (Don't you just hate it when that happens?) At any rate, this fluffy baby's due for a remake, but she'll have to wait a while. Other drawings (like "Thistle" and "Egyptian Coast") are bellowing like Evangelions, "Redraw me! REDRAW ME!!!" -- September 12, 2000

"I got the name Celerita (kell-AIR-ih-tuh) from the Latin celeritas, "swiftness." Celerita is supposed to be a Microvenator celer ("swift small hunter"), an enigmatic theropod from the Cloverly Formation (Early Cretaceous) -- it lived alongside Deinonychus, Tenontosaurus, and Sauropelta, to name a few. Celerita is meant to be a remake of my original take on M. celer, and she was based upon a skeletal restoration of the so-called "Megadontosaurus" (I ignored the giant teeth, of course) to be found in Discovering Dinosaurs at the AMNH. Personal preference led me to reconstruct Microvenator as a primitive caenagnathid." [excerpt from Masterworks: The Real, version 1.2, write-up]

Moa -- April 13, 1997
[acrylics and colored pencil on illustration board]

There ain't no moa of them moa... Um, right... Anyway, this is a better photo than the one previously on TRS (thanks to Shannon-chan!). This painting features impossible lighting and the weirdest bird ankles I've ever seen, but I still kinda like it.

"The giant moa, Dinornis maximus, was truly a spectacular bird. It stood over twelve feet tall (when it was rearing, anyway) and, along with several other species of moa, roamed New Zealand. In recent centuries, though, the entire moa clade, Dinornithoidae, has been wiped off the face of the planet by humans, namely the Maori.

This painting, my second, shows a moa looking its grandest: standing tall and proud against a bold sky, towering above the distant treeline, looking down upon the little creatures. This bird must have been a magnificent sight to behold, though it is a sight we are perhaps never to see.

(Unless technology brings this dinosaur back from the grave.)" [excerpt from Masterworks: The Real, version 1.2, write-up]

Doting Stegosaurus stenops mother -- February 1997
[acrylics on canvas]

This is my first "real" painting ... at least, my first "real" attempt. My first brave step into the unfamiliar world of color, paint, and paintbrush. So... be nice. -- September 14, 2000

"This picture was inspired by a sketch I did in 8th grade (it was actually on the Internet for a while, those of you "lucky" enough to see it). It has the typical ol' stegosaur with the tail raised up in defense, but it also has something rarely depicted ... a stegosaur mom doting one of her calves! I thought this concept was much more interesting, so for my painting I focused on it.

Originally, the painting had several calves scampering near the adults, plus another stegosaur drinking out of the pool in the foreground. These elements were rather distracting, though, so I painted them out. It eventually developed into what you see above, centering on the mother and her single calf. Exactly what she is doing to her calf is open to interpretation: cleaning it, regurgitating food for it, simply nuzzling it? [Preparing to take a bite out of it?] It's your call."
[excerpt from Masterworks: The Real, version 1.2, write-up]

Campylognathoides -- January 16, 1997
[magic marker on drawing paper]

I'm much better with magic markers nowadays (magic markers?? <G>), plus I could definitely manage a better restoration of this pterosaur. But something kept me from taking this picture down... Campylo's just so cute. That's gotta be it.
-- September 12, 2000

Dsungaripterus head study -- first quarter, 1997
[pencil on sketchbook paper]

That's a mouthful -- I just call it "Dsungi" for short. Dsungaripterus is a really cool Cretaceous pterosaur, with a bizarre crest that reminds me of a hornbill (just a little). Today my brain's really not working, but based on the name I'd say it was from China. (C'mon, Rachel, you've gotta know this!!!) Er, anyway, the head portion of the drawing looks a little off to me, but I still love the textures on the neck. After over three years, still very nice. -- September 12, 2000

Stargazers -- undated, ?early 1997
[pencil on sketchbook paper]

Two troodonts watching a shooting star (no relation to the Doomsday comet or what have you).
For a painting I never started. -- 09-24-00

Ouranosaurus nigeriensis takes a dip -- fourth quarter, 1996
[pencil on vellum]

For a drawing so old (late 1996 was a long time ago!), I actually still really like this pic. Unfortunately, in its actual physical state, it's not doing so good -- somewhere along the way, it acquired a circular orange stain. (The actual drawing is undamaged; the paper's just stained ... orange.) How this happened is completely beyond me, but I'm glad I took a good scan of it beforehand.

"Ouranosaurus is a fairly common occurrence in cheap kid's dinosaur books, although it's drawn wrong 99% of the time. Now here it's drawn right! <G> This dinosaur is probably so popular because of the long vertebral spines, but I think the head is far more interesting. Ouranosaurus has a very interestingly-shaped skull, one that isn't all that easy to draw, either.

Probably one of the only major problems I've noticed [in this drawing] is the background -- some people think the background seems to be resting "on the back" of the Ouranosaurus, a valid point, but not one I'm overly concerned about." [excerpt from Masterworks: The Real, version 1.2, write-up]

Gorgosaurus prowling near the lake's edge -- fourth quarter, 1996
[commissioned; pencil on drawing paper]

Much about this drawing, especially the dino, are pretty outdated. Even so, some of the trees still look nice, especially considering how artistically, er, herbophobic I am. The gorgosaur isn't so horrible that a remake is mandatory just yet, but it wouldn't be a bad idea (when I get decent at forest-scapes, that is). -- September 12, 2000

Velociraptor mongoliensis head study -- fourth quarter, 1996
[pencil on vellum]

Perhaps one of my more (in)famous pictures. This is the only drawing of mine, so far, that I know to have been plagiarized. (You know, someone copied it, redrew it directly, and published it.) That mess was sorted out a long time ago, and I suppose I earned some free publicity through the ordeal (not to mention a free magazine subscription). I don't like this drawing that much, especially now, but I don't tolerate plagiarism. Not if it's my work, not if it's someone else's. -- 09-24-00

Avimimus ambling about -- first quarter, 1996
[colored pencil on illustration board]

Dang, this pic is screaming for a remake, but not as badly as some others. My older write-up on Avi pretty much says it all:

"The very identity of Avimimus is in flux right now. When I drew the picture above, Avimimus portentosus was thought to have been a real animal, known from decent skeletal remains. However, since then, it has been suggested that Avimimus is probably chimaeric (meaning that it is made up of different animals and therefore not a valid taxon), with some parts belonging to a juvenile of the ostrich-mimic Gallimimus bullatus. New studies will determine what Avimimus really is, although the odds for it remaining a distinct and valid taxon are slim.

So, what will become of my Avimimus? Maybe I could pass the animal in the drawing off as a female Caudipteryx (albeit with a few inaccuracies). <G> Or maybe I'll just retire this image and perhaps re-draw it (as Caudipteryx, since that's the only valid taxon I know of that looks somewhat like the critter above). We'll see."

Along the Egyptian Coast (Spinosaurus aegyptiacus) -- first quarter, 1996
[pencil on Genesis drawing paper]

I outgrew this drawing a while ago. I'm pretty sick of it, as it's outdated in many, many ways: Perspective, shading, overall technique, paper used, and (of course) anatomy ... Yet, I still love the image itself. The drawing above didn't successfully convey the actual image I had in my head, which I am now much more capable of attaining. "Along the Egyptian Coast"'s next incarnation will probably be a painting. The sooner I paint "Coast II," the sooner "Coast I" can come down and be hidden from public eyes forever!

(As it goes, my own opinions of my drawings often have no impact on those of others. As recently as the last SVP, Josh Smith requested to use a slide of my drawing during his paper. Naturally, I said, "Sure," but I wished like mad I had renovated the pic earlier!) -- September 12, 2000

Thistle (Velociraptor mongoliensis) -- first quarter, 1996
[pencil on Genesis drawing paper]

Little Thistle is dying to be redrawn. Even though the plants are rather annoying, I absolutely love the word. It seemed a strangely fitting name for this Velociraptor chick, and Mike Keesey made a cool observation as to why: She's soft and spiky. <G> This picture is out-dated in nearly every conceivable way (save the fluff).
-- 09-24-00

Parasaurolophus mum and youngster -- fourth quarter 1995, revised first quarter 1996
[pencil on Genesis drawing paper]

The oldest drawing here. Take a good, long look at it before I sporadically decide to take it down.
-- 09-24-00

rachel.k.clark@comcast.net

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