Spinosaurus Restorations, Step by Step

In this YouTube video, I demonstrate step-by-step process of painting two restorations of the dinosaur Spinosaurus under the direction of Dr. Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago.

Dr. Sereno's scientific paper, called "Spinosaurus is Not an Aquatic Dinosaur," set out to refute claims by other researchers that Spinosaurus was a fast attack hunter underwater. Sereno's team developed a CT-based skeletal restoration of Spinosaurus and examined its hydrodynamic properties. They found that the digital model of Spinosaurus performed very poorly in water, supporting the alternative "semi-aquatic hypothesis." In an interview, Sereno said, "I don't think it was a good swimmer nor capable of full submergence behavior."

Coauthors include Donald M. Henderson, Daniel Vidal, Frank E. Fish, Stephanie L. Baumgart, Tyler M. Keillor, Kiersten K. Formoso, Nathan Myrhvold, and Lauren L. Conroy. 

READ MORE: 

'Spinosaurus Not Aquatic'

'Spinosaurus Is Not an Aquatic Dinosaur'

Teaser for Prehistoric Planet

BBC / Apple TV teased a sneak peek of Prehistoric Planet, narrated by David Attenborough. It mixes what appears to be live-action footage of hatchling turtles with computer-generated dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs are introduced out of focus as they were captured by a lens with shallow focus. The animators showed the killer instinct of the young T. rex as ice timing and storytelling, too. The animation shows a convincing sense of weight and momentum, not always easy to achieve in CGI.

Thanks, Josh Sheppard 

Koolasuchus Named Victoria's State Fossil

Car-sized monster amphibian Koolasuchus has been chosen by public vote as the state fossil emblem of Victoria, Australia.

It was one of the subjects of the "Australia's Age of Dinosaurs" stamp issue that I designed for Australia Post.

Museums Victoria: Victoria's 'kool' new State Fossil Emblem Koolasuchus cleelandi

Imagining a Hatchling

Scientists found a skull of a baby sauropod dinosaur that was about to hatch out of its shell, and my job was to imagine the moment it was emerging from its shell. 

I made a quick maquette of the little hatchling out of Sculpey and made the two halves of the shell using Magic Sculpt, a two-part epoxy sculpting compound. Photographing the setup in a bed of moss gave me plenty of visual information to incorporate into the oil painting. 

If you haven't already watched it, here's the YouTube video about the whole process.

The painting appears in the April 2021 issue Ranger Rick magazine.

Creating a Maquette to Visualize Borealopelta

Having an actual three dimensional maquette, even if it’s crudely sculpted, allows me to determine viewpoint angles, foreshortening, cast shadows, and highlights—all of which can be difficult to imagine without references. 

I use a hot glue gun to piece together a cardboard base for the maquette, then surface it with Model Magic, a children’s air-dry modeling material. I add the spikes later with a two-part epoxy modeling compound called Magic Sculpt. Then I paint the maquette with acrylic so that it looks more real when I photograph it outside in the sun. 

Here's a video of the process for this painting.

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Link to Instagram 

Link to full YouTube video

Ranger Rick website

Painting the "Reaper of Death"

This dinosaur is called Thanatotheristes, which means “reaper of death.” 

Before launching into the finished painting I try out various background treatments on a small preliminary sketch—the sketch in the upper left of the array of four color sketches below. 

The sketch lets me try out color combinations before launching into the finished painting. 

By the time I’m ready to start the final, I feel more confident about my color choices.

Here's the page in the next issue of Ranger Rick. I left that arbitrary dark shape for a background to the type.

 

And here's a new video that takes you behind the scenes. Link to YouTube video.

GUMROAD VIDEOS about dinosaur art: 

Tyrannosaurs: Behind the Art 

How I Paint Dinosaurs​ 

The Mammal That Ate Dinosaurs 

Australia's Age of Dinosaurs 

MATERIALS: 

Sculpey (Polymer clay: Sculpey) 

Magic Sculpt (Two-part epoxy clay)​ 

Model Magic (air dry sculpting material)​ 

Liquid Acrylic (transparent red oxide)​ 

Hot glue gun 

Illustration board 

CAMERAS and AUDIO: 

Canon M6 (time lapse, video, and stills) 

Zoom H2N digital audio recorder 

Rode Video Mic GO (microphone) 

BOOKS BY JAMES GURNEY: 

Color and Light: A Guide for Realist Painters​ 

Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist 

Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time 

OTHER OFFICIAL SITES 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesgurney...​ 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/GurneyJourney/​ 

GurneyJourney Blog: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/​ 

JamesGurney Website: http://jamesgurney.com/site/shop​ 

THANKS TO: Ranger Rick: John Gallagher, Kathy Kranking, Susan McElhinney 

Paleo consultant: Stephen L. Brusatte Music by Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech.com 

Additional Sculpts by David Krentz  and Mike Trcic 

More info about Ranger Rick magazine at their website

Bearded Vulture

Anyone who thinks predatory dinosaurs don't look intimidating with feathers should have a look at the bearded vulture.

Bearded vulture, photo on Imgur Via @41Strange

The bearded vulture feasts mainly on bones, which it digests with the strong acid in its stomach. They acquire a reddish tinge either from the blood of a carcass or reddish dirt, which they're instinctually attracted to rubbing into their feathers.

However these carrion feeders have been known to be good human companions in captivity.

Photo via Mental Floss and 41 Strange

Thomas Littleton Powys, the 4th Baron Lilford (1833-1896) raised a couple of bearded vultures at his home estate and found them to be "tame and perfectly harmless; indeed, with the exception of a few playful attacks on trousers, gaiters, petticoats and boots, I never heard of any malice on their part towards any living creature."

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More at Mental Floss and 41 Strange: 

Gouache as a Rehearsal Medium

Here's a new teaser for the upcoming article about T. rex coming up in the April issue of Ranger Rick. (Link to YouTube)


I do two quick sketches in gouache before launching into the final oil painting. I paint them over a scan of the line drawing, greatly reduced in size, printed out on my copier, and sealed with acrylic matte medium.

These gouache sketches serve two purposes. First, they help me imagine what the final result might look like. And second, they serve as a trial run, allowing me to rehearse the painting sequence.

I'll be releasing a full length tutorial download in a couple of weeks called "Unconventional Painting Techniques in Oil," intended for all sorts of painters, not just dino-artists. The focus will be on unusual ways of applying the paint to achieve naturalistic effects.

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Ranger Rick Magazine website

T. rex Teaser #2

In a shallow stretch of a freshwater stream, an adult Tyrannosaurus rex introduces three juveniles to the water and supervises them while they bathe.


I develop the scenario after watching YouTube videos showing the bathing behaviors of ostriches, emus, and cassowaries, plus a lot of kinds of birds. First they squat down into the water, then stretch upward and shake, followed by self-preening. The juveniles still have their light coloration and haven't yet molted into their adult layers of feathers.



The feathers are based on the fact that all members of the tyrannosaur group which have been found with detailed fossils (such as Dilong and Yutyrannus) show feathers. Among my scientific consultants was tyrannosaur expert Steve Brusatte, who said: "I am particularly really moved by the one of the adult and juveniles bathing in the stream. It brings these predators to life in a way that hunt scenes don't--it makes them seem more like normal animals, not monsters."

This oil illustration is coming up in the April issue of Ranger Rick magazine. (Link to video)

Dinosaur Science Painting in Gold Medal Show

My oil painting "Kosmoceratops" will be one of the paintings in the Gold Medal Exhibition of the California Art Club, which starts this weekend.

The painting was published in Scientific American magazine and received a Jury Award at the Focus on Nature XIII exhibition in Albany, NY. It was also the subject of my first downloadable tutorial video, "How I Paint Dinosaurs."

(Link to video on Facebook)

The Gold Medal Exhibition takes place at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. The collector's preview and the artists' gala is Saturday, June 9 and the show opens to the public from June 10 through July 1.

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 Gold Medal Exhibition of the California Art Club
Tutorial: How I Paint Dinosaurs

Beside a Triassic Pond

The scene is a forest pond, with several croc-like metoposaurids called Koskinonodons basking in the shallows, absorbing the warmth of a patch of sunlight.

Triassic Pond, casein, gouache, and acrylic, James Gurney, 2018

The flora is a mix of cycads, tree ferns, horsetail ferns, ginkgo, and other Triassic plant forms. Meanwhile, a small group of dinosaur precursors emerge tentatively from the shadows, hoping to get a safe drink. 

The giant amphibians usually eat fish, but they'll snatch an unwary dinosaur. Dinosaurs don't rule the world—they live at the margins. 

It's mid-winter as I prepare for this painting, which appears in the current (May, 2018) issue of Scientific American Magazine. There's a foot of snow on the ground, and we're hit with a total electrical blackout that lasts for days. 

But since my methods are mostly old-school, I'm able to sculpt a maquette using Sculpey for the metoposaurid and Model Magic for the bank. I fill a take-out container with muddy water, and set the creature in a basking position. The maquette helps me understand where light turns to shadow and where to place the highlights.

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The Unlikely Triumph of Dinosaurs by Stephen Brusatte in Scientific American

Check out my DVD How I Paint Dinosaurs

Also available as a download from Gumroad

Gouache Sketches for a Magazine Cover

The art director of Scientific American asked if I could help him with a rush assignment—a cover painting featuring a dinosaur.

(Link to video on YouTube)

The dinosaur is skinny, about the size of a housecat. At least that's what paleontologist Stephen Brusatte thinks. There's no skeleton to reconstruct. Prorotodactylus is known only from its footprints.  

The point of the story is that dinosaurs lived for millions of years at the margins of ecosystems dominated by amphibians and mammal-like reptiles. It was just a set of lucky circumstances that allowed dinosaurs to take over the planet. 

I gave the editors lots of options to look at. The sketches are in gouache, each one smaller than a business card. The editors discussed the options, and Design Director Michael Mrak requested the layout of Sketch #5 with the color scheme of Sketch #2.  

The final result, painted in oil, uses theatrical lighting to spotlight the little dinosaur and his footprints. I love the headline that the editors came up with.

It's the May 2018 issue, on the newsstand now.

Kentrosaurus Bakery

A Kentrosaurus assists the bagel seller, from Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara.

Arcimboldosaurs

Chris Rodley set up his computer up with a deep-learning algorithm to combine 19th century fruit art with dinosaurs. 

The resulting Arcimboldo-esque 'fruitosaurs' have pears and plums rounding out their rib sections. Berry textures stand in for pebbly scales.

Mr. Rodley's software also crossed dinosaurs with an old book of flowers, creating a botanical mashup that's different from what a human collage artist would invent. 

There's an overall color and value logic to each dinosaur, and a clever solution for each of their eyes. The background texture is fragmentary, not quite identifiable as specific plants. And the "writing" along the bottom is mumbo-jumbo.

While it's all delightful fun, it raises some serious questions for working illustrators. Is this truly creative or artistic? How will illustrators—or art directors—use these tools? Should illustration competitions such as the Society of Illustrators or Spectrum permit entries created with artificial intelligence? How could they ever stop it?
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Here is Chris Rodley's website and Twitter feed. Thanks, Kevin Cheng

A Dinosaur Takes Wing

Although a scene like this would have taken place 160 million years ago, I want the image to look like it was captured yesterday by a wildlife photographer's camera.

Anchiornis in Flight

It appears in Ranger Rick, a magazine dominated by wildlife photography. So I blur the background to suggest depth of field. I spotlight the action with an area of soft dappled light cast from the tree behind us.

The following 1-minute video gives a glimpse of the process.


(Link to Facebook video)

I make the paper-over-wire maquette by photocopying a flat plan drawing of the animal two times onto card stock. Then I make a glue sandwich with aluminum armature wire in the place of the bones. Then I bulk up the maquette with epoxy putty.


Here's an 8 minute video on YouTube of all three dinosaur paintings for the March issue of Ranger Rick Magazine.

(Link to YouTube video)

Courtship Display

What good are feathered "wings" if you can't fly?

Khaan mckennai, oil on board by James Gurney

Well, if a predator or another male threatens you, you can spread your wings and tail to make yourself look bigger. And you can attract females.

And since you are lightly built, your wings can help you jump a little farther and higher.

Clark, J.M., Norell, M.A., & Barsbold, R. 2001. Link and Link

This little dinosaur is Khaan mckennai, an oviraptorid. It's possible that the beautifully preserved fossils above represent a male and female.

I did these sketches in watercolor and gouache to show the art director at Ranger Rick, a magazine for young naturalists produced by the National Wildlife Federation. 

Here's a little video taking you behind the scenes (link to Facebook). The artwork appears in the new March, 2017 issue of Ranger Rick Magazine.

New Dino Paintings: Flyover Preview

Here's a flyover preview of three new feathered-dinosaur paintings. (Link to video on Facebook)

The set-up for shooting flyovers is all home made. The camera is suspended from a Lego cart (tires removed). That cart rolls on two dollar-store metal broomsticks, pulled by a geared down Lego motor. Smoke machine is off to the right.

I'll be sharing more about these paintings over the next few days.

BoarCroc Maquette

(Link to video) Here's a mini-video I made to show a reference maquette I built.

It helped me figure out the lighting for this reconstruction of "BoarCroc" or Kaprosuchus.

Using maquettes to experiment with lighting

One of the first things you can do after sculpting a maquette is to rotate the maquette to see how the silhouette and the foreshortening actually look. Here's an excerpt of my tutorial video "How I Paint Dinosaurs." (Link to watch video on Facebook).

It's easy to explore variations in lighting, too. By moving the light from one side to the other, I can completely change the value organization and the way the elements read. I can also discover cast shadows that I never would have imagined.

I start by trying to match my sketch, and then I look for ways to improve on it, as in the case of this illustration of a Teratophoneus attacking a fallen Gryposaurus for Scientific American Magazine. 

I do the first two sketches out of my imagination, then do the third one after looking at the maquettes. The shadow side dark predator frames the light head of the prey.

I can also fine tune the lighting on a given element.



It's important to be open to any possibility that makes for a better picture. And in the case of a physical maquette, those possibilities often arrive completely unexpectedly.



To get the full, detailed presentation on video, check out my Gumroad tutorial: How I Paint Dinosaurs.

Ascent of the Mesozoic Mammals

Scientific American's online magazine has just released a new article about the mammals that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. 

For the cover of the magazine, we needed a dynamic image that showed how capable and specialized some mammals were. So we decided to show the flying squirrel-like Volaticotherium.



There were a lot of choices for the inside spread. Mesozoic mammals weren't all little shrews and mice. There were all sorts of amazing forms. I sketched up a lot of options in thumbnail form using watercolor and colored pencils.



One of my favorites was the badger-like Repenomamus. The fossil was found with the bones of a baby dinosaur inside its rib cage. Here are some black and white gouache sketches to help work out the composition.


I documented the making of the artwork in a free YouTube video called "The Mammal that Ate Dinosaurs. I also produced a comprehensive 35-minute digital download that you can get from Gumroad.

I show all the development stages, including thumbnail sketches, color comps, maquettes, field research, and the final painting in oil. My voiceover explains all the methods in practical terms, along with the thinking behind them.

This video reinforces some of the concepts and methods in previous videos, but it also includes new material, such as:

• The use of an air-dry clay for quick maquette building
• Techniques for rendering fur textures
• Ways to suggest rainy day conditions
• How to render whiskers and veins on an oil painting.

The production is packed with useful information that will interest not only the dinosaur artist, but anyone who paints creatures of any kind. The edit is fast-paced and entertaining enough to be worth watching again and again.



The Scientific American article appears in the June issue, but you can purchase it online now.

The Mammal that Ate Dinosaurs: Behind the Art 35:51 minutes run time, downloadable 1080p HD mp4 file.
For more info about how you can own the full video, follow the links below:

Sellfy: Buy now
Gumroad: Buy my product