Procreating

As an early birthday present, my parents very generously got me a new iPad and digital stylus. I was recently convinced that to make my paleo-art marketable, I would need to transition into digital illustration, so I purchased the program Procreate, which I have been playing with for the past few weeks. I've been working largely on mock-ups for a book that I have been working on for a year. Naturally, the topic of this book will be dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, but I will keep the format and details of it mum for now. Enjoy!

Icebergs and Ichthyosaurs

 Xiphactinus

Trunks, Tusks, and Talons

Lately, I've taken a break from Mesozoic fauna to work on a large project focusing on the past 100 million years. Therefore, many of my recent drawings have focused on Cenozoic creatures, specifically proboscideans (elephants, mammoths, mastodons, and their close relatives) and South American creatures from the mid-Miocene.

 

Phosphatherium 

(55 million year old proboscidean from Morocco)

 Phiomia  

(35 million year old proboscidean from Egypt)

 Jousting bull Gomphotherium, draft 1

(based on Gomphotherium productum,

a 13 million year old species from New Mexico) 

 Theosodon family (draft 1)

A native South American mammal related to the later, better-known Macrauchenia (hence why the necks are too long).

 Theosodon family (draft 2)

 Sitting individual's neck is still too long.

 Theosodon family (draft 2, colored)

Markings based mainly on tapirs (including the horizontal stripes on the juvenile), but colors inspired by the maned wolf. 

Sketch of Kelenken, one of the largest known phorusrhacids, or "terror birds". The head alone is over 2 ft (60 cm) long!

 Digital painting of Kelenken (in progress)

The Natural History Museum, Part 5: The Recently Extinct

 The dodo, then and now

 The great auk

 Great moa skeleton

 Moa reconstruction

 Steller's sea cow (front)

 Steller's sea cow (side)

The Natural History Museum, Part 4: The Rise of Mammals

Mesonyx

 Andrewsarchus skull (nearly 3 feet long!)

 Arsinoitherium

 Clockwise: Deinotherium skull, Moeritherium model, Phiomia skull, and Gomphotherium skull. 

(Chronological order: Moeritherium, Phiomia, Deinotherium, Gomphotherium)

 Clockwise: Moropus skeleton, Megacerops skull, Hyracotherium model.

(Chronological order: Hyracotherium, Megacerops, Moropus)

 Paleoparadoxia (front)

Paleoparadoxia (side)

 

The Natural History Museum, Part 3: Dinosaurs and Beyond

Diplodocus

 Stenopterygius

 Rhomaleosaurus

 Attenborosaurus

(formerly known as Plesiosaurus conybeari)

 Sophie, the most complete Stegosaurus skeleton in the world

 Sophie from the front

 Animatronic T. rex

 T. rex head

 Tuojiangosaurus

 Centrosaurus

 Albertosaurus

 Gallimimus

 Camarasaurus

The Natural History Museum, Part 2: Human Origins

 Hominid family tree

 Australopithecus africanus

 Australopithecus sediba

 Homo erectus

 Homo floresiensis ("Hobbit")

 Homo genus map

The Natural History Museum, Part 1: Pleistocene Megafauna

Earlier this month, I went on a weeklong trip to Ireland then England. Naturally, this trip warranted a trip to the Natural History Museum in London. Here a few highlights of this wonderful museum just pertaining to Pleistocene megafauna. Enjoy!

The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)

The American mastodon (Mammut americanum)

Stegodon

 The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis)

 Elasmotherium (the real unicorn!)

The saber-toothed tiger (Smilodon fatalis)

Glyptodon

 Megatherium

While in Dublin during the first day of my visit, I visited the local natural history museum as well. This institution was more oriented towards zoology than paleontology, though there was notable exception to this rule:

The Irish elk (Megaloceros)