dontmesswithdinosaurs.com

Hey! Just a quick post. I’m in the final push to finish coloring a few more illustrations in time to have them printed and framed next week for my show opening next Thursday (September 2nd). I still have a bucket of stuff to do!
In the mean time, here’s some Deinonychus attacking a Tenontosaur:

 
Notice the throat kicking? I’ll explain more about that later once I get past the opening and I have more time to post the rest of my work with a few words of explanation.

Anyway, my work will shown here:

The Bone Room Presents
1573 Solano Avenue
Berkeley, CA
…from September 2nd to October 5th.

So if you’re in the bay area ANY time during the whole month of September you should swing by and check out my dinosaurs. Seeing them in real life is a totally different experience than seeing them on a computer screen. I’m showing graphite and pen and ink originals, as well as big colorful poster prints of my digitally painted illustrations, and a few small ceramic sculptures. Also the venue is pretty rad. The Bone Room sells skeletons and fossils and mounted insects in the space right next to the art gallery (which they call ‘The Bone Room Presents’).

Hey, thanks for stopping by.

Hey so I haven’t posted much progress on my ceramic sculptures because I’ve been really busy finishing them by the firing deadline. Here’s what the loaded kiln looks like:

 
How many dinosaurs can you find?!?!

Well… in addition to the Majungasaurus I posted earlier I created a similar sized Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus and a slightly smaller Diabloceratops eatoni (shown here as unfired clay sculptures).

 
I also created a small brachiosaur model from which I created two rubber molds. From those rubber molds I cast about 25 little brachosaurs…

All of that since last Friday (7/23), with enough time to dry for their first firing by the following Wednesday (7/28). After that first firing the pieces are glazed and/or stained and then loaded into the kiln pictured above for their final high firing (which will turn them into rocks). So yeah, I’ve been real busy!

Here’s my Diabloceratops after being fired for the first time, now with a bit of glaze applied to its horns and some mineral stain on its eyes and back:

What’s this? Two firings? Yeah. Once the clay sculpture is completely dry it is fired for the first time to 1825 degrees. This is called the bisque firing. Bisque firing causes the clay particles to melt just enough to bond the form into a porous terra-cotta like substance. We bisque for several reasons. Primarily, it transforms the brittle dry clay into a more durable substance that is no longer water soluble (unlike clay, which turns to goop when soaked with water.) Also this porous low-fire pottery readily absorbs water. This allows us to apply glazes. Glazes are basically powdered glass, clay and mineral colorants which we mix with water. When we dip or paint or spray this glaze mixture onto our bisque-fired pieces, the porous bisque-ware absorbs the water and causes the glaze particles to stick to the form. Or, as my friend Drew explains it; you know when you throw wet mud at a brick wall and it sticks even after the mud dries? Same concept.

See how the color has changed since before it was fired? It’s going to change much much more. In the second firing temperatures inside the kiln will reach over 2300 degrees F (lava temperature) and the clay particles will become red hot and semi-molten. The form will become denser as minerals vapourize and the clay particles slowly flow together, closing tiny pores and fissures once present in the bisque-ware. Glazes will become completely molten and they will move. The mineral colorants in both clay and glaze will go through the complex chemical reactions that will ultimately give them their final color. And each firing it is a little different. Subtle variations in the chemistry of both the piece being fired, and the kiln environment it’s being fired in can have drastic effects on the look and feel of a piece.

Even the most ancient and experienced ceramists will acknowledge that the results of a firing are never completely predictable. As the kiln door closes we must let go of our work in this final crucial stage of its development to mature without us. If we have not done our work well the laws of physics which govern this art will show us what we have actually created. And if we have done our work well, with attention to detail and upon good instinct, our sense of aesthetics will speak through the form, sometimes in unanticipated and surprising ways.

Now, we can only wait.

 
Majungasaurus sculpture in progress.

After two days of sculpting most of the detailed stuff is done. Just have to texture the body and make the feet and legs.

It occurred to me that it might be cool to make dinosaurs out of different ceramic clays and fire them unglazed so that the natural texture of the clay gives the dinosaur its scales, while at the same time being raw and geological.
 
So, I’m trying to do that.

I just finished the wood/paper armatures. An armature is any structure made to support soft clay from within. In this case ceramic clay will be built up around the wood. The wood will provide the clay the support it needs until it dries and can support itself. Once it has dried it will be fired and the wood will burn out, leaving the form partially hollow.

Rough Sketch and Armature:

I’m dong a Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus. Ever since I was a kid I loved Parasaurolophus tubicen, but I think the smaller crest on the cyrtocristatus species would be less likely to get broken when the clay dries. I’m planning on doing the Parasaurolophus in a fine grain clay, possibly a porcelain, partially because I think they’re really elegant looking animals, and partially because it is known from fossil skin impressions that Parasaurolophus had fine granular scales.

I’m also doing a Majungasaurus. I love how gnarly and mug-faced the Abelisaruids are and I think their super short forelimbs might also stand a better chance of surviving drying and firing than the more elongate forelimbs of other theropods. I chose Majungasaurus because I think all the weird knobs and horns and mangled boney protrusions on Majungasaurus’ skull will make a lot of sense sculpted in a coarser clay with lots of sand and chunks and mineral impurities in it.

Rough Sketch and Armature:

Anyway, I’ll post updates as these guys come to life. I love the transformation that occurs when a clump of wet clay takes form, dries, is fired, stained/glazed and is then re-fired at high temperature to crystalize and turn to stone. I’ll do my best to share that transformation with you.

Kem Kem revisited: Cladocyclus pankowski predates on Diplomystus sp. as undescribed Lepidotes(?) forage for aquatic snails on the bottom. Illustration by Brian Engh.

Did you know that you can buy undiscovered species online?

This piece was commissioned by Mark Pankowski. He buys unusual fossils from fossil dealers and donates them to museums for scientific description. If it weren’t for him the big terrifying fish at the top of the illustration (Cladocyclus pankowski [named after him!]), and the big ugly fish foraging for snails on the bottom (Undescribed species, possibly Lepidotes sp.) might never have been known to science. Turns out, huge numbers of rare fossils are sold to collectors all the time, and many of them are undescribed or scientifically significant.

Mark found out about me from my Spinosaur illustration which features two Cladocyclus pankowski. Can you find them?
HINT:

When I did the spinosaur illustration only Lepidotes’ distinctive scales were known from the Kem Kem beds of Morocco (where Cladocyclus pankowski and Spinosaurus aegyptiacus are found), so I reconstructed the Lepidotes referencing the european species L. maximus. The fish featured foraging on the bottom in the new illustration for Mark is based on skull material form the Kem Kem that Mark recently donated and is awaiting description… and it looks very Lepidotes-like. If indeed it is Lepidotes, then it is probably the same species as in the Spinosaur illustration.

If only I’d done the Spinosaurus illustration a few months later!!

Sinraptor dongi life restoration/head detail. Pencil on paper (to be colored digitally)

I meant to post on this a little while back when my plans became official, but I got carried away drawing and I didn’t. Anyway, I’m doing my first gallery show…
and it’s all paleo-art.

That means don’t mess with dinosaurs. In an art gallery.

The show is in September so I’m taking most of the summer off to draw dinosaurs and other paleo-monsters pretty exclusively. The gallery is called “The Bone Room Presents” and it specializes in natural history art. It’s located in Berkeley California, so if you’re in the area between the dates of September 2nd to October 5th I hope you’ll stop by. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep up with regular posts of rough sketches and finished pieces as I work through them. Here’s a rough layout of an illustration I’m doing of a Shunosaurus defending its young from some basal Sinraptorid theropods (”Schezuanosaurus zigonensis?”):

The big tree on the left will be a Ginkgo yimaensis, once it is fully rendered. The big weird things hanging from the ginkgo’s branches are called “chichi” (breasts) in Japan. Very ancient ginkgos get them and I thought it would be cool to draw a huge gnarly ancient tree… With breasts.

Anyway, I’m aiming to finish between 10 and 14 new full color illustrations, and I will be showing both the pencil on paper originals as well as prints of the digitally colored finished pieces. I’m in contact with a few paleontologists too, and they’ve been really helpful giving scientific feedback on some of my rough sketches. In that regard, I’m sort of in a ‘pre-production’ phase right now, doing tons of research, amassing reference and getting feedback from experts on my rough sketches in the hopes that everything I produce is as scientifically accurate as possible.

Speaking of which… if you are a scientist who is interested in having a life restoration done for a species you’re working on (or you know of a colleague, friend or enthusiast who is) don’t hesitate to get in touch with me either by leaving a comment or by emailing me directly
(preferred). I figure it’s more worth my time to produce a series of illustrations that will both be seen in my show as well as serve another purpose, scientific or otherwise. Take this piece for example:

I’m just finishing up this commission for a fellow named Mark Pankowski. He donated the type fossils of the fish at the top to the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian then sent the fossils off to Dr. Peter Forey at the Natural History Museum in London. When he determined that the fossils represented a new species of prehistoric tarpon of the genus Cladocyclus, he honored Mark’s contribution to science by calling it Cladocyclus pankowski. The pencil on paper original and a colored print will go to Mr. Pankowski, and another color print will be shown at my show in September. The colored version is very close to finished and I’ll be posting it very soon.

Thanks for checking in! If you want to leave some critical feedback or if you just want to nerd-out about your favourite prehistoric monsters, I encourage you to leave a comment. Or like, five. I get way amped when I get comments.

Seriously. I draw all day and I don’t get out much.

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Spinosaurus aegyptiacus with jaws wide trawls for mesozoic fish. Reconstruction of the Cretaceous ecosystem recorded in the Kem Kem beds of Morocco. Illustration by Brian Engh under the scientific guidance of Tor Bertin.

The big gnarly looking fish in the foreground are of the genus Lepidotes, reconstructed based primarily on L. maximus. These fish had rows of flat peg shaped teeth adapted for crushing mollusks, and the one foremost in the frame is eyeing an aquatic snail grazing on the algae-covered driftwood. In the background a couple large predatory tarpon (Cladocyclus pankowskii) can be seen gliding along stealthily. In the foreground observing everything is a giant side-necked turtle (Galianemys whitei). Further back in the frame, swimming around the Spinosaur’s hip area are some small fish that we shall say are of the genus Diplomystus. Between the two spinosaurs another Galianemys swims. In the foreground in front of the background Spinosaur a lungfish (Ceratodus humei) patrols the bottom for molluskan prey, ambling along on its leg-like fins. Just right of the lungfish two large cretacious gar of the genus Oniichthys survey their domain. Way in the back just to the right of the background Spinosaur, a school of Lepidotes and a sawshark (Onchopristis numidus) flee in the wake of the Spinosaur’s piscivorous predation. In the air above the Spinosaurs flies and dragonflies buzz about as Tepejarid and Siroccopteryx/Coloborhynchus pterosaurs soar majestically above.

I did this illustration for a paper being published by a paleontologist named Tor Bertin. It was super exciting to work with a scientist on a paleo illustration for the first time. He provided me with the science that made reconstructing this environment possible as well as the grounding to keep my imagining of these animals vibrant and believable without becoming overly speculative or sensational.

Obviously Spinosaurs are really weird looking dinosaurs, so for this illustration I was attempting to imagine them in a behavioral routine that made sense of their very strange anatomy. It is clear from spinosaur teeth and jaw structure that they have adaptations specific to catching fish, and there is evidence in their bone chemistry that Spinosaurs spent much of their time submerged in water. Also, it appears that spinosaurs had pressure sensing pores in their jaws, similar to crocodiles. These pores allow crocodiles to hunt by sensing the movements of fish in the water around their jaws. All that makes sense for a fish eating predator… So why a huge sail?

The best I can do here is speculate based on the observable behavior of extant animals. It occurred to me that crocodiles, grizzly bears (particularly when hunting salmon runs) and hippos might be good analogues for Spinosaur behavior. All are large, territorial animals that spend some (bears), most (hippos), or nearly all (crocodiles) of their time in rivers. As a result they all do a lot of territorial posturing to defend their stretch of the river. Bears, bellow and stand on their hind legs, hippos vocalize, raise their head and bear their tusks, and crocodiles do a lot of subtle body posturing with their back and head, as well as some vocalization. Of course with crocs a lot of these behaviors are more subtle because stealth above the water is key to their predatory success. Spinosaurs don’t appear to have been well equipped for killing anything other than fish, so a huge display structure above water wouldn’t have hindered their success as hunters. Rather, it might’ve allowed them to broadcast their body language further while at the same time keeping those sensitive fish-trap jaws down in the water hunting. It could also have helped display to mates. In all, it would’ve allowed Spinosaurs to communicate with body language above the water, while still actively hunting below the water. This would’ve increased food intake and decreased combative encounters while at once helping to attract mates. All of which would’ve contributed to greater survival for the individuals with big beautiful communicative sails.

That’s what I was thinking when I drew this, anyway… Let me know what you think.

If you would like to purchase a high quality poster print of this illustration, you may do so on my Etsy page. 16″x20″ is $25 and 20″x30″ is $35 (prices don’t include shipping). The illustration was done originally in pencil, then colored digitally. It was drawn and colored to a level of detail that probably can’t be fully appreciated on a computer screen…

Thanks for stopping by!

So this is what I’m trying to finish today:

I need to finish coloring it. Its actually much closer to finished than what you see here, but I didn’t feel like putting up a partially colored version.

Also I (finally) finished this pair of vases (pictures are of front and back):

The one on the right came out exactly as I intended. The other split slightly in the front, but the same glaze did some different neat things because it was in a different part of the kiln…I suppose I’m happy with them… There’s always unpredictability in ceramics.

These were a commissioned gift for a relative. I do commissions whenever I can, and I will be selling a variety of handmade things, from ceramic art, to dmwd t-shirts, and prints of my illustrations (such as the spinosaur illustration above) on my Etsy page. Also if you ever see something up on this site that you like that I haven’t put up on my etsy page, feel free to contact me directly.

This doodle makes me happy.

I’m not typically happy with my quick sketches of dinosaurs for both aesthetic and scientific reasons, which is why most of what I am willing to share on the web are detailed pencil renders drawn with careful attention to whatever images of skeletal material I can get my hands on. ^This is an exception. I was just doodling, and this came out, which is satisfying because it’s a pretty good sign that I’m finally developing an instinctive sense of reasonably accurate proportion and posture for ornithopod dinosaurs.

Speaking of proportion and posture, this Maiasaura just spotted a predator and is falling into a bipedal run from an upright “lookout” posture. The funny horn on it’s head is my own interpretation of some small bony extensions on the skull of Maiasaura. Typically this projection is not enlarged in reconstructions, but I think it is entirely plausible, if not likely, that small (presumably) ornamental structures seen in the skeletons of dinosaurs supported much more elaborate soft tissue or horn structures when the animal was alive. If you take a look at the skulls of birds or reptiles with casques or horns or crests, there is a pretty substantial amount of horn and soft tissue attached to the bone. Also, I think it looks cool!

There is a whiteboard on the wall of the kitchen at the house where I live now, so I’ve been drawing a dino-a-day on it with some basic info (size, diet, when and where it lived), partially to get my housemates excited about the immense diversity of dinosaurs, and partially to better acquaint myself with some of the more obscure species of which I only have the most basic knowledge. The dino of the day a few days ago was Deltadromeus, a lanky African theropod which I had hardly paid much attention because I only became aware of it when it was publicized along side Paul Sereno’s discovery of a massive Carcharodontosaur specimen that outsized T-rex. At the time, the discovery of a predator that was bigger than T-rex overshadowed delicate Deltadromeus.

I could only find some very basic information on Deltadromeus on the web, but I was able to find some pretty decent images of a skeletal mount. Upon close inspection I was struck by the cool spiky display structures on its skull, and I thought it would be an interesting species to do a head reconstruction of, so I did a pretty quick one, which you can see above. The coloration was inspired by whiptail lizards (Cnemidophorus sp.) which are very speedy lizards and have very nice colors.

As I was drawing, I began wondering how this peculiar long legged theropod survived along side its much more heavily built predatory counterparts. Clearly it would’ve been a faster runner, but why did it take the evolutionary route towards speed over power? My first thought was that perhaps Deltadromeus used its speed and long arms to sprint in close to a larger predator’s kill, grab a hunk of meat and sprint off, but after a bit of imagining, this didn’t seem quite right to me. The hardest part of a relay race is the reversal of direction, and it would seem to me that this would be a very dangerous maneuver to try and pull in close proximity to a much more powerfully built predator. Certainly lions and hyenas steal meals from each other, but from what I’ve seen in nature documentaries, this has much more to do with group coordination than it does with either species being quicker than the other. What you never see, on the other hand, is the lighter built predators, the leopards, wild dogs and cheetahs, stealing from the bulkier predators. They may get scraps after the larger guys have finished eating, but it’s just not worth the risk to put yourself in sprint range of an animal that can crush you if it catches you. Furthermore, this type of incidental scavenging doesn’t seem to be the type of behavior that sculpts a creature’s physique to the degree that Deltadromeus has been trimmed up for running.

It was in thinking about how I have never seen footage, or read report of, cheetahs stealing meals from lions that I began to wonder if Deltadromeus was the cheetah of its time. Perhaps Deltadromeus specialized in hunting prey too quick for the slower Carcharodontosaurs and Afrovenators to hunt, just as modern cheetahs tend to hunt smaller quicker prey, while lions tend to hunt bigger/slower/tougher prey. Until more fossils are discovered and we develop a more complete picture of the ecology of Late Cretaceous Africa I can only wildly speculate… which is just fine - that’s one of my favourite things to do!