Fembrogon Presents: Hewey's Critters! (graphics and artwork)

[Fembrogon]

Hello, everyone! Despite always having enjoyed artwork and hoping to make a living off of it, a lot of circumstances (including my own terrible absent-mindedness) have resulted in me stalling in a lot of my work and project ideas. Well, I quit stalling, and have begun producing some graphics for merchandise!
I've set up a Zazzle shop under the name "Hewey's Critters" - I may expand the shop to additional websites for better visibility in the future. My focus is, as you can probably guess, dinosaurs and other prehistoric life (with some modern animals mixed in from time to time). Now that the shop is open, I thought I'd share my work here!

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I have three major lines I'm working on, similar in concept but a little different in execution. Here are first "characters" I've completed for each:



BIG EXTINCT NAMES - "animals so obscure only your kids will know them!"
no.1 - Aardonyx
The tagline is in jest, of course; but this line is primarily intended for kids, with the intent to introduce a broader range of extinct genera that don't typically get attention - and which, at least in my opinion, have fun-to-say generic names. Each shirt features a pronunciation guide and a few fun facts on fact for education. I'll be doing this line in alphabetical "sets", so the chosen genera will be going A to Z, and then back to the start again.
I figured a dinosaur would probably be a good idea to start with, and Aardonyx is a neat but relatively easy name to start with.

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The full (front) design, with colored background for example.

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Dino Nerd Forever - "Dinosaurs aren't just a phase!"
no.1 - Tyrannosaurus rex
This line is a broader, all-ages appeal to hopefully draw both invested paleo-fans and more casual audiences. The focus is on more familiar dinosaur genera, be they age-old classics (eg, Brontosaurus) or relatively recent stars (eg, Dreadnoughtus).
Tyrannosaurus rex is obviously an overly-worn (ha) subject, but I figured it'd be best to just do it first and get it out of the way. T. rex sells, and that's the truth. I also thought it would be a good opportunity to design a rex in a more subtle manner than normal. Hopefully this fellow looks imposing just by merit of being BIG.

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The complete design, with transparent and colored backgrounds.

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Paleo Nerd Forever - "Paleontology is for everyone!"
No.1 - Pteranodon longiceps
This line is the same concept as the Dino Nerd line, but for anything else prehistoric; dinosaurs shouldn't get all the fun, after all. 
Pteranodon seemed like another good "safe" choice to start out with, and I took the opportunity to highlight the gender differences for a more interesting image.

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The complete design, with transparent and colored backgrounds.

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These are everything so far, but I have several more designs in the works and plenty more ideas to follow, both for within these lines and for independent designs, either realistic or stylized/comical. Some of these have been concepts.... years in the making, good grief. Let's see if I can keep myself on the ball now!

[Halichoeres]

I like the daring angles on the Pteranodon pair!

[Gwangi]

I particularly like the Pteranodon pair, would make for a great tattoo! Fantastic work all around.

[Fembrogon]

Although I'm working a lot in digital these days, I do still prefer traditional media for various reasons; I need to do more work in pencil and ink.

This is a little pencil sketch I put together last year for Dinosaur Day, based on the Sinclair Trachodon and the Ancestors Edmontosaurus. The times, they have changed!

[Fembrogon]

BIG EXTINCT NAMES - no.02, Barylambda
I was introduced to this mammal early on as a kid thanks to Peter Zallinger's "Prehistoric Animals" book, but I haven't seen it featured prominently in media since; I suppose it's just too nondescript of an animal for publishers to put faith in. However, I thought it would make a fine candidate for my series. I definitely had to do some more research on this one; drawing mammals is very different from dinosaurs! I'm not entirely satisfied with final graphic, but it will suffice.
Full front design below:

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...And I completely forgot to share this silly design:



Sacabambaspis was recently trending (again!?) on Twitter, thanks to a funny-looking museum mount; so I couldn't resist getting in on the fun. It's a dumb pun, but I enjoyed making this. I definitely want to do more of these. 

[SidB]

FYI, @Fembrogon , you may already be aware of this - Mike Eischen of Paleo Sculpture sells a 1/24 resin of Barylambda, available on eBay, for those interested in early Cenozoic mammals.

[Fembrogon]

...So, this isn't really "art", per se, but I'll drop it here for reference.

After some discourse in the Haolonggood 2023 thread, I thought it'd be worth it to myself to do a direct comparison of modern Dilophosaurus skull reconstructions. I did a quick-but-not-really-quick trace of three skeletals and combined them in one image, trying to scale them evenly. Since I'm not a practiced skeletal artist - and I didn't intend this as a truly rigorous breakdown - I don't have precise measurements for these skulls. I did try to match the postorbital skull heights, from the parietal to the quadratojugal, for a common frame of reference; I also tried to angle the designs with the dentary more level to each other..



Engh's published reconstruction appears noticeably deeper in the skull and jaw, relative to overall length, than the latter two versions - which I feel are much subtler in their differing features from older reconstructions. I'd be curious to hear a discourse between the artists as to how they came to their respective results.

[Fembrogon]

Yeesh, I really need to keep a consistent art schedule...




Dino Nerd Forever - no.02, Dreadnoughtus schrani

At last, a new "Nerd" shirt finished! With the one-two punch of JW:D and PhP last year, I thought Dreadnoughtus might make an interesting for the series, being less obviously famous than some other big sauropods but still prominent enough in media to warrant some mainstream awareness. As one can tell, the depiction featured in PhP was my primary inspiration; sure, gular sacs are still totally (if reasonably) speculative, but it's such a striking look it was too good to dismiss. The color scheme takes additional cues from JW:D, as well as Jon Conway's ship camouflage take - again, speculative, but a really neat visual and a unique approach.

The complete design, as it appears in my shops:

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