Irimali's Dioramas

[Patrx]

That Deinonychus is real, just like if dinosaurs were alive now and someone (you) made a model of a living animal.

Precisely, well-said! This is the aesthetic impression all dinosaur figures should give.

[irimali]

That Deinonychus is real, just like if dinosaurs were alive now and someone (you) made a model of a living animal.

Precisely, well-said! This is the aesthetic impression all dinosaur figures should give.

Thanks!  Just for fun I'll show you all what it looked like before it had any feathers:



Sorry the picture is bad but I took it with my phone.  There's a shrink-wrapped Jurassic Park raptor inside.  After that point there were at least two rounds of bulking it up with more feathers.  The coloration is mostly inspired by a juvenile Tiger Heron, with some of the thinner light grey striping inspired by adult Tiger Herons and the face has a bit of Grey Owl.  The striping on the  snout came from some kind of Cormorant but I don't remember the species.

[Halichoeres]

WOW! I'll let the art teacher from the Simpsons say it for me:

[Reptilia]

The fact that it is so small makes your craftmanship even more valuable.

[ceratopsian]

How interesting to see its true size!  My brain was convinced it was a much larger model.

[irimali]

The Deinonychus would be just over 7 inches long from nose to tail.  Which I think makes it about 18th scale. 

[Megalosaurus]

Blame me, but I actually like that nude Deinonychus.

[Turacoverdin]

Your work is truly breathtaking.

[irimali]

Thank you to everyone who voted for my entry this year!  Mine was #62: The biggest dinosaur ever!(until they find another partial titanosaur).  I spent a couple months working on the Dreadnoughtus and the various plants, although free time is so limited that a few months isn't really much.  A lot of things got rushed in the end.  The entire set up and photography session was done just a few hours before the deadline. 

I had planned on making some birds-Vegavis, and generally setting things up better to make the dinosaur look bigger but ran out of time.  Those big leaves in the foreground are Gunnera, known from pollen from late cretaceous Antarctica.  In modern species the leaves get up to 8 feet across so they're properly scaled for an 85 foot long dinosaur, but unfortunately they make it look smaller.  Anyway, here's a larger sized image and a few other the alternates:





Here's a shot of the set-up:


The backdrop was slapped together that morning just to have something there.  The foreground section slopes down towards the front and the plants are angled a bit to show more of a top view than a side view.  The Dreadnoughtus is on a level surface a bit higher up.  I was trying to cheat perspective a little so it looked like the camera was higher than the plants but lower than the dinosaur's back.   

[Jose S.M.]

This was one of my votes.  I love the Dreadnoughtus sculpt and the plants.

[irimali]

Some close-ups under more normal lighting:




I forget the measurements, but this guy is 40th scale.  Even at that size I had to curve the neck and tail to fit it into a 10 gallon aquarium.  He's in his permanent home now but I may make a few adjustments to that before photographing it.  Plants are easier for me between 12th and 30th scale but this diorama has some big leaves and big ferns so that helped.


This tree though, has tiny leaves.  It's a southern beech(nothofagus)  It was the last thing I made or it would have had more branches and leaves.  The orange fungus growing on the trunk is based on cyttaria, an extant genus of fungus that parasitizes nothofagus in South America and Australia.

[tyrantqueen]

The sauropod is stunning, great work.

Have you done any work for museums? They should hire you.

[Bokisaurus]

Fabulous work as always, I have always been a big fan of your work.
I can't believe you were able to sculpt that much details on the head! I started sculpting this year, and I tell you I am more impressed by your work considering the size.
I can't even make a decent sauropod head!

[Lanthanotus]

While I am not a fan of the color scheme for the head, the sculpt, especially of the head is outstanding. One of the best sauropod headsculpts I've seen... and those surroundings, vegeation and all... fabulous as always.

[JohannesB]

The beauty of it all! That Plateosaurus and the landscape it is in is simply gorgeous. It really breaths and feels alive. And the Deinonychus, perched, works on so many levels, artistically, esthetically, color-wise, scientifically. Simply breathtaking.

[Dinomike]

Absolutely stunning detail! We'll done!

[ITdactyl]

This got my vote just for the plants.  The sauropod is awesome of course.

[ceratopsian]

Such beautiful work, both on Dreadnoughtus and the plants.  And thank you for the info about the Gunnera pollen.  I had no idea Gunneras went back that far.

[irimali]

The sauropod is stunning, great work.

Have you done any work for museums? They should hire you.

Thank you!  Sadly the museums near me don't have any ads out for diorama makers. 

Such beautiful work, both on Dreadnoughtus and the plants.  And thank you for the info about the Gunnera pollen.  I had no idea Gunneras went back that far.

Thanks!  Here's a link with some plant info:  https://paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/a-brief-introduction-to-dinosaur-herbivory/

I used nothofagus, gunnera, araucaria and podocarpus based on this.  There's also some asters in there(the white thistle looking flowers).  Those are based on dasyphyllum which is known from late cretaceous antarctica. 

Fabulous work as always, I have always been a big fan of your work.
I can't believe you were able to sculpt that much details on the head! I started sculpting this year, and I tell you I am more impressed by your work considering the size.
I can't even make a decent sauropod head!

While I am not a fan of the color scheme for the head, the sculpt, especially of the head is outstanding. One of the best sauropod headsculpts I've seen... and those surroundings, vegeation and all... fabulous as always.

Thank You!  It's good to hear that the head turned out well!  I swear there's a decent looking(for the size it is anyway) titanosaur skull underneath.  I get nervous adding the soft tissue because it ends up looking like such a different animal.  Gonna keep doing it though

[Halichoeres]

I always love your entries, both for the artistry and the attention to detail and research that goes into the plants.