Irimali's Dioramas

[irimali]

A big thank you to everyone who voted for my diorama this year!  I have a lot of photos to post so this may take me a couple of days but let's get started.

First, the full size pic plus a couple alternatives:





I had hoped to do a dappled light effect entirely in camera by shining a light through a piece of cardboard with holes cut in it and blowing a little steam in to catch the light rays but that didn't turn out and i resorted to photoshop.

[irimali]

Next, some close-ups of the dinosaurs:

Pentaceratops:




Mama Kritosaurus:



Juvenile Kritosaurus:

[irimali]

A few making-of shots of the Kritosauruses.  I made the Pentaceratops earlier and didn't get any process photos, but it was mostly done the same way.  It starts with a cardboard cutout of the dinosaur's silhouette.  Then a few more stacked layers to bulk it out and some wire for limbs and toes and to hold any sideways curve in the spine.



Then they get wrapped in yarn and wool fiber and glue to smooth out the shape.



Then paper mache and a few outlines of the more visible bones and larger muscles.



Here they are after the first few rounds of adding muscle and working on the skull.  The grey material is a mix of acrylic gesso, a tiny bit of black paint, and some really fine grained sand.  I apply it with an icing tip in a cone of parchment paper, the same process as writing Happy Birthday on a cake.  It's kind of like a crude version of what some 3D printers do.  Just filling in an area with parallel lines and then smoothing it over with a wet paintbrush.



Wrinkles are done the same basic way.  Just raised lines piped on when everything else is dry, and then the edges are blended down with a wet brush.  The ridge of scales along the dinosaurs' backs are just cutout of paper and glued on.



Scales were piped on with another parchment paper cone and an even smaller icing tip, this time using acrylic molding paste.  This took a really long time.  In this pic it looks like a plucked chicken, but afterwards I gave it a few coats of gesso to fill in some between the bumps.



And here they are primed and ready for paint:

[ceratopsian]

Thank you for these insights into how you achieved your superb result.  The Kritosauruses are quite amazing.

[Killekor]

Thanks for showing us the "making of" of your Diorama, Irimali!
Your photo it's just exceptional. In particular those hadrosaurs are wonderfully made, and if they were produced by a company I would buy it instantly!
When the entries were posted I didn't really understood the beauty of the photo and of all the work put on it, but now, after seeing it a number of times, I'm more than repented to not have voted it, because now it's one of my favorite ones!
Congratulations for your entry! It really deserved to win!

Killekor

[irimali]

All the plants, and dinosaurs, in their permanent home.  The base was made to fit in a 10 gallon aquarium.  For the last few, I assembled everything inside the aquarium itself but this one would have been too difficult to do that way.  On the plus side, it's a lot easier to photograph without a wall of glass all around it.

[Shonisaurus]

Because you have masterfully explained it at first glance, they looked like resin figures. You are a great artist!

[Halichoeres]

These are absolutely wonderful. Your work is instantly recognizable, in part because so few contest entrants bother to build an environment. This was my favorite this year, just incredible attention to detail.

[Newt]

Great work as usual! I love how thick the hadrosaurs are.

[ceratopsian]

Such great detail, even down to the lichen on the rocks.  What a beautiful display piece!  I love the peaceful feel too.  I can almost hear them cropping and munching!

[Bokisaurus]

Wow, those are awesome figures, even more so knowing the materials you used to make them!
I have been a big fan of your work since the start, and it's great to see the evolution of your sculptures.
Great job, and yes, I voted for yours😃

[Totoro]

Hi Irimali,

I'm a returning member from almost a decade ago that got distracted by, among other things, my son's life.    Anyway, he's in college and, after a long hiatus, I'm back to creating some dinosaur dioramas - yay!

I stumbled onto your thread a few days ago and keep coming back to it.  I just love your craft and style and hope to see more of it.  The sequential photos of your model construction are so enjoyable and inspiring.  I really admire your imagination and skill. 

Thanks for sharing your work.

[irimali]

Hi Irimali,

I'm a returning member from almost a decade ago that got distracted by, among other things, my son's life.    Anyway, he's in college and, after a long hiatus, I'm back to creating some dinosaur dioramas - yay!

I stumbled onto your thread a few days ago and keep coming back to it.  I just love your craft and style and hope to see more of it.  The sequential photos of your model construction are so enjoyable and inspiring.  I really admire your imagination and skill. 

Thanks for sharing your work.

Thank you!  If you have any questions about how things were made, feel free to ask me! 

[Bread]

Woah.... Glad this thread was brought to my attention. These dioramas and self built creatures look absolutely amazing.

[Justin_]

If you have any questions about how things were made, feel free to ask me!

I'm interested in how you made the plants, especially the fan palm leaves and all the ferns.

[Crackington]

Amazing dinos and you prove that good models don't have to be made from plastic! Very inspiring, but it will be hard for most folks to match this standard, if we try and make our own!

[Totoro]

Hi Irimali,

I'm a returning member from almost a decade ago that got distracted by, among other things, my son's life.    Anyway, he's in college and, after a long hiatus, I'm back to creating some dinosaur dioramas - yay!

I stumbled onto your thread a few days ago and keep coming back to it.  I just love your craft and style and hope to see more of it.  The sequential photos of your model construction are so enjoyable and inspiring.  I really admire your imagination and skill. 

Thanks for sharing your work.

Thank you!  If you have any questions about how things were made, feel free to ask me!

I'm sure I will have questions along the way.  I'm experimenting with some different approaches for creating Araucaria and conifer trees first, mostly using wooden dowels, balsa, wire, and ground up things like tea, coffee and lichens.  (Hoping to move toward making most of my stuff out of things I can pick up in the wild.  As a biologist focusing on habitat restoration, I am fortunate to be able to scout for diorama material while on the job!)  So far, not horrible, but I'm sure they'll get better after a few tries. 

I'll create my own diorama page soon (recreate, actually, as I once had a page....must have deleted it when I went dark those many years ago) and post some photos just to sort of catalog my march through futility (which sounds like something my dinotoyforum pen pal Natee would have said about his incredible art.  Regrettably, my early works will be much closer to the futile end of the spectrum, but...we keep trying and grow from our mistakes.  )

[Justin_]

I'm experimenting with some different approaches for creating Araucaria and conifer trees first, mostly using wooden dowels, balsa, wire, and ground up things like tea, coffee and lichens.  (Hoping to move toward making most of my stuff out of things I can pick up in the wild.  As a biologist focusing on habitat restoration, I am fortunate to be able to scout for diorama material while on the job!)  So far, not horrible, but I'm sure they'll get better after a few tries. 

I've found plenty of YouTube tutorials for pines and spruces but none for Araucaria. I managed to make something reasonably close by unwinding the lower section of a cheap bootlebrush-style generic conifer from the architectural models section in an art shop, but the scale of it is only suitable for miniature sauropds, or could be background in a diorama with false perspective.
I'm currently looking for young cones suitable to use as cycad and tree fern trunks.

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for your Art. It is so great to see all the commitment and detail in your Work. And everything is done by yourself. Just amazing.

[Sarapaurolophus]

Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for your Art. It is so great to see all the commitment and detail in your Work. And everything is done by yourself. Just amazing.

I concur.

@irimali Thank you for showing the process of creating your Kritosauri. Your pieces have a whimsy about them that rivals Jim Henson's Creature Shop
My favorite by far is the raptor upon a tree top.