Halichoeres's drawings

[Halichoeres]

As part of my work I draw illustrations of fish, but I haven't drawn dinosaurs for many years. I'm trying to make time for it again and I'm starting this thread to add an impetus toward that end. Here's the first:


It's Eolambia, part of a series I drew for placecards at a friend's wedding (this was for the table that all the paleontologists sat at; the other tables were extant animals--I was seated at the sloth table).

I'm a pretty good anatomist, but I actually don't know diapsids very well, so I'm happy to hear critiques.

[Postosuchus84]

I'm not seeing anything too glaring in terms of anatomical issues. I think it looks fairly spot on actually. You might need a more skilled eye than myself though. I was just looking at the proportions to see if they matched up. That is definitely a nice drawing though.

[Jose S.M.]

It looks very good to me,  I'm not that professional in dinosaur anatomy either but everything looks alright .  I had forgotten about this animal, I remember that I used to think it's name was a reference to lambs hehe he.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

Nice to see another artist showing their work on the forum. The drawing looks nice. Is it in pen? I like the black-and-white style of this kind of illustration and sometimes think about trying it. If you want anatomy critique, the only thing I think is an issue is that the metatarsals look too long unless of course that trait is unique to eolambia only, since I'm not too familiar with that genus.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks, guys! Pachyrhinosaurus, yeah, it's pen on illustration board. You're completely right about the metatarsals. They're probably twice as long as they should be, thanks for noticing. I had just drawn a bunch of birds and I didn't look very closely at ornithopod models when drawing the hind legs, so I really stretched them out without really thinking about it. Whoops!

[spinosaurus1]

very nice work. i really admire ink drawings and i love how you used crosshatching to create the various forms and highlights. especially the head and neck which gives me an odd varanid vibe as a big fan of monitor lizards, thats an added plus in my book

anatomically speaking, i feel that the hatching created to show the tapering of the spinal column to the rest of the body are a smidge too dark. it kind of gives a shrinkwraped look. with a bit lighter and sparce shading, i feel that it will accomplish a more tapering effect as what is normally seen on animals with noticeably tall spines. but thats just a rather minor nitpick. overall great work

[Halichoeres]

very nice work. i really admire ink drawings and i love how you used crosshatching to create the various forms and highlights. especially the head and neck which gives me an odd varanid vibe as a big fan of monitor lizards, thats an added plus in my book

anatomically speaking, i feel that the hatching created to show the tapering of the spinal column to the rest of the body are a smidge too dark. it kind of gives a shrinkwraped look. with a bit lighter and sparce shading, i feel that it will accomplish a more tapering effect as what is normally seen on animals with noticeably tall spines. but thats just a rather minor nitpick. overall great work

Thanks! I think you're right that I didn't really leave enough room for muscles along the neurapophyses. I could probably fix that by making the whole torso a bit darker, evening out that shadow. Definitely something to keep in mind for next time.

The neck does look somewhat lizardlike! It was just how I imagined loose skin around a neck held at that angle would look like. I find those sorts of surface details most challenging to execute. Clothing on people in particular gives me fits--it's no wonder most action comics feature skintight body suits!

[Halichoeres]

Writing a dissertation makes it really hard to find time for drawing. But I got back into it a little this weekend, with this guitarfish (gen. et. sp. nov. but as yet unnamed, specimen LB-V-2016-01) from the Cenomanian of Lebanon.



Still need to do some research to accurately finish the Allocrioceras and the inoceramid clam.

[Jose S.M.]

Looks really good!

[Carnotaurus]

You are a very talented talented drawer! Congratulations, looking forward for more images.

Greetings!

[ZoPteryx]

That's awesome!  Imho, drawing obscure prehistoric fishes makes the world a better place! 

[Halichoeres]

This one suffers from two fatal mistakes.

1) I went to the trouble of counting and drawing each individual scale in the original pencil drawing, but I got impatient when adding color, related to:

2) I couldn't find my pencil sharpener, so I was using blunt colored pencils. The detail really suffers as a result. The scales got all obscured, although the medium is certainly capable of keeping them sharp (I've done it with feathers).

Anyway, here's Antarctothrissops from the Jurassic of Antarctica.

[Mini Minmi]

OH wow it looks like it's going to swim off the page. Fantastic color work, it looks slippery.

[Halichoeres]

Here's Santanichthys from the Cretaceous of Brazil. This is the earliest known otophysan (the lineage that includes minnows, catfishes, and characins) and probably lies on the characin stem. It had a Weberian apparatus, which is a chain of anterior vertebrae that connect the swim bladder to the otic capsule. In this setup, the swim bladder acts like an eardrum, and the vertebrae function like the mammalian incus, malleus, and stapes. So these bones transduce and amplify vibrations to the ear, while rectifying impedance mismatches, giving them exceptional hearing. Might be one reason there are so many species (more than 6,000 and counting).

I've been so busy with work that this was the only "inktober" sketch I could get done this year.

[ceratopsian]

It might be the only one but it is beautiful detailed work. I had no idea of that method of hearing. Thank you!

[Lanthanotus]

Great work ... I guess you also do the drawings for your publications yourself?

[Dinoreplicas]

Some nice illustration work here, I'll be re-visiting this thread.

[Lone Trike]

Brilliant drawing! Astonishing how evolution comes up with all kinds of solutions for the same problem.

[Bokisaurus]

Great artworks, love the fishes! It would be a good reference for sculpting

[Ravonium]

First off, as others have said, brilliant ink sketch   

Secondly, thanks for the mini-crash course on otophysan evolution Apart from learning about the hearing systems of these fishes, it gave me a good reason why I should read up more on actinopterygian fish