Pheaston attempts paleoart (UPDATE September 2015: 5 new pieces)

[pheaston]

Hi all.  I'm new here, though some of you may know me from my DeviantArt page or from being featured in a few blog posts over at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs.  In fact, I'm starting this thread because Himmapaan persuaded me.  It might be a trick.  So if you don't know me, be gentle.

I've been making paleoart (or rather, happily, if ignorantly, drawing dinosaurs) since early last year, not counting a stint during my early teens.  Here's some recent stuff:


feathered tyrannosaurus by paul heaston, still in progress


utahraptor dancing by paul heaston, on Flickr


albertosaurus by paul heaston, on Flickr


centrosaurus pencil by paul heaston, on Flickr


triceratops by paul heaston, on Flickr


parasaurolophus by paul heaston, on Flickr


iguanodon revised by paul heaston, on Flickr

[Jetoar]

Amazing draws  ! I like them all but my favorite is the Utahraptor.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Not a theropod guy myself, but that Parasaur on the other hand...wow, that is simply stunning.

[darylj]

love the feathered trex...

[Patrx]

Excellent work! Not to leap onto the bandwagon, but I must say I also like the Utahraptor quite a lot.  Good to see it looking so very, very birdlike.  Additionally, your Triceratops is impressive, very accurate to my eyes. Nice job getting the hands right!

[Balaur]

That Utahraptor is pure golden!

[ZoPteryx]

They're all awesome, but my downright favorite (along with everyone elses apparently) has to be the Utahraptor!

[tyrantqueen]

I like the Parasaurolophus the most, but the Rex is nice too. The dinofuzz looks sensible and not over the top

[TheAllosaur]

This is awesome. Love the Utahraptor And the Tyrannosaurus, I hope I get that good:)

[DinoToyForum]

Beautiful work!

[pheaston]

A few more:

A couple of tiny sketches (about 2 by 3 inches)

T. rex


Allosaurus


Psittacosaurus in pen


Apatosaurus in pencil

[Himmapaan]

Yes! I'd forgotten I hadn't commented yet. Beautiful, beautiful work again, Paul.

By the way, here is Paul's interview on Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, for those interested or haven't had the chance to read it yet.

[Gryphoceratops]

Awesome work!  I love the detail on the ceratopsians and that apatosaurus.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Love the Apatosaurus !

[pheaston]

Thanks all!  I guess the Utahraptor won that round.  It's been heavily reworked (especially the wings, thanks to some great feedback from Mike Keesey) since I drew it last year.  I wanted to do another dromaeosaur now that I feel better about drawing the wings, so here's a new one, from earlier today.

Deinonychus

fluffy deinonychus by paul heaston, on Flickr

[wings]

You know that line running above and almost parallel to the line that represent the lower arm (radius and Ulna), is it suppose to be the line of the upper arm (humerus)? I'm talking about the left wing here. If it is the upper arm line then the left arm is probably folding a bit too tight see this paper (http://www.2shared.com/document/xN_pnhXY/Forelimb_Biomechanics_of_Nonav.html). If you look at the text-figure 13 and 14  from the above link then what you will find is that it is anatomically impossible for Deinonychus to fold their arms as tight as the one depicted in your drawing. Maybe that is just a double up line also representing the lower arm and not the upper arm at all and in that case just ignore this comment.

[tyrantqueen]

For some reason I really like the claws and forearms The folded wing is also really nicely rendered.

[pheaston]

You know that line running above and almost parallel to the line that represent the lower arm (radius and Ulna), is it suppose to be the line of the upper arm (humerus)? I'm talking about the left wing here. If it is the upper arm line then the left arm is probably folding a bit too tight see this paper (http://www.2shared.com/document/xN_pnhXY/Forelimb_Biomechanics_of_Nonav.html). If you look at the text-figure 13 and 14  from the above link then what you will find is that it is anatomically impossible for Deinonychus to fold their arms as tight as the one depicted in your drawing. Maybe that is just a double up line also representing the lower arm and not the upper arm at all and in that case just ignore this comment.

Good catch, thanks for the bit of technical criticism.  I gave too little consideration to the proper mechanics of the folding of the arm.  I've amended the image a bit.


fluffy deinonychus by paul heaston, on Flickr

[wings]

The arm looks more natural now. Another element to look at in this drawing would be the shape of the skull. This is the original illustration of the snout found in Ostrom's paper (http://imageshack.us/f/42/deinonychuspremaxillama.png/), Paul's recent reconstruction (http://personal.kyoht.com/Tutorial/Raptor/skeletal.gif) and this is Scott's (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YrzqMXdJX8I/T-h-anKOEoI/AAAAAAAALnY/o_MTDI7Rbak/s1600/Deinonychus+skeletal.png). Paul probably used Ostrom's specimen (YPM 5232) to illustrate his animal as you can see the snout shapes are very similar in both, and different from the specimen that Scott uses (perhaps there are better skull materials found since then). Despite the different specimens used in these illustrations their nasal bones are always convex instead of concave as shown in your drawing. Maybe it's just the feathers on the head...

[pheaston]

Fair enough.  I have to say I'm familiar with the myriad inconsistencies with Deinonychus skull restorations over the years.  As illustrated in Ostrom's original paper, while much of the skull seems to taper gently toward the premaxilla, there is a brief but distinct rostral flattening above the naris where the nasal meets the premaxilla in YPM 5232.  It looks as though it is the Hartman illustration- not Paul's- that is based on this illustration (though they both very well may be) because Hartman's skull also includes this "flattening" while Paul's does not.   For whatever reason Ostrom restored the full skull much deeper.  At the dinosaur exhibit I managed we even had the infamous "cast," really a sculpture, that just about every institution has, based on the rather Allosaur-like composite reconstruction in Ostrom's original paper.

However, in general, you are correct that the skull of Deinonychus likely displays none of the overt rostral "concavity" that are hallmarks of Velociraptor, Tsaagan, etc.   Of course, none of this excludes the possibility of some sort of keratinous bump on the end of the nose;)