RAWR! Dinosaur Friends

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Rexy had a great time playing in the volcano today. Now it's time for his nap! ☺️

A splash illustration from my WIP game about old dead dinosaur gods who live in volcanoes.

[img id] Dark, cel-shaded illustration with outlines of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton draped across volcanic rock on a black background. The bones of the dinosaur are as blue as the rocks, and it seems to have taken its nap in the bowels of the earth. The skeleton faces right with its limbs akimbo, like it just fell down there, exhasuted, and turned to bones. An ominous red light glows within the T. rex's skull, hinting that it might not be entirely dormant. [/id]

[hannahmcgill]

I had a request for a "Bug" based on open source reference photos...so have a Carabus auronitens!

I used research-grade photos by Ludivine Lamare to figure out how the iridescence and anatomy worked.

[img id] Digital cel-shaded art of a Carabus auronitens, a beetle with a rainbow sheen. It's stepping off of an isometric chunk of rotting wood, complete with gross little hairy bits and maybe its own droppings (unclear, I was referencing from a wikipedia photo as well and the bug is surrounded by wet brown dustbunnies of some kind). The beetle itself is mostly a very dark gunmetal teal, which shifts in the light from dark green, to lime green, to limey yellow, to sunburst orange, to molten magenta. It has red accents on the tips of its legs and big red mandibles, too. The beetle is about to politely step off of the wood chunk because it thinks this whole thing is too silly for it to participate. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Hey everyone if you wanted to see more 'animal chunks' (animals on chunks of habitat) I'm continuing them as studies from photographs over on my main account

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Be honest

Do you like my blog or are you just here for horseshoe crab

[img id] Repeating idle animation of a little greenish-gray horseshoe crab, drawn in a cel-shaded cartoony style and animated with tweens in Spine. The crab is wiggling, all claws out, waving its spiky tail in the air. It's on a transparent background so you can appreciate the sheer crab-itude. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Your art style is absolutely stunning, I adore your use of color, thank you for sharing your creations <3

Rawr! Rawr rawr rrrrrgghh rawr rooooooar!

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Collect Them All!

Here are all 24 drawings of extinct animals I did for Art Advent Calendar 2025, in a single post for your ease...yes, this has nothing to do with me exploiting a chance to show them all again... For individual alt texts visible in the text of the post, please browse my Art Advent Calendar archive tag here: https://rawrdinosaurfriends.tumblr.com/tagged/ArtAdventCalendar

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 24: Yutyrannus

Who's tyrannus? "You's" tyrannus!

This is the final gift in my calendar. Thank you so much to everyone for following along!

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a big fluffy white yutyrannus, a tyrannosaur known for being covered in feather-like stuff. This one was rendered like a polar bear, with off-white proto-feathers and black skin for absorbing as much of the sun’s heat as possible. The dinosaur is hunkered down with three of its tiny offspring, each sporting their own puffy winter coat, on an isometric chunk of snow. Two of the tyrannosaurus siblings proclaim their dominance on top of the dinosaur, while the third snuggles up under the parent’s teeny two-fingered wing. The yutyrannus perches on its own tail, using the feathers as insulation for its big clawed feet. Sunlight drapes along the dinosaur’s back. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 23: Trilobite

Any guesses on what will show up for day 24? 

(In the meantime, Try-a-bite!)

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a purple trilobite trucking across an isometric chunk of sea mud. Trilobites are generally shaped like giant roly polies, with segmented bodies and heads shaped like crescent moons. Its eyes are multifaceted and protrude from the sides of its face. As a member of the Kolihapeltis species, this trilobite is particularly blessed with spikes in its shell. It has four long spikes coming out of the back of its head, one spite originating from each ‘eyebrow’ bump, and two additional spikes jutting from where the base of the head meets the body. It has spikes generously lining the sides of its body like it’s half sawblade or something. It has numerous armored, segmented legs that end in sharp points…you could say those are spikes, too. Its tail is also… Wait. The tail is not spiky at all. It’s round and fin-like, or maybe it’s a shell, as it was hard to tell from the fossil. Either way, this animal is 90% no-touchy. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 22: Longisquama

What would you name this lizard if it was your pet? I’m leaning towards Mr. Flappy

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a longisquama, a little lizard with big showy skin frills on its back. I have drawn this to the best of my understanding, which is that the frills are vaguely feather-shaped, fanning out like a peacock’s tail except vertically, down the lizard’s spine. The frills are not feathers, though; they are made of colorful skin. The lizard’s body is yellow with brown skink striping, and the frills are a riot of blues, reds, yellows, and browns. Longisquama is posed aggressively inflating its spiky dewlap on an isometric chunk of tree, tail ready to whip anyone who dares deny its majesty. After all, the smaller you are, the meaner you gotta be to survive the Triassic (which it did not survive, at all, that we know of). [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 21: Tully Monster

"I Can't Believe It's Not An Invertebrate!" might be the worst margarine brand name ever. What do you think?

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a Tully Monster, which is a hagfish-adjacent pink wiggly worm fish from the Carboniferous. It has a long, ribbed body with soft pink flesh, encased by protective slime that imbues it with a purple hue. It has a tear-shaped fleshy tail, primitive ‘pore’-shaped openings lining its sides for gills, zero limbs, and a head that is probably going to take a hot minute to describe well so hang on a second because I might as well write my will and testament at the same time. Okay. Here we go. Its eyes are shaped like a preschooler’s craft project, with each orbit glued onto either end of a narrow stick, and the stick has been awkwardly glued onto the creature’s head, right on top, no care for aesthetics. It has a long, stiff trunk. There is a raised hole in the trunk’s base on the front of the head that could be a misinterpretation of other reconstructions  on my part, because I have no idea why there would be a hole there. The trunk itself looks very unbending cartilaginous to me on most reconstructions, with a stiff ‘elbow’ in the middle to bend it. For this composition I chose to make the trunk even bendier. The trunk has a fun surprise in the shape of a beaky mouth full of too many lamprey teeth. So what is this tully monster even doing here? It is suspended inside of a pond over an isometric chunk of pondscum-covered dirt and rocks. Tiny pinecones have fallen into this pond, as well as some twigs. The tully monster hoists a spare pine tree branch over its head, with no idea what to do with it, because during the Carboniferous trees were literally just stacking up with nothing to break them down and return them to whatever cosmic hole the Tully Monster slithered out of. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 20: Archaeopteryx

Is the ‘P’ silent on this one, or not?

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of an archaeopteryx in a moment of exasperation, as it swooped onto the beach only to find out that a yummy thing flashing in the waves was merely an empty scalloped shell. The archaeopteryx is a dark bird with flashes of magenta iridescence across the wings, teal shine to its tail, blue shimmering from its pinions and head, and a little gold gleam in a scruffy feather collar around its neck. The scene takes place on an isometric chunk of beach sand with the thinnest, shallowest reach of an incoming wave stroking its surface. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 19: Plesiosaurus

Sea reptile chases fish in kindly style This monster is real amiable sort of freak, just keeping pace.

Has very wide smile.

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a plesiosaur at the end of a failed lunge to catch one of ten fish. The plesiosaurus is giant, whale-like, with its vertical tail poised upwards in the seawater, and its head brushing the sandy seafloor. Clouds of disturbed sand float around the plesiosaur’s head, long neck, and fin. This plesiosaur was drawn from the more modern idea that giant sea animals have a lot of blubber. This means its neck starts out as thick as its belly and then tapers, evenly, to the width of its narrow head. The fish being hunted are yellow, with red heads and purple rainbow fins. The whole scene takes place on an isometric chunk of seafloor, during a sunset that stains the sand and rocks violet-pink. Red corals perch on a corner of sea rock nearby. A sad little fish skeleton can be seen buried in the sand. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 18: Triceratops

Wellness check-in. Have you had your mud bath and snack today?

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a chunky, creamsicle-colored triceratops plonked into an isometric square chunk of marshy grassland. The dinosaur is sitting, winsome expression directed at the viewer, with its reptilian tail poking out the back. The horizontal lower half of the triceratops is covered with bluish-black mud, some still wet and sliding down its body. A chunk of wet grass in the triceratops’s beak drips into the muddy water surrounding its feet and butt. More grass remains to be eaten around the triceratops’s hedonistic resting spot. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

17 Yi qi

When the fossil reveals even the slightest hints of iridescent feathers, you bet I’m here to make the whole dinosaur shimmer

[img] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a yi qi caught mid-bath, inside an isometric square chunk of a rain puddle with small round pebbles at the bottom. The yi qi is super iridescent with a purple face, blue head, eggshell-blue back and wing feathers, and a fan of reflective purple tail feathers. All feathers are floofed as the dinosaur runs beads of water over its body. The interesting thing about yi qi is that it has membranous wing structures under its feathers, like bat wings, but supported with an elongated wrist bone instead of fingers. These wings of skin are matte purple instead of shiny. The dinosaur looks back at the viewer with a yellow eye, like, are you for real right now? Seriously? Watermark: http://hmcgill.art [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 16: Corythosaurus

The story started out like, “Maybe dinosaurs swatted bugs away with their tails like cows do,” and turned into “Attack of the Cockroach’s Ancestor” halfway through

[img] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a startled corythosaurus, a duckbilled hadrosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous. The corythosaurus is beige fading to dark brown at the back, with striking horizontal stripes lining the sides of its form. It has orange cheeks, amber eyes, and yellow spots for eyebrows. It’s leaning far back with its tail about to strike. The object of the corythosaurus’s surprise is an enormous orange cockroach-looking bug, which seems to have zoomed out from underneath the nearby isometric chunk of fern-covered forest soil. The roach may make it to safety as long as it avoids a powerful swat from the dinosaur’s tail. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 15: Giant Ground Sloth

'Wild avocados depended on ground sloths eating them to survive' may be an oversimplified science meme...but it's cute, so I will draw it

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a giant ground sloth chowing down on avocados, straight from the avocado tree. This sloth is twelve feet tall with gorgeous locks of algae-yellow hair all over its body. Its face bears the typical sloth ‘mask’ of dark spots around the eyes and a white muzzle with a wet snuffly nose at the end. The sloth’s mouth is open, bearing two absurdly long upper fangs and equally sharp-looking lower fangs, while an entire avocado gets crushed between its molars. The tree is small compared to the sloth, and planted into an isometric square chunk of prehistoric South American earth. The ground sloth grasps the tree in both of its arms and bends its trunk over one hairy shoulder in order to nab one tricky avocado in its mouth. More plump avocados await the beast’s appetite as they dangle in the tree’s branches. Knowing how fast a sloth goes it’s probably set for a few hours, if not days, of feasting. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 14: Dunkleosteus

Aww, it's a sea puppy! Sea puppies explore their surroundings with their mouth

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of an ancient Devonian apex predator fish, Dunkleosteus. It’s just a very very large fish with a very large mouth and big, scale-like bony teeth on a bony face. This one is countershaded with dark shades on top and a white belly, with freckle-dappled midtones between them. Usually this fish is portrayed as being very long and slim, but this dunkleosteus has been rendered more like a, well, for lack of a better term, short king. Very short body. Still fierce and also adorable. The fish is suspended over an isometeric square chunk of sandy seafloor. Water reflections dance over the fish’s skin, hard rocks poking out of the sand, and a discarded nautilus shell. [/id]

[rawrdinosaurfriends]

Day 13: Amargasaurus

I’m really excited about the water refraction effect I managed to paint here...May need to use it further

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of an enormous orange sauropod, Amargasaurus, traipsing through a flooded isometric square chunk of swamp. The animal casually towers over nearby cypress trees. It looks over one shoulder but for its size, few things would alarm it. Pterosaurs flap away from it, diminuitive in comparison to the dinosaur. The Amargasaurus has giraffe-like hexagonal markings all over its body, mingling with spots and concentric rings along its back. Its trademark head and neck fins have been rendered as fully enclosed by flesh, rather than spiky like many reconstructions depict. The swamp water is green with algae and other yummy stuff for a big browsing herbivore to enjoy. [/id]