#fantasy dinosaur

[bornulhuu]

People and beasts of the underworld K'thol

Trihorns and Kobolds are hunter/gatherer people that fight to survive the steamy wilderness filled with critters and dangers.

[topios]

Funky back spines call for eye spots.

[alangbandala-aesthetics]

This will be, maybe, my most controversial post regarding paleoart. That's because we are entering contemporary territory, that is, paleoart from the 2020's...

Modern Paleoart

The Weird Birds

As always, we'll first examine some of the things I'm not referring to when I talk about what I like, and this time you'll probably get mad at me.

Ok hear me out...

Todd Marshall is an excellent artist, don't get me wrong; however, it's true that most of his work is more of an exaggeration of dinosaurs, and while he has done masterful illustrations for works such as Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, I must also say that some of those works are not among my favorites, especially the example I put here, which is supposed to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex but has a rather incorrect plumage variation and skin wrapping on its head. My point is that even if you want to add feathers, you need to understand what type or how to add them. It's not just about slapping them on top of something and that's it.

Another example is the Instagram illustrator Paleorex, a guy who does spectacular work, but I was quite critical of his early illustrations. Mainly because it seemed like all he did was take a real-life animal and Photoshop it to distort it into what looked like a dinosaur. While they weren't bad images—quite the opposite—I didn't particularly like looking at them because I felt he had a pretty poor understanding of dinosaur anatomy. His more recent work is his best, in my opinion. He's not only learned a lot, but he's also improved to the point where I can't even recognize him as Paleorex. I highly recommend him; however, it's his early work that put him on this list.

I'm also going to include some of the designs from the most recent documentaries reviewed. The dinosairs and Prehistoric Planet. This is mainly because, despite being excellent documentaries, they have some flaws that bother me, especially considering the two we see here. The first is a sauropod with a speculative feature: a airsacks around its neck to attract a mate. The truth is, anatomically, this is as impossible as the Dilophosaurus's collar in Jurassic Park, and I'm not a big fan of it. On the other hand, the Tyrannosaurus design we see there has a flattened forehead for some reason, and it's also much fatter than we've come to expect from Tyrannosaurus. Yes, the animal was quite fat, but not like this. The same goes for the Sauropod. In the documentary, they appear as enormous whales on land, when in reality, the skeleton suggests that they were more elongated and streamlined than fat, not so much full of blubber. After all, let's remember, it's an animal that weighs more than 30 tons.

And finally, from the book "All Yesterdays," which deals with representations of dinosaurs that were not considered mainstream, at least at the time it was published. While there are some extremely good books, there are some things that made me raise an eyebrow. In this case, the triceratops covered in spikes, like some kind of giant porcupine, and the parasaurs covered in fat. Yes, we know that dinosaurs can be strange in appearance, but let's not go overboard.

With that said, I can begin to elaborate on why there are some of these things that I enjoy and some that I don't. The truth is that today we are in a pretty good time for paleontology since we can even know precisely what some animals looked like, not only anatomically but also in their color scheme, and the truth is that despite the imaginative variation that existed in the last decade about how dinosaurs might have looked, most of what we have described were not so alien.

Of course they are beautiful, don't get me wrong. But considering that 60% of the animals in the Cretaceous period were not of the biblical sizes we are used to, knowing that most of them were, well, like any common animal, I won't say it's disappointing, but it is a bit limiting when it comes to the imagination they can showcase. For example, we have the Microraptor, which was basically like a crow; we have the Borealopelta, which was a dark brown color, since there were larger animals than it that would probably try to look down to find it; or Beipiosaurus, a feathered dinosaur, but whose fossil analysis has revealed that it was completely brown.

Now, considering the fact that we know dinosaurs were good animals and not some alien thing, as we thought several years ago, that's why I'm so focused on portraying dinosaurs with strange protrusions. Well, because we also know that there are dinosaurs that are simply weird.

These four images show four of the discoveries that have most impacted me in recent years regarding descriptions of new dinosaur species or of species we already knew; however, I have also forgotten some, from iguanodontids with plumage similar to that of a kind of porcupine to carcalorontosaurus with a simple horn like a claw in front of its nose.

My point is that although it's great nowadays that we know what some dinosaurs look like, and that most of them aren't as alien as we thought, we still need that touch of bizarre imagination that we had before, at least bold enough to attribute body parts that wouldn't be preserved in the fossil record or strange aspects to these creatures.

I think that the closer an artist gets to realistically portraying something, the more the impression their work makes now lies in their mastery of depicting something rather than their own imagination. That's the equivalent of one of those social media artists who can recreate every single hair in a celebrity's photo, but when you ask them to do something a little more creative, they're more likely to be at a loss for what to do. -Well, there are people who do know how, and they've earned my respect- I feel that if reality is so easy to capture, what has the most value is the window of reality that the artist is placing on the work—that is, how they themselves see reality. And in this case, I have a very good example of someone who has achieved this with dinosaurs.

Deadsound and his Dinosauria series.

While this guy has admitted that he takes quite a few creative liberties to portray what he wants in his short films, we can't deny the fact that they are damn well made, and not only that, but each one gives you a window into not specifically what a time in the past was like, but more than anything a feeling; that is to say, what remains in cinematography as a universal law, which is that no matter how you want to do it, the important thing is that your audience feels what you want them to feel.

Here we find not only scientifically correct designs, but also speculative evolutionary ideas and unique designs. We have the Diffusionaurs that move as if they were some kind of fairytale monster in the style of Guillermo del Toro; we have the change of eras with the Megalosaurus fighting against the Iguanodon; and even the different play of tones that they make in their short films about the extinction of the dinosaurs—visual masteries that, had they been used with a much more realistic style, I think would not have had the same impact.

And they are very beautiful designs in fact, I think it's one of the best there has been lately in terms of Paleomedia portraiture. And while his other series called Saurian also maintains these same aspects but elevated to a more fantastical aspect, personally, in terms of fantasy, I like to check out when things are a little more... Strange.

CM Kosemen it's a weird guy (he made All Tomorrows and All Yesterdays) But what I love about his dinosaur images is that they have a kind of ethereal, almost avian quality. Look at the image of the Gorgosaurus next to a girl; notice how its legs are almost bird-like, yet everything else feels like a completely different, almost mythological animal. Check out the images of the Ceratosaurs and how they look almost like creatures from African folklore. Look at some of his illustrations with the Ceratosaur or the Massospondylus above. He came up with the idea of ​​integrating prehistoric civilizations lost millions of years ago, civilizations whose existence we'll never know about anyway. He also developed a mini-series about sapiential raptors, so who better to do it?

Of course, this guy isn't perfect; for example, the image in the top right corner has quite a bit of skin wrapping, more than I would have liked. And anyway, there are several illustrations of his that don't follow this line of philosophy, for example, the one below that image, but they are still quite striking, at least enough to make you realize how truly strange some species are.

This stems from the fact that, at least with non-avian dinosaurs, their lineage is completely widespread. Therefore, we don't have a good idea of ​​what they might have looked like because their closest relatives, birds, are not 100% representative of the whole. Yes, most dinosaurs had feathers, but for example, the Psittacosaurus, a dinosaur you might expect to be like a parrot, actually had almost no feathers, only those small spines on its tail. Therefore, while I am in favor of including elements in the animals that demonstrate that not everything will be preserved in the fossil record, I must also maintain certain consistency in how to portray them, and I think there are very good examples of this...

This is Brian Engh work. You'll surely recognize him as the main illustrator who spearheaded the new look of the Dilophosaur's skull, but the truth is, Brian doesn't limit himself to just that. He has a mastery of depicting dinosaurs in a very avian way, something I really liked since I saw it in the TerraNova series. He didn't work on that show, but it's a very similar design style. Look how most of them have feathers, some even have eyelashes, which is normal considering that most of the animals he draws are from the Jurassic period, an era that, at least according to the geological records of the formations where they've been found, was quite arid.

I really like this artist's style, especially because he doesn't limit avian characteristics to small and medium-sized animals, but also includes large ones. Although I'm not a big fan of his style, the way he portrays sauropod dinosaurs, the image I posted below of two ceratosaurs fighting over a carcass with an allosaurus approaching from behind is very striking. It captures not only the coldness of the reptilian gaze, but also the way they speak. Have you ever seen a flock of vultures eating a carcass? It's a grotesque sight, and I'm sure not many people have the stomach for it, but now imagine that on a giant scale.

We also tend to forget that birds are a form of coldness, quite terrifying in the animal kingdom, mainly because, like reptiles, they are not as expressive as a mammal would like to be. At least when a tiger roars you can notice that it is trying to look threatening; you can see how its eyebrows move and everything, but this is much harder to see in birds. And Twitter knows it...

I find it so endearing that the new Jurassic World movies have been so disappointing that Twitter started posting images of dinosaurs that are inhabiting our world and are even scientifically correct; I think the best example of this is the Archersuchus' Weird Birds series. It's about how suddenly space-time rifts, in true Prime style, began appearing around the world, and prehistoric animals started emerging that have begun to alter entire ecosystems. The series is extremely good and isn't limited to just dinosaurs but also includes futuristic creatures. I'll talk about that later, but anyway, what I like to focus on here is the design of the dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. I don't know how that sauropod hidden in the darkness of the night is quite elongated, and it also has a rather nice pattern. Don't you see the Troodon's illuminated eyes in the dark? And the patterns on that little Pterosaur who died in the snow...

Shout-out to my friend Fantastic_Bar_1006 who is the author of two of the images used here; he is an excellent illustrator because what you are seeing is not a Photoshop job but a sheet of paper with very good depth. And excelent speculative evolution ideas!

Nova Stein is another great example. He dedicates himself to creating 3D models of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, but in an old-fashioned style emulating video games from the 90s. And yes, here we have another example of how there is a certain creative freedom when portraying some animals, since although his creation process is quite scientifically precise, he also tends to use colors that I honestly think don't suit some animals very well. Of course, there are exceptions, but I still don't believe that some of these animals have such vibrant colors, or at least not in the way he portrays them. However, that doesn't detract from the fact that they are excellent examples of how to mix avian and reptilian characteristics in these creatures. Go check out his series about 3D modeling. It's awesome!

But if we're talking about realistic versions with some creative liberties with dinosaurs, I think I'd go with Dino A-Live. A Japanese show that uses what I believe are animatronics mixed with puppets to portray what it would be like to be in the presence of one of these creatures. Honestly, I don't have any further information about how they do their shows, but if you can find one online, that would be wonderful because it's seriously one of the things I'd want to see before I die, or even work on for the rest of my life. It looks incredible, and several of the features I've complained about here, like the colors being a bit strange or body parts that should be reconsidered (whether the animal would have them or not), look quite good and natural in these designs.

I've been fantasizing about making a movie using the animatronics these people have, just like Steven Spielberg did with Jurassic Park. They even allow popular culture to shape how they portray certain animals. They recently made a Giganotosaurus that looks infinitely better than the one shown in Jurassic World: Dominion, even though it maintains the same design philosophy.

But frankly, I think one of the things that will age best over time will be the Prehistoric Kingdom video game.

Much of what I've described here is present in this video game. Not only do some designs take quite interesting creative liberties in terms of reconstruction, but they are also quite accurate and visually appealing. However, I don't think it will age well because it remains scientifically accurate, even though that's one of the developers' goals. The game hasn't yet updated designs like their Edmontosaurus, but I still maintain that the ease with which people can customize the video game to their liking and learn about these animals is something that probably won't be repeated for a long time. And I hope I'm wrong about that last statement, because we need more games like Prehistoric Kingdom...

Now you'll notice that what I usually like is a realistic version that's also monstrously exaggerated, appearing naturally. In this case, I have a kind of fixation with the modern monstrosity of dinosaurs, mainly because they generally limit themselves to maintaining the skeletal structure and then working on top of it with different philosophies. This wasn't the case in previous eras. In the vintage era, we saw the lack of knowledge about dinosaurs as an advantage, allowing us to illustrate them however we pleased. In the retro era, we also saw how having a more active and even improved image of dinosaurs allowed illustrations with strange protuberances and spines to be commonplace, as seen in all of Todd Marshall's work. I feel this is a bit special because, as we know, we already have a pretty good idea of ​​what dinosaurs looked like, at least to a certain extent, and thanks to this, creative liberties can be taken to extremes.

The Isle had those, actually. Those who have followed the game long enough will be familiar with the mutants that have been in development for quite some time now. While they are quite interesting and cool to see because of all the different characteristics you can extract from a dinosaur with just its skeleton and a design philosophy behind it, there is one aspect I'd like to focus on, and that's the theme of Fantasy. Because even though dinosaurs existed, that doesn't mean we can't use them in Fantasy. And usually, when they are used in fantasy worlds, dinosaurs are depicted in a very natural and unique way, similar to how they were in real life, but without much variation. And when there is variation, they usually end up looking like they're in Jurassic Park again, which, as you know, bothers me a bit (I haven't watched the End of Oak Street yet, and I'm begging for this not being the case).

But I have my favorite in this case... and it's from a Minecraft mod: Raxiores of Raxioare.

Please excuse the image I used, as it's the only illustration I could find that isn't from the video game models themselves. However, my point remains: the dinosaur models here have a certain philosophy behind their designs, or at least they're inspired by archetypes rather than a single scale. For example, the brachiosaurus shown in the mod looks quite similar to the titanosaurs in the latest Jurassic World movie. Meanwhile, the giganotosaurus seems to be inspired not only by desert lizards but also somewhat by the designs of the aforementioned Todd Marshall. Tyrannosaurs, on the other hand, I like that it seems to have horns and that the feather resembles a beard. I can almost imagine it with lush plumage around its neck, making it look like a lion. But my favorites are definitely the spinosaurus and the amargassaurus, since, as I mentioned, they only use the basic silhouette and anatomy of the animals. But that's about it. Spinosaurus doesn't have the vertebrae we usually associate with it, but rather spikes connected by a membrane. Amargasaurus, on the other hand, was one such creature—I think it's been removed from the current mod—that was completely aquatic and emitted bioluminescence for defense, an aspect that no real animal would have. But it's a fantasy aspect that I quite like. Because if the fantastic creatures we invented in ancient times were usually mixtures of animals, why not do something similar with dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs are animals, or at least they were, and as animals, we too can imagine them in whatever way we please. Although I will still include some things I prefer over others, people are free to interpret them however they want.

At the end of the day, a dinosaur, however much we see it as an alien, bizarre, and otherworldly creature, is nothing more than a Weird bird.

This has been the most dificult to put in words until now. I wonder how dificult the others will be... We are just starting!

[windydrawallday]

"I see Humans... but not Humanity"

'Screamersaur full body & some expressions I did to test the weird crested skull of the guanlong that I liked a lot so I stuck them to the ref! For @mouseycometz 's dinoformers + postapocalyptic AU 💚

I'm having a blast thinking about dinosaur designs, especially because these are "fantasy"/sci-fi flavored so, it gives me space to be more open with color palettes and some fancy additional details to them! (I hope I can do something with the same quality for Predaking's ref).

[aisla229]

bwaby dino :3

[wickwackity]

so i just never posted one of the biggest projects i completed last year…a little accordion-style booklet about dinosaurs in cinema!! this was the main spread, front and back :D

[gokuharaonyx-07]

"A powerful species of dinosaur, the mighty Dynamotheristies could be compared to a walking nature disaster rather than an actual animal. Found across the megafauna-rich lands of the southern continent. These saurians hunt a large amount of prey from the elephants and even the semi aquatic sauropod-like reptiles."

"Among the peoples of the southern continent, these beasts are considered as the heralds of the god of the mountains as the beasts are common within the mountains of the southern continent."

[fruitfossil]

The trustiest of troll mounts!