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Description

“Blood on the Reaping Moon”

Tyrannosaurus rex, Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis. An acrylic painting of Helushka, the Tyrannosaurus, having tracked down a Pachycephalosaurus he had injured earlier that day. As he approaches the carcass, the sound of a drone snapping photos overhead catches his attention.

I came up with this idea sometime late last year while staying over at a friend’s wedding, right after seeing Fernanda Suarez’s illustration, “Cancer” ( www.artstation.com/artwork/q9Q…). I talked to quite a few people on certain matters related to the idea, from the range of motion for Helushka’s head and neck (Tom Holtz), and the general composition/perspective needed to get the moon’s reflection to be as big as a 45 foot/ 13.7 meter Tyrannosaur (Julius Csotonyi and Doug Henderson).

So, I decided that the scene should be depicted like it was taken from an aerial platform that researchers use to observe animals from a distance. I went all in with the idea that my paleoart is essentially the field photos of a bunch of time travelling researchers, something I’ve toyed with a number of times over the years. It’s an idea a lot of modern paleoartists (from James Gurney to Joschua Knuppe) utilize to depict camera-trap and infrared style imagery of prehistoric creatures. You can somewhat see the trend in Walking with Dinosaurs and even Prehistoric Planet, when the animals interact or acknowledge the camera and when they use specialized filming techniques (like FLIR).

This is the second of the three planned Halloween pieces for this month. I just have my blood moon Carnotaurus to finish. I’m posting this as the 2023 annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology comes to a close this weekend (prints I donated did pretty well at the auction).

Completed in mid-October 2023.

Done using acrylics, color pencils, ink, and Photoshop 2021.

Description

“Blood on the Reaping Moon”

Tyrannosaurus rex, Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis. An acrylic painting of Helushka, the Tyrannosaurus, having tracked down a Pachycephalosaurus he had injured earlier that day. As he approaches the carcass, the sound of a drone snapping photos overhead catches his attention.

I came up with this idea sometime late last year while staying over at a friend’s wedding, right after seeing Fernanda Suarez’s illustration, “Cancer” ( www.artstation.com/artwork/q9Q…). I talked to quite a few people on certain matters related to the idea, from the range of motion for Helushka’s head and neck (Tom Holtz), and the general composition/perspective needed to get the moon’s reflection to be as big as a 45 foot/ 13.7 meter Tyrannosaur (Julius Csotonyi and Doug Henderson).

So, I decided that the scene should be depicted like it was taken from an aerial platform that researchers use to observe animals from a distance. I went all in with the idea that my paleoart is essentially the field photos of a bunch of time travelling researchers, something I’ve toyed with a number of times over the years. It’s an idea a lot of modern paleoartists (from James Gurney to Joschua Knuppe) utilize to depict camera-trap and infrared style imagery of prehistoric creatures. You can somewhat see the trend in Walking with Dinosaurs and even Prehistoric Planet, when the animals interact or acknowledge the camera and when they use specialized filming techniques (like FLIR).

This is the second of the three planned Halloween pieces for this month. I just have my blood moon Carnotaurus to finish. I’m posting this as the 2023 annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology comes to a close this weekend (prints I donated did pretty well at the auction).

Completed in mid-October 2023.

Done using acrylics, color pencils, ink, and Photoshop 2021.