Re: New Dinosaur Art Web Site! (long)

["Jordan Mallon" <j_mallon@hotmail.com>]

In response (and in defense!) to David Marjanovic's reply to my original 
site announcement:

> Well, you called for it B-) ... ;-) Apologies for the long mail.

I certainly did.  After David's reply, I received quite a few sympathetic 
e-mails, trying to boost my self-confidence, I guess.  But the point is, Mr. 
Marjanovic did just as I had asked.  And for that I thank him.

> The running _T. rex_ on the homepage (as well as the background) is
> admirable, but why does the _Triceratops_ sprawl its forelimbs?

The heck if I know.  All I know is that of all the dinosaur animations 
available on-line, those two were the most convincing ones to chose from.

> _Allosaurus fragilis_ vs. _Stegosaurus stenops_: The thigh of _A._ looks a
> bit short and thin, and the belly... it isn't pregnant, is it?

Yeah, sure she is! ;)  Actually, this is an old drawing, executed a while 
back ('98) when I was still quite ignorant about theropodian anatomy.  I 
like to think I'm at least a >little< better now.

> How was _S._ killed? Where's the blood and the deadly wound?

Ummm... she had a heart attack while being chased.  She tripped and fell.  I 
know it isn't very obvious, so I guess that will just have to be left up to 
the individual to decide.

> Why
> hasn't it fallen onto a side, its center of gravity being high up in the
> laterally compressed body?

I have a hard enough time drawind a standing _Stegosaurus_, let alone a 
reclining one.  The position just seemed to suit me best at the time, I 
suppose.

> There are people out there who can judge whether the neck of _A._ is
> too long, which I think it probably is.

Looking back, I think the same.

> exceptions, of course)" I'm not so sure whether there were limits to the
> size of what an _A._ *pack* could kill...

Well, I meant an individual.  I'll have to clarify that one...

> _Byronosaurus jaffei_: Nice, and beautiful feathers, but why doesn't it 
> have
> feathers on the snout? There is no evidence for a beak, AFAIK...

Why not?  At this point, I thought the feathering of most coelurosaurian 
dinosaurs was pretty much speculative to some degree.  Someone please 
enlighten me if I'm wrong here.

>         What's so special actually about "an air chamber in the snout
> passing from the nostrils through to the mouth"?

It's already been mentioned, but that feature was an autapomorphy.

>         _Carcharodontosaurus saharicus_ has some problems with 
> perspective:
> The upper jaw looks asymmetrical, and the legs look very far apart. The
> shoulder blades are way too vertical for any dinosaur, and the fault on the
> waist is borrowed from monitors, I'd rather not draw one on a dinosaur.

What do you mean by 'fault on the waist'?  You refer to this throughout your 
critique, but I'm not sure what you mean.

> _Carnotaurus sastrei_, too, has problems with perspective (e. g. the neck
> probably looks too long).

Well, as Jaime Headden graciously pointed out, I restored this dinosaur 
based on a Louis Psihoyos photograph of a mount.  I did my best to follow 
the restored skeletal proportions, not knowing at the time that the skeleton 
itself was sadly out of proportion (eg: laterally compressed skull).  So far 
as I know, I think Louis Rey did a _Carnotaurus_ restoration based on the 
same mount.

> another problem -- the rib cage is much too wide, so the arms (oh, the 
> hands
> had 4 fingers, not 3) are too far apart.

I know.  I like to think they're hidden behind the fingers you >can< see.  
(Yes, a nasty habit to get into.)

>         The legs are turned too far outwards, AFAI can judge.

Again, based on the Argentinean skeletal mount.

> The [_Chasmosaurus_] colors are beautiful. :-)

Thanks!

> _Dromaeosaurus albertensis_: Cool pose, but you don't think it had *3*
> feathers, do you?!?

This one was also an early drawing.  At the time, I was a little reluctant 
to accept the fact that dromaeosaurs had feathers.

> _Erlikosaurus andrewsi_: "Andrews' Erlik's lizard" -- I'd have mentioned
> that Erlik Khan is the king of the dead in ?Lamaism.

Well, in the interest of keeping the name derivations brief, I chose not to 
add that in.  Maybe I should, though.

> The boundary between feathers and naked skin along the neck is very
> strange. It makes it look chimeric. Why shouldn't segnosaurs have had
> feathers up to their beaks? Where is the beak, by the way?

Oh, it's there.  :)  Again, the ornamentation was purely speculative.  I 
don't think I had ever even heard of _Beipiaosaurus_ at that time.

> _Euoplocephalus tutus_: Didn't it have much more armor?

Yup.  I just never finished filling it in as I didn't have the resources for 
placement of armour at the time.  I would imagine the edges of the armour 
would have followed the same path further up to the neck, right?

> "But despite the great nature of this animal, it has been implied
> that G. carolinii was not a predator at all.  Instead, it may very well 
> have
> simply been an active scavenger, scaring other creatures away from carrion
> by means of its intimidating bulk." Extremely unlikely.

Personally, I don't agree with this either.  But it's been suggested, and so 
I decided to include it in the piece.  I thought it made for a nice, 
unbiased view.  ;)

> _Homalocephale calathocercos_: Again the waist fault. Your only problem 
> with
> art seems to be perspective: The lower leg of the lying individual looks
> like bent away *laterally*.

Yeah.  I had a heck of a time trying to get that foot right.  But the 
perspective just wasn't working right for me.  Unfortunately, that was the 
best take.

> Judith River Scene: Really beautiful :-)

Thanks!

> _Daspletosaurus_, but where are the feathers of _Chirostenotes_?

I've been asked this before.  The deal with this picture is that I was 
half-way through scaling my _Chirostenotes_ before I wished I had feathered 
it instead.  At that point, I hadn't done much illustrating of feathers, and 
was a little afraid of the 'unknown'.  I've learned since then.

> depicted animals have a waist fault? Why don't the upper and lower beaks of
> _Chirostenotes_ match?

Out of curiosity, do all bird and dinosaur beaks match?

> And what is between the ischia and pubes of
> _Daspletosaurus_?

Nothing.  Why, what do you see?

> _Ornitholestes hermanni_ (Herman*n*'s bird thief)

Really?  I'll clear that right up.

> looks like a vulture with
> its feather coat ending at the neck base. That's unlikely for this 
> dinosaur.

I think Jaime already took care of that.

> _Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis_: "solidify the fact that this dinosaur 
> was
> indeed a pachycephalosaur." Rather: "show that a pachycephalosaur is
> something very different from a pachycephalosaur."

I missed that.  Could you please clarify that?

>         As some others have already stated onlist, the genetive of "it" is
> "its", "it's" is short for "it is" only.

Yes, I know.  Where did I go wrong?

> _Shunosaurus lii_: "Li's Shuo lizard" Shu, not Shuo.

Really?  According to Glut's _Dinosaurs: the Encyclopedia_ it's "Shu 
lizard".

> _Tarbosaurus bataar_ vs. _Gallimimus bullatus_: "You'll notice that the
> young fledgling in the background is covered in a downy coat. This feature
> is fairly common to the Coelurosauria and would have served to insulate the
> young one during the cool Mongolian nights." Why not the adults too?

I think Jaime clarified this for me.  His comments were exactly what I had 
in mind.

> "What's more, the teeth may have also retained deadly toxins within
> the furrows of their serrations. Comparable toxins are present in extant
> Komodo dragons and are the result of rotting meat having been caught in the
> individual tooth furrows.  This would have made the bite even more lethal
> since infection would ensue soon after the victim was bitten." Please,
> please be so kind as not to repeat this myth.

Is it considered a myth now?  I was not aware of that.

> _Velociraptor mongoliensis_ vs. _Psittacosaurus mongoliensis_: Is my screen
> fooling me, or are there really no feathers below the dark line?

Nope.  You can blame that one on your screen (and on the scan).

> _P._ is a bit out of proportion (the left leg), apart from being
> massively out of time.

Youch!  I do know that now.  Again, that was an early drawing and I simply 
based the idea of _Velociraptor_ and _Psittacosaurus_ being contemporaneous 
after a picture of them both interacting in Dodson's _The Horned Dinosaurs_. 
 (But if you read the fine print you'll see that the depicted theropods are 
actually supposed to be troodonts.  Whatever. They sure didn't look like 
troodonts to me.)

> Your links list is great -- I'll definitely spend some hours there.

It took years just to compile that little list.  If you don't come to my 
site for the art, come for the links!

> Hope this helps! (Some people tell me I'm annoying... :-]  )

Y'know, you really were a big help, Mr. Marjanovic.  As I've already said, 
after your original response I got quite a few e-mails saying, "Oh, don't 
let him get you down, Jordan."  Well, I didn't.  If anything I've learned a 
lot from your post and from those who have thus far responded to it.  I'll 
be sure to make whatever changes I can and run an update for the weekend.  
Thanks a lot for all the help.  As I state on my index page "It seems the 
only way I can learn is by making mistakes!"

> Your potential, anyway, is wonderful. You may end up next to GSP, Brian
> Franczak, Jaime A. Headden, Daniel Bensen et al..

Sigh... I only wish...

-Jordan Mallon

http://www.geocities.com/paleoportfolio/
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