Re: Illustrating Dino Skin

["aspidel" <aspidel@infonie.be>]

HP Jordan Mallon <j_mallon@hotmail.com> wrote:

> What I'm looking for is a resource or two
> where I can really get a feeling for how both the scales and feathers are
> patterned, and how the sunlight interacts with them.

Scales: IMHO I'd suggest you to make a www.google.com research for Komodo
dragon or Galàpagos iguanas photographs and to make some drawing exercises
with this stuff, and to find your own style.

I personnally like HP Jaime's Qilong drawings (hypsilophodonts for example),
HP Todd Marshall's _Spinosaurus_ and older John Sibbick's scaled dinosaurs
(well, this was before the discover of feathered dromaeosaurs fossils!)...
and apologies for those I forget.
You can also see my _Iguanodon_ on http://dinosauricon.com/artists/ljb.html
: it's more "strip-like" drawing, it's quite detailed, but scales are rather
suggested.

Feathers: see extant birds.
You can also check HP Demetrios' _Velociraptor_ on the Dinosauricon, HP Luis
Rey's _Scipionyx_ (filaments) and others, HP Beri Krzic's drawings... and,
well, just have a look on www.troodonproductions.com for _Sinosauropteryx_
and _Caudipteryx_ beautiful paintings.

HP Dan Varner wrote:

> Larry says that in one of the paintings he did for _In the Presence of
Dinosaurs_he painted somewhere near 65,000 scales  on a dinosaur! <

It's a bit "hyperrealist", but I think that in naturalist drawings you may
draw some details you can't see as well in reality if the animal is too long
away, and this is the difference between, let's say, a drawing of an eagle
and a photo of an eagle. IMHO this remark is also pertinent for paleoart,
with the difference that you _can't_ get photos of the _alive_ animals.

Friendly - Luc J. "Aspidel" BAILLY.