Re: Dinosaur artwork

["Øyvind M. Padron" <gorgosaur@hotmail.com>]

>        Just a comment here, and not necessarily just about Kent's artwork,
> but about the majority of dinosaur restorations I've been directed to here 
> on
> the DML by the younger artists. In earlier times dinosaur imagery was
> dominated by the influence of Hawkins (if you want to go back that far), 
> then
> Knight, Burian and Zallinger. Since the "dinosaur renaissance", Bakker,
> Henderson, Hallett, Franczak, Skrepnick and others have had enormous 
> impact.
> By my observation, however, the greatest influence by far (at least here on
> the list) is that of Greg Paul. Greg Paul has done numerous excellent
> paintings and drawings, but I believe his dominance results from his
> spectacular series of skeletal reconstructions. They are mirrored in nearly
> every young artist's attempts I see. And this is a good thing in respect to
> Paul's thoughtful research into every skeletal element and postural
> considerations. However, as excellent as they are, we must remember that 
> they
> are schematic diagrams. They exist only in intellectual space. Every atom 
> of
> every element is seen from the same exact angle. Paul even mentions 
> schematic
> drawings of war planes in his predatory dinosaur book. They are tools and
> blueprints.There is no horizon. It's a universe of profiles. And you DO 
> need
> this to assemble an accurate dinosaur image, but the next step is to put 
> your
> animal in a real world of perspective, light and landscape. If you can do 
> it,
> I would recommend sketching from "life" from mounted skeletons from as many
> different angles as possible. Avoid those profiles. You will be surprised 
> at
> the interesting forms you will discover. Or create a model of plasticene as
> Knight did and put it in the light to study mass and shadows from many
> different perspectives. In other words, take that intellectual knowledge 
> and
> put it into the real world. Compare Paul's drawing of the giant tyrannosaur
> chasing a barenaked lady in PDW with his painting of a pair of 
> Tyrannosaurus
> cruising beneath thunderheads in a Hell Creek landscape to see what I mean.
> DV

By my opinion, the best inspiration to do life reconstructions, is to browe 
through encyclopediae of living animals, especially mammals. People often 
tend to do a 'Running Velociraptor' or a 'Running Triceratops' or a 'Running 
Euoplocephalus', but take a look at the existing wildlife today. Elephants 
walking slowly, even just standing most of the time. Lions lie on the 
ground. Leopards lie on a branch. The moose stands right on the spot, and 
eats from a tree, and the Puma is yawning. This is not the most spectacular 
scenes ever, but it's 90% of reality in nature.

-Øyvind M. Padron
|
|-Amateur Palæontologist
|-PaleoArtist
|
|-For another dinosaur website try:
  |-http://the_dinosauria.tripod.com


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