The CAW box: September 2011

Thursday, September 29, 2011

"Troodon in the Rushes" - Dinosaurs & Robots Art Show


Sparrowhawk photo by Bence Mate courtesy of www.hidephotography.com reposted with permission.

How do ideas come to life? A deceptively simple question that has no concrete answer. In my work, inspiration comes in many different forms. It can be the shape of a tree sillouhetted against a setting sun, the way the light plays off the iridescence of the local magpies and ravens, the simple complexity of a fern or horsetail growing in the deep, cool boreal forest, or the flash of a predator's eyes as it stops for a refreshing drink.

When creating something that only exists in one's imagination, it is important to keep at least part of the work grounded in reality. In the case of the painting "Troodon in the Rushes," I spent many hours researching not only the visual aspects of the work - art nouveau styles, iridescent bird feathers, and so on - but also the scientific aspects of paleoecology, paleobotany, and paleobiology.

What was the habitat of Troodon formosus? Where could it be found? The evidence for Troodon in the Alaskan fossil record is scant and scrappy - a few teeth ^{1, 2} and a couple partial braincases ³ are the only testament to their occupation of far northern climes during the Late Cretaceous (between 70 million and 69 million years ago). Thankfully, more complete specimens have turned up in other locations such as Alberta, Canada and even as far south as Wyoming.

This image is certified "GSP-free," meaning
absolutely no Gregory S. Paul reconstructions
or by-products were used at any time in the
creation of this painting.

Reconstructing ancient ecosystems is not just limited to animal life - to create a realistic setting, one must also become aquainted with the flora of a particular locale or geologic epoch. During the Late Cretaceous, ferns and horsetails were very common, filling niches that are claimed by grasses and flowering plants today. Balmier temperatures in Alaska also meant that warm weather trees, such as gingko, proliferated quite nicely under the ancient Midnight Sun ⁴.

I would like to take this time to thank paleontologist Scott Hartman for the use of his skeletal reconstruction (and for taking time out of his busy schedule of being a "Force ghost" on the new Discovery Channel mini-series Dinosaur Revolution to critique my work), as well as Bence Máté and Boglárka Somfalvi of Hide Photography for allowing the sparrowhawk photo above to be used as reference.

REFERENCES:

Aside from the obligatory use of Wikipedia, I also used the following source material:

1. Fiorillo, Anthony R.; Gangloff, Roland A. (2000). "Theropod teeth from the Prince Creek Formation (Cretaceous) of Northern Alaska, with speculations on Arctic dinosaur paleoecology". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 20 (4): 675–682

2. Fiorillo, Anthony R. (2008) "On the Occurrence of Exceptionally Large Teeth of Troodon (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Late Cretaceous of Northern Alaska" Palaios volume 23 pp.322-328

3. Fiorillo, Anthony R.; Tykoski, Ronald S.; Currie, Philip J.; McCarthy, Paul J.; Flaig, Peter. (2009) "Description of Two Partial Troodon Braincases from the Prince Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous), North Slope Alaska". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29(1):178-187

4. Knowlton, Frank H.; La Motte, Robert S. (1919) A catalogue of Mesozoic and Cenozoic plants of North America

If you are interested in purchasing prints, visit my DeviantArt page.

"Europasaurus" - Dinosaurs & Robots Art Show

When someone discusses dinosaurs, they generally refer to enormous lumbering beasts whose very size boggled the imagination. Evolution, however, is capable of some amazing things - especially when it comes to animal populations that, through folly of geography, sea level change, or plate tectonics, become displaced from their formerly wide-open homelands and become stranded on islands or archipelagos. Known as Foster's Rule (or the "island rule") among biologists, formerly small creatures will sometimes become larger (island gigantism), while the bigger animals shrink (insular dwarfism) in response to resource availability, or lack thereof. In modern times, this is evident in the giant Komodo dragons of Indonesia and the pygmy elephants of Borneo - going further back in time, we see the same with the Wrangel Island dwarf mammoths and the giant flightless moa birds of New Zealand.

Rewind the clock all the way back to the Late Jurassic between 155 million and 150 million years ago - much of Europe isn't even a continent yet, and is instead covered by a massive, shallow seaway dotted with island archipelagos. At least one of these islands, near what will one day become Germany, is home to a population of herbivorous dwarf dinosaurs - sauropods, to be precise. It may be hard to imagine that one of the largest creatures that ever walked the planet could come in a pint-sized package as well, but Europasaurus holgeri was just that - a diminutive variety of the usually gigantic Titanisauroform sauropods, a family which includes such bruisers as Brachiosaurus and the newly named Brontomerus. Adult Europasaurus measured approximately 10 to 20 feet long and weighed a mere 1,000-2,000 lbs, where other Titanisauroformes reached lengths of over 40 feet and weighed several tons.

If you are interested in purchasing prints, visit my DeviantArt page.

"A Cold Day Out" - Dinosaurs & Robots Art Show

As humans, we have all been guilty of prejudicial categorization - for example "creepy" and "crawly" things, like lizards and insects, are objects of scorn and revulsion, not generally synonymous with fine art or decoration. This view was especially true during the Victorian and Edwardian eras, at the close of the 19th century. Then, in 1897, French art nouveau painter M. P. Verneuil released his critically acclaimed design portfolio "L'animal dans la décoration," the pages of which were filled with glorious renderings of creatures that were once seen as disgusting, alongside more traditional "beautiful" animals - bats, bugs, and lizards in perfect harmony with peacocks, parrots, and dolphins. The balanced, graphical style of art nouveau breathed a new life and appreciation into these once reviled creatures and made them attractive to even the most dapper fashionplate of the era.


Albertosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous era and is known in Alaska from several bones and teeth discovered in the Coville River basin near the North Slope during the 1980s.

Such was the inspiration for this image - dinosaurs, with larger theropods in particular, have been popularized through movies, television, and books as bloodthirsty, snarling beasts or scaly monsters. Few people realize that these magnificent ancient animals, like their avian kin, could have been devoted parents that tended to their young to give them the best possible chance at survival. With this painting of a young Albertosaurus mother and her brood of fluffy chicks, I utilized the principles of art nouveau and combined it with a scene that any Alaskan parent can relate to - taking the kids for a walk on a chilly fall or winter day - to illustrate this point and to cast a different light on these powerful, misunderstood beasts.

If you are interested in purchasing prints, visit my DeviantArt page.