P. sibiricus - almost done!

So I have inadvertently posted a complete progression of a piece, from start to finish - something I have rarely done (at least online). Here is the main portion of my Psittacosaurus sibiricus drawing, ready for inking. I wasted too much time to do a digital painting for now, but maybe in the future I could be convinced to do something with it.

Psittacosaurus sibiricus - Even More Progress!

The angle of some of these scutes is wonky at best - the lighting in my drawing area sucks to say the very least. I'm quite pleased with how this is starting to shape up. Still debating as to whether I have time to go the extra mile and do a digital painting...we'll see.

Psittacosaurus sibiricus - more progress

Thanks to Scott for helping me with the anatomy. I had made the body a wee bit too long. The legs and feet still need some work, but the angle of the head and body are nailed. I'm working on at least one other Psittacosaur to include with the scene.

I am seeing these creatures more and more as the warthogs of the Cretaceous - knobby, horned skulls, a blunted nose that would probably be suited for digging and rooting behaviors. Definitelly not like the lithe, two-legged P. mongolesis...

Psittacosaurus sibiricus

What a singularly bizzare creature. I cannot emphasize that enough. It's some bastard child of a turtle, warthog, parrot, and reptile, with some domestic pig thrown into the mix. This is Psittacosaurus sibiricus, without a doubt one of the weirdest ceratopsian ancestors out there.

Yes, folks, not everything in this genus is P. mongoliensis. Not even close. I think just the sheer weird factor inherent in this particular flavor of Psittacosaur should make it pointedly clear that an entire class of dinosaur should not be dictated by ONE subspecies. And really, why should it be? Are we just getting lazy as paleontologists? "It's just another Psittacosaur - put it in the pile with all the others." That's not the line of thinking that got us this far...

Anyway, as you can probably see, I'm having a bit of trouble with the head angle. Practice makes perfect - or insane, as the case may be.

Also, Andrey Atuchin's skull reconstruction, which I have been drawing from - mainly because it's the ONLY one out there. But also, because this is a very talented artist.

Cthulhu MK. II and Psittacosaurus head study

The scan doesn't do the sketch of Psittacosaurus justice - a lot of the musculature and fine details didn't translate well to digital. Le sigh...this was more of a warm up than anything else...familiarizing myself with my subject matter.



I'm pretty pleased with the way this Cthulhu is turning out, even if it's not _quite_ what I was going for...I guess drawing the personification of chaos and insanity is more difficult than it seems...