Alright, so I waited until the very end before deciding to paint a Cryolophosaurus. I had this sudden idea and thought...I need to paint something for PT magazine. The next dino feature is a Cryo. Let's paint it standing on a hill. Sniffing the air. In a sunset. Backlit.
OMG! This painting I was sure would fail from the start. Leave it to me to start it 3 days before the due date. Backlighting is HARD to paint! And throw in a sunset full of cloud patterns and colors. Whoa, it was a stupid idea and from the sketch I thought well...I can always just paint over it.
To my surprise it actually went relatively smoothly and I don't hate it. This is actually my first painting of a therapod. I find them difficult to get inspired by. Not sure why. Plus I'm partial to hadrosaurs, so am always looking for an excuse to paint them:-)
So, thankfully I learned that this guy was more like Dilophosaurus than the more robust Cryo's that are rendered. So I made my Cryo very gracile. To me, dinosaurs were beautiful animals and I want to try my best to portray them that way. Here, this Cryo is testing the wind, maybe has the scent of a female or prey.
I gave him a light coating of feathers on his neck and tail, mostly to break up the outline and add some interest. Backlighting is so hard to paint for me and to avoid the "halo effect" of the subject being outlined in bright light.
I had some problems coming up with a color pattern that would suit the backlight effect. I chose a piebald coloring (finally) so I could paint those gorgeous pinks, oranges and purples in the light colored areas.
So, overall I'm happy with it and happy it didn't fail!!! My first therapod, and sunset painting:-)
Not perfect at all...so I hope I improve as time goes on, but at least I don't hate it:-)
Take care!!!
8 comments:
No doubt, it's awesome! One of the better "new" cryolophosaurs I've seen (since the reclassification). Only suggestions I have are making the neck a little more gracile and giving the hand four fingers. Relatively small changes, but this is already a great picture!
Thanks as always:-) Glad you like it!
I'll be making those little changes to it, thanks for your input! This one is a hard one, so many different ways this guy has been rendered. AMazing how many different ways one animal can look to so many artists:-)
I still love William Stout's (one of my fav artists) version of this guy with the volcano in the back. Wish I could paint like him!
Anyhow, thanks so much!
Amazing job with the backlighting! Crylophosaurus looks awesome as a dilophosaur relative... I didn't really buy all those bulky "carnosaurified" images of it from the 90s.
And yikes, I forgot the PT submission is coming up.... Haven't even gotten started on mine. I'm so jealous :)
One question Angie, how do you scan big paintings? (I'm planning to do some paintings as soon as I get the time, and I don't know how big this painting is, but some of your previous ones looked pretty large - and I only have a puny 8.5x11 scanner.)
Thank you Nima!
I can't wait to see your paintings! I love your work!
I don't scan the paintings (This one is 12"x24"), I use a tripod and a digital camera to photograph them.
Take the painting outside and prop it up against a wall or something so it is held straight up (not angled). Make sure it is in the shade so there is no glare.
I use the tripod to make sure there is no camera shake. You can find some really cheap ones (I think mine was 20 bucks).
Take a high res photo and bring it into Photoshop to straighten it out and crop out any view of the wall or whatever.
Hope that helps some and I really, really look forward to those paintings you are going to do!
Thanks again, Nima;-)
They're going to be using that as the cover right?!? ;p
Man, this is a truly amazing painting!
On a slightly different topic, what is this reclassification everyone is talking about?
Is Cryolpho now a coelophysid like Dilpho or are they both something else?
I ask cause for one of traum's upcoming adventures I need to build a Cryolopho
I think the original consensus on Crylopho was that they were early "carnosaurs" (whatever that means now... but back before it was such a deflated term, it included Crylophosaurus tentatively). It was shown as a bulky Megalosaurus-looking creature back in the 90s. Now after more research it's known to be much more like Dilophosaurus and other late-stage coelophysids. Whether it led to a new branch of theropods is unknown.
And I have strong reservations about classing Dilophosaurs as early Ceratosaurs (which seems to be all the rage), so I don't know if Cryo would fit there either.
As for Prehistoric Times... I've been very busy this past month and didn't have time to do a drawing of Crylophosaurus. So as before, I'm totally jealous ;)
I second Nima, Zack and Craig's sentiments. This painting is exceptional! How do you decide on your pose and the sunset background?
I'd love to see a "making of" for this piece! Even through it up on ARTEvolved! That would be fascinating!
Again, beautiful piece, Angie!
Thanks again you guys! I wish I had photographed the steps of the painting so I could have put it on Art Evolved. Sometimes I just get so into it, or so frustrated with it I forget to take pictures:)
I've got some new paleo pieces going and I will try and photograph the steps for a post on Art Evolved. I'm still trying to get some work together for AE, I had some ideas for Pteros, but they just weren't working. sigh.
I think I came up with the pose for this guy from a picture I saw of a bear sniffing the wind. I get a lot of ideas from wildlife, plus since I paint wildlife anyway it helps my Paleo work:)
The sunset was just something I came up with. I was pretty sure it was a stupid idea, so i was surprised I liked it. Glad you guys do too!!!
OK, I've been away from blogging for awhile, but i'll be back with tons of new stuff:)
Take care!
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