Obsidian Studies

 That I never really finished. 

Refs used.

Spino Pelican

 

If it ain't ichthyosaurs, it's these guys. 

It's cool, but it also sucks because Irritator is yet another case of scientific colonialism and the fossil black market. Not only that, but fossil poachers broke and defiled the skull to smuggle it out of the country. It was named "Irritator" because it was irritating to figure out which parts were real bones and which were plaster.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/dinosaurs/massive-dino-from-brazil-ate-like-a-pelican-controversial-new-study-finds-why-is-it-causing-an-uproar

Here's a good vid on it too. 

Ichthyosaur Origins

 

Once thought to have appeared in the Triassic, apparently ichthyosaurs decided to screw with paleontology and evolve way before the Permian mass-extinction instead. The mass extinction that killed 90% of life on earth, and these guys were just chillin'.

https://www.sciencealert.com/oldest-ichthyosaur-known-to-science-discovered-on-remote-arctic-island

Good for them.

Broken Crown

 

I feel this one came out looking worse than the thumbnails. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Fox Familar

 

This piece was certainly a lesson in patience. 

A two-legged fox showed up on the internet early this year.

I wonder if medieval people might have thought it was demonic, or if weird mutated animals didn't mean anything. Regretfully I could not capture the utter "life sucks but idgaf" mood of medieval woodcuts.

Death the Wolf Sketches

Let's be real, the creators of 'Puss in Boots: the Last Wish' knew exactly who they were catering to when they made Death a big handsome scary wolf man.

Anubis Lineart

 

Zooophagus Gift

 

For my pal Zooophagus.

2023 Sketches (so far)

From now on I'll make each sketch it's own post once, or do a monthly sketch dump, not sure yet. Anyway, some sketches so far:

The dilo dog. 

Sorry Ernie, you look less like a pachy and more like a deformed dodo. 

Only I can make a very handsome man this awkward lmao

Spring Birds

Last of the old art, and my favorite piece from 2022. I love American robins and bluejays and I had this in my head for a while. I also have an alternate version, since this piece was inspired by vintage bird paintings after all.

Orion Wells and James Audubon

WIPs:

First I had to figure out how the bird griffins were going to work anatomically. It doesn't look important in the final, but figuring out how they were constructed really helped in the sketching phase.

Thumbnails. It was very hard to choose between the first and second one. The second one seemed more open and friendly between the birds, but there wasn't a great silhouette with the robin. The first had the opposite problem: a much more striking silhouette but the robin looked angry as hell. In the end I adjusted the first to make the robin happier. 

Finally some sketch/line work.

Dinosauroid Fam

 

Fun little piece based off the Dinosauroid. It's a whole thing so here's someone else to explain it:

https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/8/30/dinosauroid-at-nearly-40-years-old

But yeah, it slaps.