More dinosaurs in comics!

I forgot to post this! My pencils for the cover of Teen Titans 10 (which I'm working on right now!)  Dinosaurs are peppered all through the issue so it should be fun:)

Best!

Brett

Concavenator!

More on this guy over at Tet Zoo and Theropoda. I'm still geeking that it had quill knobs and that hump! Awesomeness!

Sometimes...

You're asked to do some strange stuff. DabelBrothers, a company I do work for, has asked me to do some redesigns of the 90's Dinosaucers cartoon. So these are the first attempts. Allo the allosaurus...(I won't comment on the complex naming techniques used by the original designers.) I think it was a kids cartoon and they went as simple as possible. I'm trying for a bit more complexity, so we'll see what happens. The first image is his 'Devolved form'
This is his regular anthro form. Im trying to make these as more inline with current ideas. More later this week!

Best,

Brett

Shaochilong skull restoration

I pulled the image from Theropoda, my file's on the other machine and I'm far to lazy today to pull it. I drew this for Steve Brusatte over the summer, the paper came out today, so this is my first actual scientific art for a paper. Coolness;)

Thanks agian to Steve for letting me do this, it was quite fun:)

Best,

Brett

Megaraptor in color

That's all for now. I do have some new drawings that need to be scanned.

Best,

Brett

Australovenator and Megaraptor

This animal was announced over the summer, along with 2 large sauropods. Since it's the first good theropod remains from down under they named the beastie Autralovenator. I finally got around to drawing it, and a good thing I waited so long. Last week a new paper was published that finally (for now at least) sheds some light on a new group of theropods The Neovenatoridea. This appears to be a second group of allosaurs, the sister group of the Carchadontosaurs, and in this group is Australovenator and drum roll please.... Megaraptor.

So Megaraptor isn't a Spinosaur or a Carcharadontosaur but a really advanced allosaur. I'm still geeking about this!

More later, including a new giant Tyrannosaur.. oooohhhh!

Best,

Brett

Mapusaurus, Neovenator and Eocarcharia

Another of the giant carcharadontosaurs from South America. I believe they have parts of 7 individuals. The most likely explanation is that it lived in some sort of pack. Related to Giganatosaurus, this animal preyed upon the giant sauropod Argentinosaurus.


Once considered a relative to Acrocanthosaurus, it's now thought to be an allosaur. Found in England, it was hanging around in the early Cretaceous with animals like Iguanadon and Baryonyx.


This is the earliest confirmed carcharadontosaur. Eocarcharia, was found in the same area and strata as the last post's Kryptops. Interestingly these theropods also lived along side of Suchomimus. This seems to be the theme for Gondwana in the Cretaceous, 3 giant theropods as the top predators.

Best,

Brett

Paleo art and Aerosteon

Aerosteon, it appears to be a later surviving Allosaur, or something very closely related. It had a respiratory system similar to modern birds.

Paleo art:

I've been drawing dinosaurs semi seriously for around 9 years now. I remember when artists like Todd Marshal and Luis Rey were just starting to get popular. I remember picking up the paperback version of Predatory Dinosaurs of the World (I just picked another hard cover of that one. That make 3 that I've bought over the years) while on a trip to Hawaii. I was amazed at what it had in it. Jurassic park had just come out and it had been about 8 years since I'd last really read bout dinosaurs.

The art in that book fascinated me. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Dynamic agile animals, feathered raptors. It was amazing. To this day Gregory S. Paul is a favorite artist of mine.

So what is this post about? Well it's been a few years since I started to try my hand at drawing dinosaurs, an the one thing I still see, is the influence of Gregory S. Paul. This is of course fine and dandy, I'm a big fan, his work is a great influence of mine. But most the artists who are so greatly influenced by him, and there are a lot, don't seem to try and develop their own style. They seem to have come to an approximation of Paul's and that's it, nothing new, no other influences. And while it's always great to see his art, the market has been flooded with clones. Now I'm guilty of this to a certain extant myself. I had a favorite comic artist that I aped, it's how I got hired originally. BUT after the initial honeymoon phase, I did try to branch out and develop my own style (I've heard it called the 'Brett Booth Beauty Academy'. Which I find endlessly amusing;)) I think I've made the transition to my own 'look'.

So what I'm trying to say is that IF you are a Paul clone, why not try and experiment with some other styles, I'm not trying to get people to draw like me, I already have those in the anthro world and some even in the comic world. But my hope would be to help expand the artistic styles of some of the artist that I see with a lot of promise to break out and become the next Gregory S. Paul. Oh, and for goodness sake PLEASE take a few basic art classes (I know a lot of the artists are self taught.) It will help with perspective and some basic design work, help create some depth in the pictures.

Of course some of you will say who the hell is this guy? He's not a professional paleoartist! True, but how many books with your name on it do you have on Amazon? I've draw thousands of illustrations for comics and the like, I've critiqued countless would be artists online and at shows. I have a degree in commercial art. I've been drawing comics for over 16 years. I'd have to have at least SOME design sense after all that (I'm not trying to toot my own horn just prove a point.) So why not take of the advice of another artist, try to expand on a good base and take your art to the next level.

Best,

Brett

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus

The ever popular Spinosaurus. Originally found in the desert near Egypt (mid Cretaceous rocks) at the beginning of the 20th century, all the original material was lost during the bombing of Germany during WWII. We are lucky to have drawing of the material so all was not lost! The original material which consisted of the front part of the lower jaw, a few neck vertebrae, a few tail vertebrae, and most of the back vertebrae with the elongated neural spines. The original restoration was of a giant allosaur with a sail, like this drawing. The exact size of is hard to pinpoint. The original material appears to not have been fully grown. Sizes from 50 to 65 feet have been offered, but we'll have little to no idea until a new skeleton is found.

For a long time that was the restoration, until the 80's, when Baryonyx was found. It was quickly discovered that the 2 species were very similar, that gave us our first decent peek at what a spinosaur looked like. In this restoration I bulked up the skull a bit, the lower ends shortly after the tip, but the back of the jaw bone looks very robust. So I toyed with the idea that Spinosaurus was sort of returning to a more predatory dinosaur, Baryonyx was considered a fish eater (even though iguanadon bones were found in it's stomach contents, along with fish scales) so the skull was more delicate.
In 2003 it was suggested that Spinosaurus was actually a chimera (made up of more than on animal) since it was found in a bone bed with other animals. The jaw belonging to a spinosaur, the neck to a relative of Acrocanthosaurus. The back to a sauropod (all of the three major dinosaur branches produced a 'fin' back.) I actually like the idea (I suggested a hadrosaur for the backbone since the older adults bones seem to mimic theropods, something I didn't know until I saw Valley of the T. rex with Jack Horner. But a sauropod would explain the great size) I liked the idea of a chimera, the sail would be a great hindrance to an active predator. But science changes and moves on...

It was reported that a new skull was found earlier this decade, something that would have been around 8 feet long. Now there was/is a possible relative of Spinosaurus, or in this case a subspecies, also found in Africa, this was dubbed Spinosaurus marocannus. Only the front part of the upper jaw was found, it was very delicate. But this new skull, seemed to link the 2 species/subspecies together, the new skulls teeth matched the original lower jaws teeth so it appears that the more robust skull I drew was wrong, so this drawing was done.


This is the most recent drawing, based on all the info I could find online. It looks like Spinosaurus is actually closely related to the South American spinosaur Irritator. At first Irritator was thought to be a pterosaur (it's skull is really strange even for a spinosaur,) but the new skull material for Spinosaurs matches it rather closely, even similar in tooth count.

What appears to be emerging is a very different animal than originally described. Long and lean, the nostril s far back on the skull, the neck designed for a more heron like attack. It appears to be a giant fish eater, perhaps it was forced to the water as it's great length wouldn't protect it from the other giant theropods that shared it's environment? (Carcharadontosaurus, Deltadromeus and possibly a few others, the remains are too scrappy.)

But what of the sail? It's been theorized that it was for fat storage, but the spines are very thin, I doubt they could have supported much weight. Possibly for cooling? Other theropods with similar size didn't have one, but maybe it helped when fishing in the afternoon, it does get hot inthe sun. I've also heard it was used as an actual sail for swimming... We know theropods could swim, we have 'foot' prints, really just nail prints;) But none of the other spinosaurs with associated skeletons show aquatic adaptions.. So I had an idea. It might be wrong, but what about a shade for hunting in the sun? Something to keep the glare of the sun off the water so it can see the fish below? Or maybe a combination of these? That's the most plausible scenario seeing as most parts of the body preform several functions.

Best,

Brett

Saurophaganax

I get a lot of hits on this one over on the regular blog. So I figured I'd post it here. There isn't much known on this theropod. Some vertebrae, some leg bones, but no skull. As I mentioned before this might turn out to not be an allosaur but an early carcharadontosaur, that's how I drew it here.

I actually have been to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and got to see their mount of Saurophaganax (based on Allosaurus.) Unfortunately my camera died and I couldn't get any pictures. I'd like to head up that way again, they have a new Triassic exhibit that I want to check out.

Best,

Brett

More Allosaurs

'Epanteris' the giant allosaurs specimen. It's a bit bulky but it was a big animal. I wanted to enclude these in yesterdays post but my signal wasn't good enough to upload after the first image. Damn wind!



This one is sort of a revamp of the male Allosaurus in the last post. Since that one was based off of Paul's Allosaurus fragilis skeletal reconstruction in PDoW, I thought I'd draw one based off of the Allosaurs atrox reconstruction in the same book.

Jess nicknamed this one Fluffy right after it was drawn, the feathers are entirely speculative and more than likely wrong, but it is a fun picture. This one as well as the family from the last post were colored by my wife Jess.

I have more but most aren't colored and some I just don't like. I have been asked to draw some dinosaurs without all the spikes and protofeathers, but the animals just look plain to me. Just an FYI the Big Al specimen of allosaurus might turn out to be a new subspecies:)

Allosaurus fragilis

This is the very first dinosaur picture I drew using actual reference that wasn't either a model or from JP. I did this way back in 2000 for Prehistoric Times. This is what sparked my interest in drawing dinosaurs, and while the style might be a little off from the norm, there are other comic book pros that have also delved into the world of dinosaurs, Art Adams, Ricardo DelGado, and William Stout. I've heard rumors that Walt Simonson also draws dinosaurs, but I have not been able to find anything else about that:( Now on to Allosaurs:

This was the first large theropod described, there have been several subspecies attributed to it, Atrox, Maximus, as well as similar animals that might be sysnonomus with it, Epantaris, Saurophaganax. The Fragilis skull is now thought to have been restored incorrectly, so since it was named first Allosaurus atrox has been lumped into Fragilis. Likewise Epantaris seems to just be a large adult individual so it too seems to now be lumped into Fragilis. As for Saurophaganax A.K.A. Allosaurus Maximus? An unpublished analysis appears to place it as an early Carcharadontosaur and therefore not a member of Allosaurus, just closely related.

The first picture has some flaws, the arms on but the main allosaur are incorrect, some of the anatomy is off, but for a first try it still holds up well. At the time of this drawing the feathers were entirely speculative, but recent finds might actually prove this drawing feasible.

Allosaurus is a medium to large theropod from the late Jurassic, we have lots of specimens, from small to large. Maximum size would be somewhere around 40 feet with a 3+ foot long head. Sometimes referred to as the lion of the Jurassic... but they most likely would be better compared to wolves, they have smallish teeth for such a large animal. They've found many of them fossilized together in large bone beds so they were most likely pack animals, I find it hard to believe all dinosaurs lived solitary lives.

That's all for now,

Brett