This is a velociraptor that I illustrated tonight for a client who wants to print my dinosaurs on t-shirts, to sell to people who are excited by the recently released Jurassic World movie.
I know it doesn't look much like the ones in the movie, but there are reasons for that, which I'll get to in a minute. The purpose of this blog post is really to tell you how I created this image.
The client was enthusiastic about dinosaurs, but didn't have much knowledge about them under her belt. She said that she wanted my dinosaur illustrations to be scientifically correct, like the paintings of Charles R. Knight or the computer-generated dinos in the Jurassic movies.
Here is a typical painting by Charles R. Knight, depicting two therapods in action.
Charles R. Knight was hugely influential in the world of paleo-art.
Charles R. Knight's work captured the imagination of budding paleontologists for decades. His work was - and is - criticized as being non-scientific, but his artistic style still holds up to scrutiny. I agreed that I should create the velociraptor in his style, just a little more scientifically accurate.
The Jurassic World dinosaurs look spectacular but they are far from accurate. Take their velociraptor, for instance:
Velociraptor artwork on the Jurassic World website
This dinosaur is actually a large dromaeosaur that lived in what is now the United States called Deinonychus. Velociraptors were much smaller, about the size of a peacock, and they were discovered in Mongolia. Velociraptors had short legs and probably couldn't run very fast or jump very far. And, here's the biggest difference between established depictions of velociraptors and scientific fact: Velociraptor fossils have been discovered with feathers attached to them, leaving impressions of wings, tails, and hair-like downy feathers embedded in the rock around them.
Velociraptor quill knobs. (Image courtesy of ScienceMag.org)
First I gathered all of the actual photographic evidence I could find of velociraptor fossils, to get an idea of the skeletal structure that would have formed the framework for these animals, and to learn where their feathers were located.
Anchiornis fossilized feather impressions. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)
Here is a bone map I illustrated when studying the specimens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Velociraptor bone map by Michelle Leveille / Artifact Graphics
I trust Scott Hartman to illustrate accurate bone maps of dinosaurs for reference as well. His velociraptor:
I started by sketching a velociraptor, using Adobe Photoshop and a large Wacom Tablet:
It was a blend of Charles R. Knight's colors and action, and the skin scales of the Jurassic Park dinos, and accurate feathering.
But it was too static. My client liked dinosaurs that were coming at you, as if attacking. Also, everybody on the internet draws a side view of a velociraptor running. It's as if they all just put feathers on the Scott Hartman skeleton. So I gave the velociraptor a more dynamic pose:
The client liked it, so I refined it further.
My client wanted the velociraptor to be brightly hued. On another layer in Photoshop, I started experimenting with different color patterns on the avian dinosaur.
I planned on illustrating a dense primordial cycad forest behind the velociraptor, so neither of these color tests would have shown up against the green plants. I decided to go with a golden animal instead.
Yes, there was evidence of leg feathers in the vague shape of a wing, like on the feet of fancy chicken and pigeon breeds.
Here is a fossil of a microraptor, which lived in the Early Cretaceous. (Velociraptors lived in the Late Cretaceous.) Notice the leg feathers.
Microraptor fossil in the Paleozoological Museum of China
And here is a modern fancy pigeon, with similar leg feathers.
Jürgen Sohl's old ice-barred pigeon hen. Photo credit unknown
I like to create my illustrations in layers. After sketching the subject matter and layout in one layer, I make another lower layer to try different colors, as in my experiments above. When I think I have all the color relationships worked out, then the real fun begins!
I start with blocking in the far background. I just scribble in the colors that I want, and keep scribbling more colors on top of them using the paintbrush tool in Photoshop, until the area is full of colors that will support the main subject matter. If the subject is light, I make the background darker in that area so that the subject will stand out. It the subject is detailed, I make the background more amorphous to avoid complicating the painting.
Next I use the smudge tool to smear the colors around into the places where I want them. If the scene is an action shot, I might use long smudge strokes to indicate the direction of the action. For a more impressionist effect, I use shorter dappling strokes. For a vignette, I usually smear the colors in a circle to contain the scene, or else radiate the strokes to indicate the subject is bursting from the scene.
Painting the background with the smear tool.
Next I added a cycad (a primitive plant) and some rocks in the middle ground. They were placed to create asymmetry in the composition, and as an anchor against which the jetting dragonfly could be juxtaposed.
With the background and middleground blocked in, I was ready to focus on the subjects in the foreground. First I used the multiply brush to add more rich shadows to the dinosaur, and the screen brush to add highlights. I also accentuated where I intended to place the feathers by laying down a sort of grid on the feather tracts.
When I thought there was enough scribbling to capture the correct lighting and hues, I used the smear brush on the foreground subject, the velociraptor. I used a smaller smear brush than on the background, though, because I wanted the foreground to show more detail, like when you focus on something.
When using the smear brush, I simply drag colors around so that the darker colors are where the shadows should go, and the lighter colors go to the highlighted areas, and the stroke direction follows the contours and texture of the subject.
I also smear over areas where there is not enough color and the background shows through.
Eventually I got to the stage that I call “fine tuning." The sketch starts to gain some life, and I really feel like I'm working with something.
When the illustration reaches this stage, I am able to step back and see if it's truly working. Flaws stand out that were covered by the scribbles previously. For example, I hadn't really noticed that the arms and legs were far too long to be consistent with the fossil record, so I chopped them. Also, I used broad strokes with the multiply brush to darken areas that looked too flat, to add dimension.
I usually work from the tail forward on feathered animals, because then I arrange the bottom feathers first and proceed forward in layers. I like that technique also because it leaves the eyes and face for last, like a grand finale. I didn't work that way on this illustration because I wanted the face to set the tone for the rest of the body first.
When I reached the tip of the tail, I deemed that the end of this illustration. At least until I get some sleep and look at it with fresh eyes in the morning.
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.
And, here is a post with our Avian Dinosaur Bone Maps that we produced for the dinosaur exhibit at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.
