I finally decide on drawing a
Eustreptospondylus, a
european Megalosaurid.I chose it for its apparent unremarkableness.
We're talking bout a horse sized (well, twice as long because it has a tail, but about that bozy size) meat eater, probably the biggest in the region - which was mid-late jurassic europe: Broken up archipelagos, dominated by tropical forests, and long mangrove beaches.
My dinosaur isnt running or roaring, but simply walking, with its mouth shut, and dino-lips covering its teeth up. Boring, but realistic - just the way i like it. Its not particularily big or particularily particular in any way. I guess its only somewhat unusual feature is a somewhat elongated head compared to many other theropods - a feature i personally suspect was for digging its head deep into rotting sauropod carcasses it may have come across.
I was very unsure how to proceed with the skin, since skin-impressions are near-unknown in pre-coelurosaurian Theropods. But i managed to confirm that at least one species more primitive, and one species more advanced, both had scaly skin.
If both its predecessors and descendants (altho none are direct, but approximate) were scaled, i feel comfy making this one scaled to:
so, i get to work.
All of yesterday i spend gently, subtly, giving the entire body a scaly effect.
Today i read of a wonderful new discovery in germany: A
european Megalosaurid hatchling complete with fur-like feathers, covering its body.
Goddamnit!!!
hopefully this is a baby-feature, kinda like that fuzz on penguins that they shed as they grow up
Nature is trollin me
