Saturday, June 11, 2011

Anchiornis huxleyi


The 9th illustration for the book. This dinosaur was not originally part of the lineup of feathered dinosaurs that I needed to illustrate, but the new specimen described in December of 2009 made it clear that it needed to be included, since it was a beautiful example of a feathered troodontid older than Archaeopteryx.

I ran into an unfortunate predicament with this painting that I hadn't yet experienced in my artistic career. Right when I had completed it, a new study was released that described in fantastic detail the coloration that this animal's feathers would have had in life. I was extremely discouraged by this news, but since this painting is going to be published and needed to be as accurate and reputable as possible, I painstakingly repainted the animal to reflect the findings of the new study.

Here is the old version of the painting.

Oil on canvas, March 2010.

No comments:

Post a Comment