Friday 14 November 2008

Art #12: Velociraptor mongoliensis



"Velociraptor mongoliensis"
Coloured pencil illustration, November 2008
Velociraptor mongoliensis Osborn, 1924
Dromaeosauridae; Saurischia; Sauropsida; Chordata
From Late Cretaceous Mongolia

Velociraptor mongoliensis almost needs no introduction. There is one thing I'd like to mention though: the recently late Michael Crichton included this species in Jurassic Park by accident really, as the animals in the book and movie are clearly human-sized, whereas Velociraptor is only 50 cm high (less than 2 feet). Also, those dinosaurs are "naked", without feathers, which is common knowledge even to lay people nowadays. I chose a rather monochrome colour scheme for my interpretation of this quasi-famous animal; I like the idea of a dark Velociraptor more than a gaudy one.

I accept there are one or two faults to this drawing, but I thought it was close enough to how I pictured it in my mind to put on this blog. For one, the legs don't look right (they never do in a theropod dinosaur drawing I ever do!) and the head is too big. I ran out of room on the A4 paper to finish the tail, regrettably. I clearly need to work on my proportions!

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