Hello readers, It has been a bit since I have updated the blog, which is completely my bad. In terms of progress, I have had difficulties. For a long while, the part I was most excited about regarding the Fellows was the art and design piece. I have done digital art, pencil art, and page design before, although not on InDesign. But in trying to draw, I have found that I am not as capable as I may have hoped. I have had difficulty in blending, taking advantage of all of photoshops abilities, in textures...These past months I have been trying to get better with art in general and have been watching youtube, following tutorials, tryin to get better, because so far, I am worried that anything I do will be too stylized, bland, or misrepresentative. I'm still trying, though. The top image is an example of a more serious attempt, although I find the position too statue-esque. I found that for all the time I spent trying to study how muscles would work, I wasn't able to convey it very well, which is something I've been trying to do better. I also have recently discovered texture brushes, which I hope to utilize to make skin more accurate. The lower image was a very quickly done almost caricature of the dinosaur I did for fun. Because I use the same colors for the initial drawing, and the little drawings take approximately 10 minutes, max, I have been doing them as a break and for each.
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wwwwwwwFor creating individual species, I settled on a multistep process.
Many papers include images of bones and/or diagrams of estimated skeletal structures, as well as online references. Using those, I sketch a side-view of the organism and its skeletal structure. Then, using a handy-dandy set up using a reading light, my desk, and a glass pane from a picture frame as a lightbox, I sketched in where muscle groups would go, based on other references and the anatomical sources I outlined in my previous post. Then, I will use a similar process to build the other soft tissues and integumentary -- the skin, the feathers, etc. In doing so, I am also referring to papers I saved previously regarding the species, or that I have come across in my searches (such as an entire paper on the tail muscles in Tyrannosaurs) that describe muscles and soft tissues. These are just sketches, and after familiarizing myself with the organism, doing my best to confirm tweaks, features, and general proportions, I outline a posed sketch for a final work. Then, I'll build up muscles roughly again, more rigorously focus on proportions and specific features (such as, for example, if a species or specimen has skin impressions). Once a final sketch is done, I use a combination of colored pencils and photoshop (with my wacom tablet) to develop it. An example below is Baryonyx walkeri, in its earlier-sketch stages: Obviously, it is not perfect -- the hands and feet, for example, are controlled more finely by tendons and ligaments, and share the phenomenan seen in birds of "drum stick legs" because of it -- heaviler muscled upper legs compared to the relatively spare "foot." But what is clear is where muscles pull, and what generally connects to what. If a species is primed for quickly darting its head downwards to catch fish, not unlike the way a grizzly bear may swiftly swipe its paw into a stream, those muscles may be more developed. If the species is large and powerfully, and walks forefully, relying heavily on its hind-limbs, than the tail may be more robust, as the caudofemoralis muscle must serve to pull back on its leg. Teeth are added in later stages, if the mouth is presented as open. This is a long overdue update, one of a few, regarding the progress of the fellows as well as what I did over break. This is the second time I am writing this, as I clicked a bookmark link and lost the draft. Part of my goals for this project was to create reasonably accurate renditions of these species, and as I've progressed, I've realized just how momentous a task that can be. But to do some, to create generally acceptable, if novice, works, I needed to study anatomy. This was a notion that I realized at the beginning of this project, and is partially the reason I bought Mark Witton's Paleoartist's Handbook, which included notable guides and chapters discussing the various layers and facets of organisms. But, finshed that, I realized I needed to know more--anatomy was critical not just to understanding the words in the papers I was researching for but also for understanding how the bones of specimens articulated, where muscles attached, where feathers and integumentary systems may be. It is impossible for one to full understand a topic as complex as paleo-anatomy in such a short time-scale; but, I needed to know some of the basics to make designs. The differences between dinosaurs and mammals, between dinosaurs and reptiles, even between dinosaurs and birds. Things like knowing that the heel projections on mammals, nor their kneecaps, are present in these carnosaurs. Knowing that birds, nearly every species, is 65 million years removed and heavily modified for flight. So, in addition to Mark Witton's handbook, I researched online, and went to Book Nook, a used bookstore in Glen Burnie to search for anatomy books. Book Nook, despite having literally thousands of books dating back to the early 1900's, did not have many anatomical resources; however, it was a pleasure to explore, and I did find a 1970's collector edition of Gray's Anatomy. While it specializes in human anatomy, it has been incredibly useful as a resource for general anatomical terminology and the specifics of various systems. I also found online copies of Ellenberger's An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists, which discussed how to illustrate the specifics of anatomy and came with dozens of beautiful drawings of a variety of organisms. Elliot Goldfinger's Animal Anatomy for Artists was similarly helpful, especially so in that it included a broader range of animals within the animal kingdom. The was an interesting, seemingly obscure, upload of Ghetie Avian Anatomical Atlas, which depicted chickens and birds from a variety of angles. Because birds are so distinctly different and derived than my species, certain aspects have been helpful, as they are the organisms' closest living relatives. In addition to the books I have been able to find online, in bookstores, or on my own shelves, I have found some online articles and images designed by communities of paleoartists and paleontologists. One featured a paper written comparing skull musculature in various therapod species with crocodilians and birds, with multi-angled and brilliantly colored pictures. Another resource was Scott Hartman's site: an illustrator who has done hundreds of skeletal drawings (something I am increasingly sure that I will not be doing -- I am certainly not equipped to do so, and it may even be misleading) of various species, including Spinosaurus. Hartman provides anatomical diagrams specific to dinosaurs, the example being a therapod, depicting aspects not seen in many modern day creatures, such as massive caudofemoralis muscles in the tail and gastralia bones in the abdomen. I took a variety of notes and re-outlined some of the essentials of my project. The paper (I've had a variety of technology problems and data lost this year, paper has proven, oddly enough, safer) is scanned and attached here: Using these resources, I have done some studies of the anatomy, including some building on skeletal diagrams in order to develop and sketch out poses for final illustrations. My first attempt (earlier than the other sketches) was messy and rough, but it gave me a deeper understanding of general structure and attachments. While perhaps not the most descriptive or even intelligible to a reader, it was critical for me to make. I apologize for quality -- handwriting may not transfer well through scanning and uploading, nor does the some of the details of colored pencil, but rest assured, it is legible in person.
At the beginning of this process, I thought that I would like to do a sort of "Nature Journal" design, as I described in my last post. My own font, ivory paper, etc, etc. Although I had done some sketches, it was only recently I started organizing how sketches might lay on a page, sizing, etc. The first step was designing a font. My handwriting (as can be seen from some of my notes), is almost cursive-like, and sometimes heavily slanted. I used Calligraphr to digitize my handwriting, and I found that that sort of writing (connected/slanted) cannot be uploaded in any recognizable form. Eventually I created the font in photoshop by digitally drawing the letters, but it was surprisingly difficult to do so. It produced a acceptable font, although I probably will continue to work on it -- body text versions, headers, and so on and so on. It was fun, in a way, The next step was trying to step up a sample layout on Photoshop -- designing how I might import fonts and text, how sketches would have to be uploaded and designed, and what stylistic aspects I would want to include. That resulted in this: (Its surprisingly blurry uploaded as a JPEG...I will have to look into that so that files of it don't print blurry) It had much less of a informal design as I had hoped, and the colors are a not quite what I had imagined, but I think it is a solid first draft, or design idea. It wasn't actually the first, but the first that I "finished" with placeholders. The "handwriting" font makes it difficult to do a full naturalist feel without it seeming too much like a video-games' (ARK), but I am going to continue to try. The Title Font, looking a this again, is going to be getting its own edited font, but for the body I think it works well.
The overall color scheme, I think, will remain these shades of browns. It gives it a prehistoric feel. Not every page will be quite so dark, or have that background box, but as I said, we shall see. As time goes on, I think it will be more and more professional looking (experience will help). The size of the page is currently 6 in x 9 in, which is a standard size for some books, but I worry it might be too small. The basic design is here, and didn't take long at all -- I can always adjust for larger page sizes. The real T-Rex page will be double this size wide, taking up too pages, because it deserves more attention. The first real art of the project! I'll upload sketches soon -- I thought I would describe the illustrations I'd want to do a little better. Now, many of the species are not fully described, or do not have records or fossils for many parts of their bodies. In some cases, they hardly have any close relatives to help speculate body structures. In those cases, I do not think it is best if I even attempted to do full body works -- but probably close ups of any data we do have. For species in similar circumstances with close relatives, I may only point to how they differ. I would also like to show skeletal constructions, and a variety of color images of the species. As much as can be done, at least. While I paint, sketch, etc, after viewing a number of paleoart online I have decided that I will work in color pencil and photoshop -- working primarily on paper but scanning in sketches and more complete copies for touchups. I found some online descriptions of scientific illustration procedures that I hope to learn from. It was recommended that a more stylized series of pages might be best for people's interest and the general look I was going for, and I agreed. I may create a font of my own handwriting and use that, although I write in a cursive-print-like font and adjusting it so it can work in programs like Calligraphr. Reference ideas for general pages and layouts are included below. Ark I love the style of field notes from the survival game Ark: Survival Evolved. Its very stylized, and while in many aspects I'd move in a separate direction, the base premise is similar to what I would like to do. Most of the species in the game are exaggerated versions of real species, and include information relevant to their behavior in the game; I would focus more on what I've researched and incorporate that. I also would include less of the messy sketches -- unlike the in-game author of these pages, I am not stranded on an island nor hunted by the animals I study, so they will not be as messy. National Geographic and Others
I like the varied images and information on the National Geographic Page -- I have a magazine that has an image that I like better, but it isn't too dissimilar from this. These is a core focus, like the Ark images, but there is more structure to the information. The other sketches are naturalist animal field notes I found online. I like the general idea and "aesthetic" of them, if that's not too informal a description of the idea. They show the organism in a number of different positions (I hope to simply show them in some sort of possibly dynamic position), and include a lot of information. As I said with Ark, I plan for a bit more structure, but field notes like these will undoubtedly influence the work. It has been quite a while since the last blog post. I'll do my best to be better about that.
Since September, I have been confirmed as a full fellows and have narrowed down my focus. It was ambitious to start, but (and I may have described this a bit prior), in talking to some professional illustrators, I have narrowed down the list even further. It will include some basal Tetanurans (possibly, if the nodes work out), and Megalosauriodea. This will include a number of unique and notable species. In meeting with my mentor and others, I'll shift towards an approach that takes into account page design and illustrations in a more intertwined manner. I will have at least many sketches done by the end of winter break, and hope to finish up for a total of 20 by spring break, where it will blend into more organization. I will continue to read and contact resources. As I begin the school year and prepare to begin creating art for species and focusing on different types of information (measurements vs. time period), I thought it would be useful to document how I have approached the research and how I've organized the information. The First Step: Organizing Species: The majority of trying to find actual lists of species was done in July, and was mostly complete up to 2012, when the phylogenetic analysis by Carrano et al. was published. However, as the analysis focused on the relationships between species and included many, for each coding characters to find its position relative to others, it included many remains that would otherwise be considered to fragmentary to adequately describe. It also included many species that have since been either subsumed into others, reclassified (Cryolophosaurus, Monolophosaurus, etc), or lacked species that since have had new specimens or were described after 2012. This includes many Spinosaurids, such as Vallibonavenatrix (a rare grammatically feminine genus), and other theropods like Wiehienvenator. I spent hours following Wikipedia links (to find the cited sources), references in other papers, and most helpfully, comparing to Gregory Paul's Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs: Second Edition in order to have the most complete and accurate list possible. Mostly likely, I still missed some. But I believe that I have created a good list of species. A big part of the time this took was in part due to complex groups like Spinosaurids, who have almost a dozen potential genera that dozens of papers argue can be subsumed into each other. Is Suchomimus a junior synonym of Baryonyx? Is Cristatusaurus a synonym of Suchomimus? Is Baryonyx AND Suchomimus both junior synonyms of Cristatusaurus? I spent a significant amount of time reading papers just to find snippets of information to include. I certainly enjoyed it, but reading, skimming, and searching for the information I needed was a major factor in time that I didn't quite expect. The Second Step: Recording Information: The first thing I did after creating a list of species was create a list of information I wanted to record. I recorded information handwritten into journals (after completing about 5 species, I spilled an entire cup of water on it, which had me rush to a fan to dry it without the ink bleeding; thankfully, it did not, but it highlighted the problems with paper) because it was easier to read and compare information on my laptop and record what I deemed nessecary on my paper. I had one notebook for my notes, species list, and comments/controversies/plans, and another for the actual information sheets, which made it easier to compare. For each genus (for most they included only one species), I recorded:
Overall: Organization: For a time, I would save the papers themselves to a file folder with many subfolders, but as I began to encounter papers I could not download and were only displayed, I switched to a system of book marking, with detailed folders and titles as to access many of the resources I've encountered. This has solved my problem of a window with 93 tabs. It has been extremely helpful to keep track of sources, something I have been recording in my notes as well. (an example of just one path: most of these sites and papers have been looked at or read, and more lie within the folders) As of now, I have done dozens of species and its going well. As I said before, it has all been a little bit slower than I had imagined. I had to revisit some species I had done earlier, I have not gotten to the Tyrannosaurs. But that is fine, I can do those later.
This has been incredibly enriching. One requirement of the fellows is that we are to post 2 progress posts a month. As of the current blog appearance, August's first post was on its last day. In part because this month's business, and in part from the fact that I posted July 31st's very late at night, I misremembered it as August's post. I hope that this also counts.
Resources are a big part of this project, and one thing that has been nice has been finding said papers and resources. One very interesting one was an excel sheet on which was listed hundreds of women in paleontology, their contact info for questions (if they so chose) and their area of study (from very early life to the remnants of megafauna of the last ice age to ancient plant life, along with dinosaurs and Mesozoic life). I hope that at some point I can reach out to some of these woman to learn further about their work, and as any questions. I reached out to a potential mentor, but haven't heard back, who works in illustration, as well as been reading Mark Witton's blog, which features information on dinosaurs and paleoart. This school year is a historically unique year for the United States and much of the West. We arn't used to disease impacting our society so drastically. And of course schedules have to change. Knowing that, I have written out this next month of my school schedule to see when I will have time to do schoolwork and this project. While I was disappointed to find that some of the times and resources that I had thought would be available during the school day are no longer available (spaces, long stretches of time) I understand that those are neccesary for our health and the prevention of disease. But it will make using the school day more difficult for projects like this. However, sports are cancelled, so I'll have more time after school whereas I had expected to be swamped with sports, perhaps the play, the musical, and more. So if there's one positive about the new situation and the Fellows, is that I'll have structure, access to some of Severn's resources, and time I didn't know if I would have going into this. One of the hardest problems for me during the summer and quarantine was the lack of structure. Without structure, or events, or set plans, I find myself slipping and not doing what I may need to as time flies by. However, the Fellows project provided some structure by forcing me to pursue what I needed, which was what I needed and hoped for in starting it. And, the new school year, as it did in the spring, will help even more. And as the summer has progressed, and as we enter this uncertain territory, my ability to work with variable times has and will improve, and for that I am thankful. But I am nonetheless very appreciative for the blocking school gives, and the less unexpected events there are during the year than the summer. I think my productiveity will increase, which will be important as a draw. I messed around with photoshop more, and am in digital photography in the fall, so I am excited to learn more about that as a resource. This will be a big part of the year, and I am looking forward to it. I also found out that I can scan physical sketches into photoshop, which will help me tremendously. Other difficulties used to include reading all the papers, but now they feel like treats, and I hope they continue to be. I hope this year will go well. Things I've Learned/Fun Facts (Might start adding these to posts for fun): A problem with drawing dinosaurs in the past (other than posture) is that they were often skin-wrapped, or drawn almost as deathly skinny, without the muscle mass that one might find in a massive, carnivorous organism. A common picture I've seen online is where someone drew modern animals like geese and hippos with that style, not accounting for muscle mass or fat, or non-skeletal structures, and its fascinatingly wrong-looking. In addition to skin-wrapping, dinosaurs were drawn as slow, dull beasts, both physically and mentally. This dullness has also changed over the years: except in a few specific cases, we know nothing about the color of dinosaurs skin or plumage. While they were once drawn in muted hues of brown or gray, now non-avian dinosaurs are drawn in hosts of colors. One simply has to look at modern birds to see the possibilities. So dinosaurs went from gray, sad, and skinny to plump and colorful, and I am very excited to draw them in action! Well, I have most of the info and a few papers for Spinosauridae, and some stuff on their (maybe? there's debate) sister clade Megalosauria/dae. After I finish that group I will probably post the data. I'm taking a lot of notes by hand, and in the form of lots of chrome tabs, so I'll probably working on digitizing/typing/condensing in these next few days. I think I am on track to get to my new goals. Tyrannosaurus rex, here we come! Or at least Carnosauria.
I may have to look up more information as I draw them (specific fossil measurements and such), but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. |
AuthorJulia Youssef Archives
April 2021
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