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.
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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. |
AuthorJulia Youssef Archives
April 2021
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