Griffin Art- 3/8/12 Microraptor

[Griffin]

Newest, Baryonyx

[Horridus]

Great! Of course it's obligatory to include a fish with Baryonyx. After all, they found scales inside its stomach...

[Griffin]

Yup, I even did my best to make the fish resemble a Lepitotes, the fish associated with it. Not much to see but I tried.

[Meso-Cenozoic]

Man, you're really crankin' them out, Griffy! I don't know where to begin, So, I won't. Haha!

No, I totally agree with what everyone's said above me so far! Great work, bud!!

I am still so blown away with seeing how much talent there is on this forum!

[Griffin]

Thanks Meso, really appreciate it.

Here is my Tylosaurus


and mama oviraptor with her brood.


Enjoy

[stoneage]

They really look good, but are those hands slapping?

[Griffin]

Thank you. The hands are right. The left one shows the outer scales facing you and the right one shows its palm facing you. Just clapping. You are talking about oviraptor right?

[stoneage]

Dec 18, 2009 0:16:37 GMT Griffin said:

Thank you. The hands are right. The left one shows the outer scales facing you and the right one shows its palm facing you. Just clapping. You are talking about oviraptor right?

Yes the oviraptor. I guess it hard for me to tell with those limp wrist. The drawings are still great!

[Griffin]

Here I took a closer pick for you.

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

The left arm looks like it's slapping, but it's a good drawing otherwise so I shoudln't complain

The tylo though, It looks like he has some crazy dents in his jaw and the tail seems too thin, but the pattern is really fantastic

[Griffin]

Well the right arm which is cast in shadow may be messing it up. I assure you I'm always aware of the clapping no slapping rule whenever I draw therapods. If I made it slapping I would have drawn it from the side completely. Not a big deal. I might go back and make it more clear if I have time.

The tylo...I dunno what dents you are referring to. Are they the oval scales I put on his lower jaw? And the tail is twisted around so it looks thinner than it really would be if I had drawn it directly from the side with it stretched out. You can see if you follow the color pattern. I really wanted to be able to draw him big and be able to fit the whole thing on the paper so I decided to twist him around. I also purposely didn't make the teeth visible but gave him "lips" like a modern monitor would have.

Thanks for the input though.

[Griffin]

Allosaurus


Protoceratops

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

Dec 18, 2009 4:37:01 GMT Griffin said:

Well the right arm which is cast in shadow may be messing it up. I assure you I'm always aware of the clapping no slapping rule whenever I draw therapods. If I made it slapping I would have drawn it from the side completely. Not a big deal. I might go back and make it more clear if I have time.

The tylo...I dunno what dents you are referring to. Are they the oval scales I put on his lower jaw? And the tail is twisted around so it looks thinner than it really would be if I had drawn it directly from the side with it stretched out. You can see if you follow the color pattern. I really wanted to be able to draw him big and be able to fit the whole thing on the paper so I decided to twist him around. I also purposely didn't make the teeth visible but gave him "lips" like a modern monitor would have.

Thanks for the input though.

It's not the lips or the scales, but there seems to be a bump on the end of his snout, and another bump on the bottom of his top jaw.

[Griffin]

Oh you mean the fact that I didn't give it perfect tweezer shaped jaws like a lot of other reconstructions have? I wanted to give it more flesh outside the skeleton. I gave it a "jowl" or "upper lip" structure like some large monitors have.

mongabay.com/images/indonesia/zoo/z8786.JPG

It would be soft tissue outside the skeleton. Just creative scientific speculation.

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

Oh OK. I guess on tylosaurus it looks odd to me Also, it might not have had them for streamlining issues, but it's still a good drawing

[Griffin]

Well you really cant say that with confidence. Are crocodiles any less streamline looking? They seem to take to the water well.

I look at it this way. Every big toothy marine predator alive today conceals its teeth when its not using them. Sharks, orcas, leopard seals...when they aren't on the attack and their mouths are closed you see no teeth. I don't know why exactly maybe it has something to do with keeping them safe or something I honestly have no clue but there's def a pattern there.

On top of this fact the modern relatives of the mosasaurs, monitors and snakes ALSO keep their teeth concealed when not in use. I think its totally plausible mosasaurs could have been the same way.

Its all speculation really. Thanks for the compliments though.

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

I wasn't even complaining about teeth

[Griffin]

Well you said the shape of the mouth. Which I did the way i did to imply a sheath to cover the teeth.

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

So why did you put the ridge on the end of the nose?

And sharks actually have their mouths open all of the time (except for some smaller reef dwellers). They can't pump water over their gills so they need moving water coming into their open mouths to breath, so thus, they have to keep them open (gotta bring sharks up-- they're such cool critters)

Nice swishy tailed allosaur ;D

[Griffin]

Dec 19, 2009 0:58:18 GMT [][][]cordylus[][][] said:

So why did you put the ridge on the end of the nose?

And sharks actually have their mouths open all of the time (except for some smaller reef dwellers). They can't pump water over their gills so they need moving water coming into their open mouths to breath, so thus, they have to keep them open (gotta bring sharks up-- they're such cool critters)

Nice swishy tailed allosaur ;D

The ridge was just inspired by some modern lizards. I honestly don't think it would hinder its speed much at all judging by the way some modern animals look.

Yeah sure, like most fish sharks keep their mouths open to a certain degree but their teeth are not out there in plain sight is my point.

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about since I kno u are a shark boy but here are some pics just to show what I mean.

www.reefnews.com/reefnews/news/v07/v07n06/sharks03.jpg

naturescrusaders.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/great-white-shark-picture-01.jpg
A little bit on the bottom but not a big maw of toothyness. They are mostly concealed.

And some other predators with loads of sharp killing teeth who conceal them.
www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/images/cetaceans/orca_spyhopping-noaa.jpg
www.rosssea.info/pix/images/Leopard_Seal.jpg

Same goes for monitor lizards and snakes. They never have teeth sticking out in plain site.

I'm just using modern examples and some artistic license is all. I wanted to make something that looks a little different from other reconstructions yet still plausible.

Thanks about the allo.