Artist/illustrator specializing in large-scale murals of prehistoric animals and landscapes | Lead muralist Blue Rhino Studio | RISD alum |
#paleoart
#sciart
Just wild to me that it's been 10 YEARS since I started working on this set of graphics and
#illustrations
for the Ancient Ozarks
#NaturalHistoryMuseum
....looking back some of this information has aged well, some not so much....
Itβs official, we at
#bluerhinostudio
are lucky enough to be working on a lifesize
@SUEtheTrex
, coming soon to a museum near you! All hail the majestic murderbird!!!
Amazing new research in the international journal Natureβusing environmental DNA, the team was able to gain incredible details of a 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenlandβand with my illustration on the cover!! β€οΈπ¦£
My new ice age project features a herd of extinct North American Wild Horsesβancestor to all caballine horses we know today! Horse color genetics are fascinating and Iβm playing around with some plausible alternative coat colorsβwhatβs your favorite color scheme?
Ready for round 2? After some new info (thanks SS!) I revamped my ice age horse color chart to be more accurate (by recent-ish available research anyway). What do you think?
Super COOL new steppe mammoth study dropped today in Nature! Oldest sequenced DNA ever, cold adaptations! Wonderful stuff by an incredibly talented team, along with a wintry illustration by yours truly. β€οΈπ¦£
These really fired me up to work on
#paleoart
as much as I could, though I still work on a lot of modern
#naturalhistory
projects, even now (still love it too)
There were a series of 12 for this museum, each is set up near a full
#bluerhinostudio
diorama or real fossil mount, spanning the
#cenozoic
. This was one of my favorite projects I've been lucky enough to work on. π¨π₯°π¦£
Decided to post some of my shorthand notes on American Lion (Panthera atrox). I often do these kind of things in the margins of stuff but I donβt usually post them...since theyβre not to be taken literally and are mostly for my own reference.
@anatotitan
I wouldnβt say βfavoriteβ but occasionally I think Iβm not terrible at this stuff....actual favorite muralists run more along the lines of old natural history diorama artistsβJames Perry Wilson, Carl Rungius, Francis Lee Jaques...
Truly the highlight of my year to be awarded the Lanzendorf National Geographic Paleoart Prize in 2D! A huge thank you to everyone at
@SVP_vertpaleo
for the honor! (And of course the
@RoyalAlberta
for the opportunity to create their gigantic Pleistocene hall mural!)
A unique spotted zebra foal was first seen on the Maasai Mara Reserve Kenya, by a Maasai guide on the weekend. Named Tira, this zebra will be a star! A very unusual and completely beautiful genetic mutation!
Photo credits: frankliuphotography photo 2&3
RS Photography: photos 1&4
Happy
#FossilFriday
! I ended up going with reddish pelage colors for this
#smilodon
....bonus points if you guess the modern feline the colors are inspired by....
We see depictions of T. Rex in action mode so often it was really difficult to figure out an appropriate βrestingβ pose; I tried 9 different versions of
@SUEtheTrex
before we settled on the final for the
@FieldMuseum
mural!
SUE, sit! Lanzendorf Prize-winning artist
@BZaiken
painted the art seen throughout SUE: The T. rex Experience. One of the biggest challenges was finding a believable way for a big T. rex to sit down. (cont'd)
I donβt think people acknowledge how awesome fallow deer are enough, they have stunning antlers and a neat pattern. Not to mention they *might* (heavy emphasis here) be the last of the Megacerines
My work from
#PicturingthePastSVP
is featured in this article for NAT-FREAKIN-GEO you guys!! And Iβm quoted quite a bit as well!!! Couldnβt be happierβAmazing!!! How dinosaurs are brought back to lifeβthrough art via
@NatGeoScience
Loving these incredible life sized models
@labreatarpits
! I have a big elephant project coming up too so feeling all things Proboscidea at the mo π
#elephant
#naturalhistory
Happy
#FossilFriday
! I Encountered a decomposing adult T. rex in a Bavarian forest the other day - including an easily missed 'Easter egg' (a dromeosaurid?). Wonderful to see a display like this; the autumn mood & litter made it even better! (DinoMuseum AltmΓΌhltal)
It's a bird, it's a plane, no... it's a Quetzalcoatlus, who will soar to the Science Museum soon! π« Share your
#NationalFossilDay
love by telling us which ancient plant or animal is your favorite ‡οΈ
Well my Scotty the T.rex illustration found itβs way into the (digital) pages of National Geographic! Everyone follow
@WScottPersons
and
@royalsaskmuseum
for more Scotty-related news!! So exciting, more T.rex to come....
@DreadfulK
and I finished patching and painting the seams of the
#quetzalcoatlus
pair, and now they are all tucked into place at their new home
@sciencemuseummn
! I hope I can visit them again soon when the expanded dino hall is open. β€οΈπ¦
There she is! Our newest woolly mammoth produced by
#bluerhinostudio
for
@theboxplymouth
βsheβs more of a blonde this time, and I just love how those dreadlocks turned out
It's taken me four years of work, to finish the new natural history gallery at the
@theboxplymouth
. It is full of stories about climate change, extinction and biodiversity loss displaying 6948 specimens.
Went to
@labreatarpits
today and got to see
@BZaiken
βs work with Blue Rhino Studios!
Was awe-inspiring and gorgeous sculpted, illustrated, and fabricated work.
A perfectly preserved woolly mammoth trunk has gone on display in Tokyo this week along with other ice age animals recovered from the Siberian permafrost
#MammothExhibition
Highlighting the Blue Rhino Studios (
@BZaiken
and heaps of other insanely talented people in the team), because there is blowing it out of the park and this -
This latest iteration of SUE is the coolest thing I've ever worked on. Especially in these bad times, it's nice to celebrate the people at Blue Rhino Studio and
#FieldMuseum
who willed this beast into existence. Here's a detailed look for
#FossilFriday
:
Mammoth Tusk Reveals Ancient Mammal's Travels via
@sciam
In case you missed this cutie I illustrated for the last volume of Scientific American (v325, i6)...π¦£π₯°
Happy
#fossilfriday
I realised Iβve never posted this quick test I did anywhere. The fossil is the tyrannosaurs βblack Beautyβ from
@RoyalTyrrell
Super stoked to have visited the Antarctic Dinosaurs exhibition yesterday
@nhmla
if youβre in
#LA
I would recommend a visit! First up, not a Dino but this rather lovely Antarctosuchus polyodon! What an old smoothie!
#dinosaur
#exhibition
Yup, itβs the biggest digital mural Iβve ever doneβboth in physical scale and GB....sheβs a monster....reveal coming soon. π€π
#paleoart
#digitalpainting
Um, yeah, thatβs a 3D virtual model π± Part of our continuing effort to get critical specimens online, designed & led by three undergrads: a Classics major, a History major & a Biology major. Thatβs not the start of a joke, itβs collaboration across the liberal arts!
My big secret project is done and INSTALLED! A monster 60-foot-by-13-foot digital painting of Pleistocene fauna for Ice Age Fossil Hall at the Royal Alberta Museum!
#paleoart
#digitalart
If you see SUE: The T. rex Experience anywhere, see it in Denver. This expanded version of the exhibit includes never-before-displayed real fossils from the
@FieldMuseum
and
@DenverMuseumNS
collections. And it looks amazing.
Great to get a preview of
@theboxplymouth
today, seriously impressive - you are going to love it! Not allowed to share photos yet, but everyone knows there's one of these there right?
Never saw this before! Check out how these boar tusks can circle back and wipe out other teeth in the jaw as they grow!
@FieldMuseum
#osteology
#anatomy
Dinosaur/bird wings are tricky for a lot of artists. I have wanted to put together a handy little graphic like this for a while. Hopefully this make sense to you guys.
Meet Crumpet, the adorable and rare, golden brushtail possum. Crumpet is hypomelanistic which means low levels of melanin in his skin and fur has given him this fluffy golden coat. π Read his story β> .
Feathered dinosaur palaeoart hack: rhea have some nice dino legs hiding under their wings. They also are pretty good overall reference for some flightless coelurosaurs where the feathers around the arms bare semiplumes, but the rest of the body more plumaceous feathering.
Some dasyurid rear foot comparisons for
#DevilFactThursDay
Tasmanian devil, spotted-tailed quoll & Eastern quoll
Note the extra digit on the STQ compared to the others