Hello and welcome!

[dino_a_day]

This blog was started as a self-imposed challenge when, after completing my Master's thesis work in avian ecology, I realized I hadn't drawn much of anything in a very long time. I used to draw and paint all the time as a hobby, but between the demands of school and work and the lure of youtube videos and PC gaming, I just hadn't made much time for art in too long. In order to exercise my creativity and also work on improving my digital art techniques, my goal is now to complete at least one drawing a day for as long as I can manage to do so - hopefully at least through this summer.

My current source of inspiration is dinosaurs. I love birds, and I've drawn an awful lot of them, to the point where I can pretty much do so in my sleep. But I love dinosaurs too, and find drawing them to be extremely interesting as we know just enough to speculate a little, yet not enough to be completely certain of their appearances, behaviors, and lives. In these drawings I do my best to be as accurate as possible - I research each species or genus, find images of the fossils and read up on current hypotheses for their behavior if they exist - but I also love the All Yesterdays approach in trying to think about how little we do know and what might be plausible even without direct evidence for it - the facial disc on my Jinfengopteryx being a prime example. So please do leave constructive criticism if you have it, especially since I am no paleontologist and would love to know if I've gotten something blatantly anatomically wrong! But be aware that some images will draw heavily on speculation and possibly even old hypotheses that have since been rejected, because I find the scientific process and our changing knowledge of these creatures to be fascinating as well.

Anyway, thank you for reading this wall of text, and please let me know your thoughts on these images in the comments if you feel so inclined!

Lauren

Comments

Off the Latest Things page

[needled_ink_1975]

I love your paintings, and I really admire your fortitude: one every day?!? Wow.

Troodon was the first one I saw (Latest Things is an awesome way to accidentally find awesome stuff), and the way you captured the light just made me stare at the picture for a several minutes. I got hooked with that one, and have been lurking around and loving the others, too.

Thanks for inadvertently brightening several of my days.

–Nici

[dino_a_day]

Hey there! Yeah, one a day, haha, it's a challenge for a reason! I'll do my best to keep up with it, but it's been a really great way so far to take a few hours off from whatever I've been doing and just stop and draw instead. Sort of meditative, almost, I suppose.

Glad you've found the place and are sticking around, and thank you so much for your kind comments! That Troodon one is definitely one of my personal favorites as well, so I'm glad others seem to enjoy it.

So thank you, and you're welcome, too!