Prognathodon maquette

[Notophthalmus]

Just a quick study for a painting. Prognathodon is a mid-sized mosasaur and one of the few Mesozoic reptiles known from my home state.

[kevtk135]

Looks pretty cool. Which state is that?
James Gurney also makes little maquettes for his paintings.
Make sure you let us see the painting as you go or when you're done.

[Notophthalmus]

Thanks Kev! I'm from the beautiful state of Tennessee. Come and visit sometime! Just don't go up Copperhead Road.

I was definitely influenced by Gurney - he's sort of my art role model. I'm using his "How I Paint Dinosaurs" video as my guide on this project. The great turn-of-the-century paleoartist Charles Knight also made maquettes for his murals.

I'll post the painting when I finish it, which will probably be several weeks from now. I'm slow.

[Notophthalmus]

A little progress on the painting:

acrylic underpainting


first layer of oils


Not much to look at so far, I know. I've never painted an undersea scene before, so I'm spending an undue amount of time on getting the water to look right.

[kevtk135]

A good start!

[Notophthalmus]

Thanks Kev!

[Gazozou]

The maquette looks beautiful, sometimes they are soo pretty before they reach their final stage...Good luck with the painting, it is a good start-water is never easy to render, if you want to do it right, so it's only fair that you should spend some time with it...

[Notophthalmus]

Thanks Gazozou! I am slowly progressing on this. Hopefully I can get it done this week.

[Notophthalmus]

A little more progress. I'm working on the caustic reflections now, then I need to do some glazes, fix the background, and add some ammonites.

[the Baron]

Great work! And it's very interesting to me, to follow your process through your progress.

[Notophthalmus]

Thanks, Baron! I'm finishing it today and hanging it tomorrow! My girlfriend and I were invited to hang some work at a community art gallery in Selmer, Tennessee.

[Notophthalmus]

Final

[ShaneM]

Very nice. You get a sense of movement.

[Notophthalmus]

Thanks Shane! Today I'm finishing its companion piece, a painting of the contemporary sea turtle Toxochelys weeksi.

[raydrz]

took a while to get here but sooooooo glad i checked in...beautiful rendering!

[Notophthalmus]

Thanks John, much appreciated!