Paleoart of Keichousaurus

[Muffinsaurus]

I've never seriously done paleoart before. I have been wanting to try my hand at it for years but passed on it for one reason or another. Recently I fell in love with looking at fossils of keichousaurus. I also love lizards. So I decided yesterday to just do it. So here are my results. If I messed up on the anatomy in any way, please don't hesitate to let me know.

[snolly50]

Enjoyed. What medium was employed for this image, digital?

[Muffinsaurus]

7 minutes ago, snolly50 said:

Enjoyed. What medium was employed for this image, digital?

Thanks! It is digital.

[PR0GRAM]

Very nice work! I love the DOF and the detail of adding countershading to the body! Keep making good art!

[fossilhunter21]

Wow! Amazing job on that keich! You are VERY talented! 

 

I can't wait to see what else you come up with.

 

Thanks for sharing, 

 

-Micah

[Muffinsaurus]

9 hours ago, PR0GRAM said:

Very nice work! I love the DOF and the detail of adding countershading to the body! Keep making good art!

Thank you and I will

 

6 hours ago, fossilhunter21 said:

Wow! Amazing job on that keich! You are VERY talented! 

 

I can't wait to see what else you come up with.

 

Thanks for sharing, 

 

-Micah

Thank you and I can't wait to do more

[IsaacTheFossilMan]

Woah! You are insane! That's gorgeous, superb job - the depth of field and countershading is indeed a treat for the eyes, aforementioned!

 

Note that they swam similarly to plesios, and the long neck was used similarly, to catch prey.

Like plesiosaurs, Keichosaurus used its long neck to reach beyond the wave of pressure caused by it's relatively fat body, which would alert fish and other prey to its presence. By reaching beyond this wave, they could grab the prey before the pressure reached the animal - a snack worth swimming for.

 

Due to their long, long, very, very, very, long, long neck, they had to swim with them directly straight, as any bend in the neck while swimming would result in an unfortunate snap.

But hey, just a small note!

 

Taken from the wiki, a reconstruction that shows this straight neck (to be frank, I prefer your reconstruction ):

 

I can't find anything on colouration in K. hui, so, go wild, studying similar ecological niches (definitely plesiosaurs are a fair bet), I guess!

[Bringing Fossils to Life]

Some marine reptiles are known to have been counter-shaded (mosasaurs, chelonians, and ichthyosaurs). Don't know anything about plesiosaur color patterns, though.

[Muffinsaurus]

14 hours ago, IsaacTheFossilMan said:

Woah! You are insane! That's gorgeous, superb job - the depth of field and countershading is indeed a treat for the eyes, aforementioned!

 

Note that they swam similarly to plesios, and the long neck was used similarly, to catch prey.

Like plesiosaurs, Keichosaurus used its long neck to reach beyond the wave of pressure caused by it's relatively fat body, which would alert fish and other prey to its presence. By reaching beyond this wave, they could grab the prey before the pressure reached the animal - a snack worth swimming for.

 

Due to their long, long, very, very, very, long, long neck, they had to swim with them directly straight, as any bend in the neck while swimming would result in an unfortunate snap.

But hey, just a small note!

 

Taken from the wiki, a reconstruction that shows this straight neck (to be frank, I prefer your reconstruction ):

 

I can't find anything on colouration in K. hui, so, go wild, studying similar ecological niches (definitely plesiosaurs are a fair bet), I guess!

Thank you so much for the praise and the information. I'm going to be honest with you I had not realized that I put that bend in the neck. I have no idea how I let that slip by me. Luckily since it's digital it will be an easy fix and one I'll get to as soon as I can. I'm going to take all feedback and work on it. Even the picture you provided helped quite a bit with an issue I was having with the feet and legs. I have a weird problem were if I go to do art of something I try to avoid existing art so I don't take too much influence from it. So all around a massive help for either fixing this particular picture or when I start on a new one. Also thank you again for the compliments. 

 

12 hours ago, Bringing Fossils to Life said:

Some marine reptiles are known to have been counter-shaded (mosasaurs, chelonians, and ichthyosaurs). Don't know anything about plesiosaur color patterns, though.

Thanks for the suggestion! I did originally have a lighter color for the underside of the little fella, however I mostly lost that when I changed the lighting of the overall picture towards the end. Some of it is still there on the belly, however I did make a rather bad mistake in making the underbelly and the pattern the same color and I will have to fix that in the future. Again thanks for pointing that out to me   

[IsaacTheFossilMan]

2 hours ago, Muffinsaurus said:

I have a weird problem were if I go to do art of something I try to avoid existing art so I don't take too much influence from it.

 

As @Bringing Fossils to Life and I have discussed before - this isn't weird at all, but instead, wise. It's thoroughly unhelpful to take too much influence from art that has little to no scientific gravitas behind it !

[Muffinsaurus]

12 minutes ago, IsaacTheFossilMan said:

 

As @Bringing Fossils to Life and I have discussed before - this isn't weird at all, but instead, wise. It's thoroughly unhelpful to take too much influence from art that has little to no scientific gravitas behind it !

Thanks and a very good point to boot!

[Muffinsaurus]

I’ve taken the feedback I gotten and made adjustments. I think the neck might be curved a little bit still yet. Unfortunately, since I wasn’t starting anew, the warp tool was making things look weird. I also fixed the feet after going and looking at a real fossil of a k. hui. I added an second one because someone I showed this to said the picture was "lonely looking". The second one couldn’t be adjusted because I fixed it to the background 

 

In the future I’ll carry the lessons I’ve learned here into the next project and hopefully have something that is not only better looking, but more scientifically accurate. 
 

Thanks for the feedback 

[IsaacTheFossilMan]

17 hours ago, Muffinsaurus said:

I’ve taken the feedback I gotten and made adjustments. I think the neck might be curved a little bit still yet. Unfortunately, since I wasn’t starting anew, the warp tool was making things look weird. I also fixed the feet after going and looking at a real fossil of a k. hui. I added an second one because someone I showed this to said the picture was "lonely looking". The second one couldn’t be adjusted because I fixed it to the background 

 

In the future I’ll carry the lessons I’ve learned here into the next project and hopefully have something that is not only better looking, but more scientifically accurate. 
 

Thanks for the feedback 

 

That's awesome! A lot better; though still curved. You truly have progressed very quickly!

[Muffinsaurus]

3 hours ago, IsaacTheFossilMan said:

 

That's awesome! A lot better; though still curved. You truly have progressed very quickly!

Thank you very much

[Mahnmut]

Nice one.

I saw it on another darker monitor today and noticed the big fish in the background for the first time. Nice and subtle.

Best Regards,

J

[Fossildude19]

Very nice effort.

However, the limbs look odd the way they are shaped.  

I would have thought that they would look something more like an alligator's or Iguana's limbs when swimming.

 

 

 

 

[Muffinsaurus]

7 hours ago, Mahnmut said:

Nice one.

I saw it on another darker monitor today and noticed the big fish in the background for the first time. Nice and subtle.

Best Regards,

J

Thank you! I wish I could recall what fish I chose. It is at the very least from the Triassic (and hopefully from China).

 

6 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Very nice effort.

However, the limbs look odd the way they are shaped.  

I would have thought that they would look something more like an alligator's or Iguana's limbs when swimming.

 

 

 

 

Thank you and I agree about the limbs. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but seeing that iguana really helped me figure out why it looked odd. Even the hind legs look very similar with the longer toes on the outside. I will absolutely incorporate such anatomy when I do my next Keichousaurus.