Kane’s Trilobite Drawings

[Nanotyrannus35]

On 8/19/2021 at 7:00 PM, Kane said:

It’s been a while.

 

Absolutely beautiful drawing! It almost looks like a black and white picture. 

[Huntonia]

On 8/19/2021 at 7:00 PM, Kane said:

It’s been a while.

 

I haven't been super active on TFF and I missed this! Incredible as always, it's amazing how you can capture the eye lenses at an angle like that! I've tried sketching a few trilobites and I can never seem get the lenses on the eyes to look decent, even from a straight on perspective let along from an angle like that.

[Kane]

3 hours ago, Huntonia said:

I haven't been super active on TFF and I missed this! Incredible as always, it's amazing how you can capture the eye lenses at an angle like that! I've tried sketching a few trilobites and I can never seem get the lenses on the eyes to look decent, even from a straight on perspective let along from an angle like that.

Thanks! 

I guess now that I am giving the prep tools a break, I have no excuse to avoid picking up the pencils again. I already have about 6 I want to try, although each one is a long commitment. If I'm lucky, I'll get one done before the year is over, maybe two. But not tomorrow -- last day in the field for me for fossil season 2021. 

[Huntonia]

4 hours ago, Kane said:

Thanks! 

I guess now that I am giving the prep tools a break, I have no excuse to avoid picking up the pencils again. I already have about 6 I want to try, although each one is a long commitment. If I'm lucky, I'll get one done before the year is over, maybe two. But not tomorrow -- last day in the field for me for fossil season 2021. 

I look forward to seeing more, good luck on tomorrow's hunt!

[Kane]

Took a while, and still warming up, but one out of three planned is complete. 

[Top Trilo]

[Huntonia]

Mind-boggling!! 

 

Say, have you made any progress on scanning and printing these?

[Kane]

Thanks, gents.  More to come while the snows are still blowing, no doubt., and a bit easier to do since I'm back to remote teaching until at least the end of this month.

 

@Huntonia - I can scan them, but sadly it still washes out / flattens the gradient. My wife was able last year to scan and create a calendar out of a number of these which she sent out to a few fossil comrades, and have some of the drawings printed on shirts as well. The scans still didn't quite capture the detail of the original.  

[TqB]

Superb work - I thought that was your working photo at first!

[FossilNerd]

Ridiculously good! 

[fossilhunter21]

That is an amazing drawing!

 

I almost think I am looking at a real trilobite. 

 

-@fossilhunter21

 

[Pagurus]

I am imagining myself sitting on a bench at a prestigious art museum staring at this most recent work of yours. It's mesmerizing.

 

Edited January 10, 2022 by Pagurus

[Kane]

29 minutes ago, Pagurus said:

I am imagining myself sitting on a bench at a prestigious art museum staring at this most recent work of yours. It's mesmerizing.

 

But then you hear me softly whisper an invitation to another wing where your works are being enjoyed, and among the group of your works' admirers you see a young boy who looks a lot like you once did, with that look in the eye you recognize as the same one you had when you gazed upon that first work that caught hold and inspired you at such a tender age.  

[Pagurus]

1 hour ago, Kane said:

... you see a young boy who looks a lot like you once did, with that look in the eye you recognize as the same one you had when you gazed upon that first work that caught hold and inspired you at such a tender age.  

 

I often think I'm still that young boy. I'll bet a lot of us here have a lot of that young boy (or girl) still inside us.

[Paleorunner]

Uaaauuu !!! that drawing is excellent. 

[Huntonia]

10 hours ago, Kane said:

Thanks, gents.  More to come while the snows are still blowing, no doubt, and a bit easier to do since I'm back to  remote teaching until at least the end of this month.

 

@Huntonia - I can scan them, but sadly it still washes out / flattens the gradient. My wife was able last year to scan and create a calendar out of a number of these which she sent out to a few fossil comrades, and have some of the drawings printed on shirts as well. The scans still didn't quite capture the detail of the original.  

Can't wait to see more! 

 

I imagine even a bit washed out these still look gorgeous! But it must be annoying to create such amazing artwork and not be able to perfectly transfer it! 

[Kane]

I grossly underestimated how much time this one was going to take. This was supposed to be a 1-2 day task at most starting Monday, but here we are on Thursday night. 

 

Rather than draw a single, why not go for a gregarious assemblage of 14? Although these span across the entirety of the page, some details were a lot tougher on account of working at a smaller scale, so this doesn't quite live fully up to my standards for picture-perfect realism, as I couldn't quite get the details just so no matter how sharp my pencil (sharpening every few minutes). The blurrier details on the eyes is, however, a feature of these trilobites from the Jorf locality due to preservation and the miserable chert in which they are encased. 

 

This composition took a bit of additional planning, and was initially only going to be ten, but then I decided at some point before laying down the finalizing lines to add four more. And instead of filling in the entire page with matrix texture, I decided to let the blank page serve the role of matrix, which I think makes them "pop" a bit more. 

 

Standard printing paper, pencils (4B, HB, F, 3H).

 

 

 

[Sjfriend]

WOW!!!! This last one is just spectacular 

About the scanning? Have you looked at a pro printer shop? They often have very high end scanners that can do amazing things.

 

I would buy a few of these!

[Kane]

Photo and lighting somewhat washes out a bit of the detail here, but close enough... This one is petitioning to join all the other lovely Arctinurus portraits already here on TFF. 

 

Yes, this one took a long time. 

[FossilNerd]

Nice work as always! Is the hand cramped with all that texturing and shading? I can imagine this one took quite a few hours to complete. 

[Kane]

Just now, FossilNerd said:

Nice work as always! Is the hand cramped with all that texturing and shading? I can imagine this one took quite a few hours to complete. 

I'm having to stretch a very stiff hand and fingers, now that you mention it.  I started this one on the weekend and wanted to get it done within the week. 

[Paleorunner]

OOOOHHH!!!! All your drawings are great!! 

[Nanotyrannus35]

Amazing detail and shadowing!

[fossilhunter21]

On 1/13/2022 at 9:07 PM, Kane said:

I grossly underestimated how much time this one was going to take. This was supposed to be a 1-2 day task at most starting Monday, but here we are on Thursday night. 

 

Rather than draw a single, why not go for a gregarious assemblage of 14? Although these span across the entirety of the page, some details were a lot tougher on account of working at a smaller scale, so this doesn't quite live fully up to my standards for picture-perfect realism, as I couldn't quite get the details just so no matter how sharp my pencil (sharpening every few minutes). The blurrier details on the eyes is, however, a feature of these trilobites from the Jorf locality due to preservation and the miserable chert in which they are encased. 

 

This composition took a bit of additional planning, and was initially only going to be ten, but then I decided at some point before laying down the finalizing lines to add four more. And instead of filling in the entire page with matrix texture, I decided to let the blank page serve the role of matrix, which I think makes them "pop" a bit more. 

 

Standard printing paper, pencils (4B, HB, F, 3H).

 

 

 

 

On 1/20/2022 at 5:01 PM, Kane said:

Photo and lighting somewhat washes out a bit of the detail here, but close enough... This one is petitioning to join all the other lovely Arctinurus portraits already here on TFF. 

 

Yes, this one took a long time. 

 

Wow! Amazing job on both of these!

 

-@fossilhunter21

[Kane]

Time to get the dust off the pencils, and the rust out of my doodling. As usual, the camera and light washes out all the neat detail, but the gist of it is here. Finished this up while a bit bleary-eyed with a wretched sinus cold, so I'm sure there are some mishaps.