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HOULY1970 — Archaeopteryx
Published: 2006-02-27 14:40:50 +0000 UTC; Views: 3253; Favourites: 54; Downloads: 84
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Description
The bird-dinosaurIn southern Germany, 140,000,000 years ago, countless sea lilies were imbedded in fine lime-muds between drowned coral reefs on the floor of a moderately deep sea. However, the most famous fossils from these strata are five specimens of archaeopteryx, generally considered to be the oldest known bird, and certainly the focus of continuing debate.
Archaeopteryx was small, with a wingspan of 0.5 m and weighed about 325 g. Its feathers were similar to those of flying birds, but its skeleton closely resembled that of a small carnivorous dinosaur. The brain was relatively large for an animal of that epoch. Was archaeopteryx a feathered dinosaur, an ancestral bird, or neither, or both? They lived during the late Jurassic period, 140 million years ago.
16"(40cm) x 20"(50cm) Oil on canvas. Original available for $ 300.00 Framed for $360.00
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Comments: 73
Yup it goes back and forth ... I may do another Archaeopteryx piece in the future but on a longer canvas so it doesn't have a stumpy a tail as this one does.
Good luck mastering gimp.
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Yeah, it does. I wish they'd find some other fossil related to this one so they can make up their minds already.
Yeah, I'm working on that - the shark project's supposed to help, actually.
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Thank you Immy.
I read about your car accident. I hope you're feeling better.
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Ohh, thank you very much!
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Don't mention it ... I saw the photo of your poor mini .... I'm just glad that you're okay.
Remember Immy ... What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger. Be strong and you'll be back behind the wheel in no time.
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Indeed 
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Thanks Linden,
To me the Hoatzin resembled it so much that I just had to keep the colour scheme going.
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Thank you.
I can see what Jess Meant about your Jewelry .. Awesomeness. Have you ever made any torcs ?
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WOW!!!!!
seriously BEAUTIFUL.....
YOU will be famous John!!!
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You're so sweet !!!
Thanks Marina.
I don't care about famous .. I'd be happy with just enough money to pay the bills to be able to do this fulltime.
Hope all is good on your end ?
Take care.
John xxx
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One thing's for sure this would look right at home in one of those oldschool prehistoric life books, if you don't mind the half-compliment. It's an excellent painting, alright, but it leaves something to be desired in terms of anatomy and of updatedness.
The primary feathers should be attached to the second finger effectively obscuring the third, the tail does strike me as short as do the wings and there's no reason the animal should have a naked face.
FYI, Archaeopteryx is a dinosaur, that it may be a primitive bird is somewhat more disputable and it lived 147 million years ago, (140 is smack in the beginning of the Cretaceous).
Sorry for the paleotardness but I'm in the mood
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Ummm yeah I guess I'll take the half compliment. haha .... I agree the pose is off ... the tail's too short. my fault for wanting to keep it all on a too short of canvas. As for the face ... I'll disagree ... there's no reason for it not to have a naked face as much as it would to have a feathered one. Many birds have evolved and some of the ones that have changed little in time have facial areas deviod of feathers. So either look's feasible. Think of a cassowary bird, vultures, various Chickens, turkeys and even the bird that I based the coloration on ... The Hoatzin > [link]
I took advantage of artistic licence to do it without facial feathers ... much like the coloration you chose to do your dinosaur drawings with.
Don't appologize for the criticism .... I greatly appreciate it .... This is my first venture into prehistoric life so I wasn't expecting it to be ground breaking and I like the fact that you can point out the anatomy problems with it.
I agree that it's a bit too birdlike. When I have time I'll do another ... this time with a feathered face and I'll measure out and recreate the skeleton with measurements from the fossil photographs and probably try a different color scheme.
It's easy to say nice painting but I like to be able to get the people that really are hard to impress to be impressed ... that makes it all worthwhile.
Thanks for the comments Renato
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Ah, but you could have risen the tail so the viewer would look along it or curl it under the branch the animal is perched on [/smartass] Oh, and I forgot to mention anothe quibble: the vegetation. It looks too much like an angiosperm and in that time angiosperms were little less than primitive bushes and herbs, if anything at all. Next time use an Araucaria or a Ginkgo.
The problem with Opisthocoma hoatzin is that it isn't as primitive as many people thought: studies now put it tentatively with falcons and cuckoos in a pretty derived branch of birdkind. I do take your argument on the fact that we don't know either way on the naked or feathered face, but naked's been done to death and dromaeosaurs had 'em pretty well covered as Dave the sinornithosaur had.
If you want good skeletal diagrams though, go here for prehistoric animals in general and here for Archaeopteryx in particular and once you're done be sure to submit your art to The Dinosauricon .
No problem 
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Haha .... I'm picturing the tail raised and it makes me think that it'd be taking a dump ... hahaha .... I don't know about curling it under ... it's plausible ... but not everyone would get it ... most would just think Dude you screwed up the tail ... but it's a dead horse ... I knew it was too short when I first painted it ... hell I reworked the tail three times from the begining and finally said the hell with it ... I know ... I'm a lazy bastard and copped out.
I'll admitt that I didn't even research the vegetation at all ... ya caught me. I did enjoy painting the leaves though .... it's my favourite part of the painting ... pretty sad but very true.
Naked's been done to death ??? What the hell ? in my pitifull reserch I've actually seen more done with feathered faces ... maybe years ago they were done to death but trust me the dinosaur artists these days have been quite free with the tarring and feathering from what I've seen.
Thanks for the links Renato ... The skeletal one will be of great use. I appreciate it.
I never heard of the Dinosauricon. I browsed quickly through it before responding to see what it was. There's some amazing artists there. Thanks for that one too.
I'd try to help you by critiqueing your work ... but as you already know .... I'm no dinosaur expert. I'm still learning. Better you critique me than I you.
Have a great day .... and stay away from flooded creeks.
John
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What's so ignobile about an animal taking a dump? In fact it would be rather refreshing to see such a bold depiction of a so many times drawn animal 
I admit myself it's been a while since I thumbed through a book in prehistoric life as now most of the information I get is from the Net, so I may be a bit biased on this. Still though, the naked or scaly faced examples stick out in my memory for their awkwardness in respect to the current knowledge.
You could critique me in matters of artistic style. After all I'm still learning to do things and I terminantly refuse to take art courses so critique is the best thing I have. However if you don't mind your work being bashed a bit why not join the Gondolend Forums . All people there are dino-savvy and we sure could use more artists.
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haha yes ... imagine a Brontosaurus taking a huge one on a smaller dinosaur below it ... that'd be funny as hell ....
In graphite I could draw some more realistic images with some new and unique poses ... painting would be a bit looser and focused more on lighting and colour .... but that'll have to wait for a while I have a few competitions that I need to get some paintings done up for first. Then I'll be able to do a few new things for myself.
I'm not much of a critic my friend ... In my opinion everyone has there own individual preferences and just because I'd do something one way it's not fair for me to say that it's the right way or the only way ... yes I could maybe give a few pointers on perspective or porportions if things looked too far off I supose .... I never took any art course either, another reason I don't judge others I guess ....
I'll keep the forum in mind, but I'm pretty busy as it is and it'd just likely be one more thing that I would neglect.
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The face is just...beautiful, I love it. Archaeopteryx have always been one of my favorites, just such neat little mysteries, and you have really done an amazing piece here, and real awesome tribute to this extinct critter. ^-^ Oh I wish I had the money to buy the original. I'm drooling over here.
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I've seen piccus of it in books. I like color worl in this and anathomy is beatifull~ That is hard pose to draw/paint bird in.
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This is so extraordinary! I love it! I had to run off and Favorite and then run off and put the print on my Wish List immediately. I love this so much.
It reminds me of Audubon, it's as if you simply popped back to the Jurassic for a little plein air painting and caught this beauty watching you with interest. I love the expression on its face and those intelligent eyes! You captured the teeth perfectly. I remember your posting about the teeth and how to get them, and they are just so right! I see what you mean about his tail being a little short, but I think that's within individual variation compared to other tailed vertebrates. I love the way you layered the feathers along the top between the two fanned rows of feathers, unlike the way I handled it or any reconstructions I've seen, what you did makes sense and looks more natural. Plumage is awesome. Coloring... that is so rich and gorgeous.
You shine when you paint avians. Archaeopteryx the grand ancestor of all our eagles and hawks and owls, has been painted as brilliantly as if you just saw one in your yard. It's wonderful.
I also think the Audubon resemblance comes a little in the muted, natural foliage of the branch he's sitting in. It's that soft green-grey that I have seen on so many Audubon prints, and he too often curled the leaves or turned them on edge and showed some of them bug-chewed. It's little details like that which make your work so deeply true to life. The texture on the branch reminds me a little of the wrinkles on your elephant, and it's very lively. But the way you painted Archaeopteryx's head is incredible. The shading on that face just makes it pop out lively and real and expressive, maybe it's that you've seen so many raptors hold that sort of pose that you show how expressive an immobile face can be!
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Thank you Robert.
As usual I'm humbled by your comments.
The teeth I managed I guess ... I thinned the paint with a bit of fast drying medium so that they wouldn't be too flashy and white.
The tail ... yeah ... next time I'd use a longer canvas.
I'm anxious to do my next one ... as it is I'm still thinking of trying a Diatryma.
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Oh that would be so powerful. Diatryma is a giant ground-running eagle, and you do the raptors so well that yours will be so dynamic. I've got the poster for Archaeopteryx wish listed. I may not actually order for a while because I've got other things coming up, but that's so definite.
I like his slightly shorter tail. It's still within reason to me, mine ran a bit long and yours ran a bit short and I've seen that much variation between living animals the same species. Some proportions look like they'd be more functional and necessary than others, though I can also see how it bugged you a little not having space for it and that you did want to keep him on the canvas.
I would love to see you do a series of extinct birds -- Hesperornis is a cool one, the wingless, toothed swift diver. I remember seeing Hesperornis in a textbook when I was a little kid and being fascinated by the big wingless diver with its toothy beak. There are others, so many and so beautiful... maybe it's the Audubon influence in how you posed Archaeopteryx that makes me picture it in a handsome large folio where collectors can get a set of the prints in a nice archival cover. I've also considered just on the spur of the moment going through your prints gallery and ordering all my favorites in card size and making a nice archival folder for them out of mat board, so that I can enjoy them when I run out of wall space. If I got every print I wanted, I would be out of wall space right now. lol
But I know I'll want them in some form, either the small cards or maybe a collection of 8 x 10" prints and rotate which ones go up.
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Hesperornis is the one that looks like a mutant loon right ?
haha ...
Yeah I may try my hand at it in the future.
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Yes! A stretched, skinny, toothy, wingless loon. Usually painted as white for some reason but it could be anything. You could even give it blue feet like a booby.
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Hahaha .... I don't think I'd give it blue feet like a booby ..... I'm pretty certain I'd use today's modern loons as a reference for simular plumage colours.
Maybe a scene were it's about to be made a meal of by a mosasaur, since they've found Hesperornis bones fosilized where the stomach area would be in fosilized mososaurs.
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Oh, that would be so gorgeous. I'd love to see that. I think you're right, loons or maybe cormorants would come closest to the Hesperornis lifestyle and context. Now I'm getting interested in extinct birds again and maybe need to do some more prehistoric birds!
The mosasaur is going to rock too. I love those. The great sea reptiles were always as fascinating as the land dinosaurs.
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yeah I think it'd make a good scene .... and give me a chance to finally try glazing .... I'll need to pick up a bottle of glazing medium when I go to the art store this coming weekend. I'd like to have the mososaur rising from the depths to engulph it, but I want it to be hazy and murky looking and I'm thinking that glazing might help me make it possible.
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That sounds incredibly cool. The mosasaur is so gigantic in relation to Hesperornis that it wouldn't all fit within the painting anyway unless the Hesperornis were very small, so glazing and making it recede rapidly into the water would be fantastic.
We're definitely looking at April, worst case May for On Silent Feet, but I dropped you a note about it and could send some of it right away as soon as I cash my check -- ran into some snags getting out to do so. 
I have a feeling Hesperornis and Mosasaur is going on my wish list too, for prints, and once I've got my drawing I'll have to look at my budget and see how to do the prints, whether to get them one at a time or try to do several in a particular month. You have several pieces up that I really want prints of. But especially Archaeopteryx! That is so fantastic.
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Here's a illustration that I got the fact that they ate them from > [link]
It has a mososaur getting ready to try to make a meal of the Hesperornis, but it's rather small incomparison ... maybe a young mososaur ?
I was imagining one coming upwards from the depths mostly hidden in the murkiness of it all ... seeing only the opening jaws barreling towards the unsuspecting bird. I really don't know if I can pull it off yet. I'd have to studie photos of great whites preforming simular attacks upon sea lions ... it's one of their favoured techniques of killing them.
As for the lynx ... check your notes Robert ... I sent one back to you.
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Oh yeah! I think you're right, it's a young mosasaur or it's one of the smaller species instead of the giants like Tylosaurus.
That's exactly what I was picturing, mostly the face and jaws, maybe some splashing water. I've seen some documentaries with the great whites attacking sea lions and that goes so fast, but it's such a powerful image. This one is going to be fantastic.
Thanks for your note! Purr, looking forward to the article!
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Wow, love the setail, hey did you know they actually found one with two sets of wings? I thought that was so wierd, maybe it was two fossilized togtether.
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Thanks Rasha.
I think I've seen an illustration of one with both feathered front and rear limbs ... Looked sort of like a gliderplane.
Perhaps that's the one they found ?
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Maybe, but I remember I was amazed by it.
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well thanks for the free daily homeschool lesson! LOL
have a great day John!
btw...nice job!
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Don't mention it. If I can help kids learn then I must be doing something right.
You have a nice day too.
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hmmm...wanna trade places for a day? LOL
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