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Osmatar β How (not) to Draw Feathered Dinosaurs
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#deinonychus #feather #guide #horrible #howtodraw #humor #raptor #satire #velociraptor #wings #wrong
Published: 2014-10-10 15:28:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 55212; Favourites: 545; Downloads: 197
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Description
This is what happens when you attempt to put together every bad paleoart meme still alive in the field of feathered dinosaur illustration. Behold and despair!This little project was originally intended as a follow-up to Worst. Deinonychus. Ever. Β because I couldn't address feathers in that one. However I fell seriously ill before finishing it, leaving it lingering for two years. Thankfully in the meantime lots of people have made good scientifically accurate guides to feathered dinosaur anatomy so I don't have to feel so bad about releasing this abomination to the interwebs.
This non-inforgraphic is not intended as an actual guide. If you do want to use it somehow, just do the opposite of what the anti-guide advises you to do.
(Disclaimer: not all of the advice in this anti-guide is 100% bad all of the time. If you however can't tell the universally bad advice from the situationally bad, make sure to read up on dinosaur anatomy and taxonomy before you try illustrating one.)
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Comments: 125
A Naked leathery head, possibly. Naked and scaly, not likely. (Ostriches have quite fluffy heads, BTW, not that it matters.)
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I'm under the impression that the creature designer of Ark: Survival Evolved followed this helpful anti-guide.
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I'm just drawing some feathered dinosaurs for an art card swap I'm hosting, and this is giving me doubts and anxieties!
This looks a bit like a raptor wearing a macaw skin though. And mohawks are cute (but the only one I gave it to was the huxleyi, which is always depicted with a crest).
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I believe there was a dromaeosaur with evidence of supposedly having what appeared to be a mohawk, which is what sparked so man feathered dinosaur depictions with variations of mohawks.
However, it was likely just the result of the way the animal died that made the feathers appear to be a mohawk shape.
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You mean microraptor?
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Oddly I have a figure that looks uncannily similar to this
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O.o
i do JP dino stuff and even i think this an't right.
if the body really should have all feathers....the asshalf not haveing feathers is creepy.
i under stand the feet and hands being featherless cuz it would be messy and full of ick after eating but not the whole leg.
some of this stuff is good for personalized raptors but not for realistic ones.
but then again we an't timelords so none of us will ever get to see a live dino.
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yes...i'm talking about how people are drawing feathery dinosaurs
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Is it bad that I base my Velociraptors' colors off of a bird that (I assume) weighs less than 100 grams (a bank mynah for anyone who may be wondering)? XD
In my defense, I made sure to go for something that I felt would be within the realm of reality (I searched up desert birds on google, the bank mynah was one of the results)
Conversely, I don't think a lot of people would object to the colors I picked for Deinonychus and Troodon (peregrine falcon and hooded crow, respectively).
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The bank mynah's colors don't look too exotic. Many birds have hues of grey or brown. I assume many dinosaurs would have had similar colors.
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I actually don't use those colors anymore!
I made up my own Velociraptor color scheme, one more fitting for a desert-living dinosaur! ^_^
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I think the main thing here is what it is you're trying to accomplish. This whole graphic is intended as a criticism of serious "professional" paleo illustration, the sort of thing that gets published in print etc. So things that should be as informative and accurate as possible. Hobbyist work is hobbyist work, everyone is free to set their own standards there (although if you do aim for maximal realism, then this graphic is probably useful for you).
So if you want realism, I would suggest not to use small, volant omnivores as the primary model for non-volant terrestrial predators several orders of magnitude larger. It's a bit like basing the coloration of a serval on a squirrel. It may work, but it's more likely to be right by accident than through sound logical reasoning.
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(I spent some time thinking about my response, because I was afraid of sounding rude or like one of those brats who can't take criticism. If I do sound like either of those things, I apologize in advance.)
I wasn't quite expecting such a detailed answer, tbh. However, in response to your "what you're trying to accomplish" statement, I'd classify myself as "aspiring cartoonist/comic book writer/novelist who cares about accuracy but is willing to take a few liberties". I like my dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters to be relatively accurate, but I tend to go crazy with colors, since dino colors seem to be the only area wherein my creativity takes a beating. Of course, Bank Mynah!Velociraptor isn't even my craziest color combo. You should see my parrot-colored ceratopsians!
That said, I don't always use birds or improbably weird mixes. While sometimes I go crazy and weird with my choices, other times I go for animals that at least somewhat match with the animal's lifestyle. My Plateosaurus is based on an okapi, my Camptosaurus on a zebra, my Parasaurolophus on a Thompson's gazelle, my Liopleurodon on an orca, my Stegosaurus on a hippopotamus and my Ceratosaurus on a tiger. Some of my other bird choices tend to be of animals that I hope at least somewhat resemble the dinosaur I'm going for. Most of my large theropods are based on birds of prey (my T. rex is loosely based on a bald eagle, Spinosaurus on an osprey, Giganotosaurus on a harpy eagle, etc.) for example.
But I see your point. While I am quite happy with most of my dino's colors, there are others that I'm either not as happy with or undecided on (by the by, can you suggest any non-giraffe/elephant colors for Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus/Brontosaurus or Camarasaurus? My old colors for them not only didn't suit them, but were also dreadfully ugly :\). Looking at your suggestions again, perhaps the colors of a desert-dwelling predator would fit Velociraptor? I was thinking some sort of desert owl (since they're both nocturnal predators).
(BTW, I have some paleo pics here on DA if you'd like to see/critique them 
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I once saw a Utahraptor in a kidsbook that had 2 left feet, litteraly. Also an Archeopteryx with 2 pairs of hands, one unfused and one fused.
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Helpful tip: Add an insulting rant bout how non-threatening and ridiculous dinosaurs look with feathers.
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He should. Cause people who want to finally see one accurate film or documentary about dinosaurs are "FEATHER-NAZIS".
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Don't forget to draw your Raptor as shrink wrapped as possible, especially the skull, it should display all of the fenestrae... Oh, and the sickle claws should be as big and as curved as possible, on every Dromaeosauridae...
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and make sure to show de ribs
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Also the shoulder blades, it should be as visible as the Sun during a clear day.
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nice similie, very poetic and very very accurate.Β Also, the Eye should have a pupil as narrow as a rod shaped by the best factory
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I can see how a lot of this is completely inaccurate, but the primaries do extend to the armpit, right? Just like in a bird's wing?
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It seems you are a victim to a very common misconception about the anatomy of the avian wing. Fact is, even in modern birds remiges are limited to the manus and ulna. They don't go past the elbow! Modern avians may (but don't always) have tertials that attach to the humerus, but as far as I can tell, unambiguous evidence of tertials hasn't been found in any non-avian theropod, or even in the earliest mesozoic birds, meaning they may be a much later adaptation to flight.
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There is something I don't understand. Despite thousands of evidences which show proper feather position and distribution on dinosaurs, people still misrepresent them like this. Why do you think it's like this?
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In some cases it might be that people just don't care enough. It could also be that they expect basic research be much harder and more time consuming than it actually is. Then again, you need to know how and where to look for that information - a hurdle much higher to some people as us internet-savvy people would expect. But it probably comes down to how much time and effort people are willing to put into a paleoillustration which - the pros and enthusiasts excluded - is all too often not a whole lot.
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Lol this is so much true in exaggerated parody feel
I think everything was said here
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lol it looks like a dinosaur wearing a bird jacket or costume.
Reminds me of some of my art over the years. Good things to point out, thanks.Β
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So true. I try to avoid this, but mistakes are made.
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Yes so true if feathered dinosaurs looked like that I would not like them.
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Β Β Bravo!Β Someone needs to show this to many toy companies that try to produce accurateΒ dinosaur figures! Β
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This is hilariously(and unfortunately) accurate to how many feathered dinos are portrayed these days.
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Wouldn't predatory dinosaurs favor a bald face? Many predatory birds like Marabou storks and vultures have none as they get messy when digging through a gory carcass.
I think many artists made their dinosaurs colorful since it's suggested that they could see color like birds. Still, most birds don't have this and even if they do, it's simple specific or sexual signals and are often a burden for some. Maybe the colorful parts of a dinosaur would be more cleverly hidden...
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Colour-vision in most birds is superior to ours. What we see as dull brown or grey can be very colourful for them.
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The bald face has been argued, but then, not all predatory birds are bald-headed, and even in obligate scavengers the baldness seems to have at least as much to do with display and thermoregulation. Not all vultures are bald! It has also been pointed out that unlike birds, non-avian dinosaurs had arms with free clawed fingers to help them clean up. And even then, at least some of the maniraptorans came from a long lineage of fully feathered animals. Even if they lost the feathers, the naked head might bear very few if any scales beyond the tip and margins of the jaw.
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Hey, I used to draw them like this when I was twelve xD
Anyway, it's good that you point this out. Especially children books depict them in these awfull ways.
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This is even worse than "Worst. Deinonychus. Ever.", because you can actually see all these crimes combined very often.Β
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Rather silly antiguide ! It is a good work !
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Β The crest happens to be a force of habit with me most of the time. I just don't know of any other options outside of it besides nothing.
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There's plenty of options. Just look at the diversity among modern birds of prey: naked wrinkly heads, short hairlike fluff, wattles, regular feathers, feather mullets and yes, even crests.
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Um. I kinda like retractible, brightly colored,Β head crests on dromeosaurs. But I agree with everything else.
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Wanna know a secret? I always drew a feather crest on Deinonychus for something like 20 years. I don't even know why, it just looks cool, I suppose. The thing is, nearly everyone else does the same, and it's silly. Not every feathered dinosaur is a hoopoe. It's not so much that the crests are inappropriate as that they're way overused.
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This actually relates to a question I have. I'm writing a novel that concerns dinosaurs, which I intend to illustrate, and one of the dinosaurs in it is Deinonychus. But I want to reach a wide audience, not just dino-nerds. So I want to make the Deinonychus look as accurate as possible while still being something the man in the street would consider a "dinosaur", as opposed to a wierd bird.
Any advice?
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If you don't mind me butting in: one avenue of success I've seen in depicting Deinonychus accurately while still making it appealing to laymen is to draw as much reference as is reasonable from birds of prey. Not in the minutiae of plumage and coloration, but in "feel": birds of prey aren't weird-looking to most people, they have conservative coloration and no gaudy display structures, yet convey a sense of power, ferocity and stylish beauty that would look very natural on Deinonychus.Β
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Ornate hawk-eagle feels left out: c2.staticflickr.com/8/7169/680β¦
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