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Description

Ink and coloured pencil on paper, cm 29.7x21.

I've always been puzzled by how dinosaurs depicted in most paleoart works seem to be "staged" on an unnaturally flat and clear ground, pushing vegetation, stones, rocks, dunes etc. on a very far background.

This picture, featuring a small herd of six dinosaurs in the genus Psittacosaurus, tries to show prehistoric animal as we would more probably see them in their environment: marvelously camouflaged, merging with the colours of the surroundings, almost invisible if not moving.

Along with the early ceratopsian, other living beings inhabit this Early Cretaceous scene of central Asia.

The trees which borders the scene, close to the viewer, are a kind of Ginkgo.

The fruit-like spheres which hang from their branches are called sarcotestae and contain the seeds on which two black "birds", probably Jeholornis, are feasting.

The stony ground behind is dotted by tufts of grass-like plants; some of them bear pinkish flowers and belong to the Ephedraceae family; the others are in the group Oryzales, which contain the modern day rice plant. These are the first true "grasses" and they are spreading across the world in this period.

On the background, other plants more "familiar" to a hypothetic Mesozoic watcher, such as coniferous trees and ferns, are visible.

A moth-like insect can be seen in the lower part of the drawing, towards the right; this is one of the first Lepidoptera. A flying critter can be seen among the trees in the background on the rights... A bird? A paravian? A pterosaur? We don't know.

Hidden among the gravel on the left there is also a proto-mammal, maybe a Repenomamus, but it's almost impossible to see.

This is a "serious" version of the sketch I've done on the final day of the paleoart course I've attended
at the University of Portsmouth on March 2020.

Description

Ink and coloured pencil on paper, cm 29.7x21.

I've always been puzzled by how dinosaurs depicted in most paleoart works seem to be "staged" on an unnaturally flat and clear ground, pushing vegetation, stones, rocks, dunes etc. on a very far background.

This picture, featuring a small herd of six dinosaurs in the genus Psittacosaurus, tries to show prehistoric animal as we would more probably see them in their environment: marvelously camouflaged, merging with the colours of the surroundings, almost invisible if not moving.

Along with the early ceratopsian, other living beings inhabit this Early Cretaceous scene of central Asia.

The trees which borders the scene, close to the viewer, are a kind of Ginkgo.

The fruit-like spheres which hang from their branches are called sarcotestae and contain the seeds on which two black "birds", probably Jeholornis, are feasting.

The stony ground behind is dotted by tufts of grass-like plants; some of them bear pinkish flowers and belong to the Ephedraceae family; the others are in the group Oryzales, which contain the modern day rice plant. These are the first true "grasses" and they are spreading across the world in this period.

On the background, other plants more "familiar" to a hypothetic Mesozoic watcher, such as coniferous trees and ferns, are visible.

A moth-like insect can be seen in the lower part of the drawing, towards the right; this is one of the first Lepidoptera. A flying critter can be seen among the trees in the background on the rights... A bird? A paravian? A pterosaur? We don't know.

Hidden among the gravel on the left there is also a proto-mammal, maybe a Repenomamus, but it's almost impossible to see.

This is a "serious" version of the sketch I've done on the final day of the paleoart course I've attended
at the University of Portsmouth on March 2020.