SKETCH--A Jaw Most Elegant

Was bored one day, decided to do another quick and dirty dinosaur like the Deinonychus and Giganotosaurus I did earlier, based on another skeletal by Scott Hartman ([link]). Obviously I had to pick a well known dinosaur that I hadn't done in the project prior, so I chose to do Compsognathus.

One thing I consciously try to avoid when illustrating feathered dinosaurs is what I call "tar and feathering," i.e. taking a traditional scaly dinosaur depiction and just covering that in fuzz, like it isn't something the animal natural possesses. While this is done easily enough on more bird like theropods like Oviraptorosaurs and Deinonychosaurs, this is harder on the less bird like basal Coelurosaurs, like Compsognathus, Tyrannosauroids, and the like. No matter how many times I approached it, I can't shake the feeling of them looking unnatural in some way. But maybe I'm over thinking it?

This represents my best attempt at a basal Coelurosaur covered in "proto-feathers." I tried my best to subvert the fluffy lizard look that I'm not a fan of. I feel Compsognathids and the like would be more avian looking than we traditionally give them credit for, but I'm not certain I managed to achieve this. Oh well.

As I said before, this was based heavily on a skeletal reconstruction done by the very talented Scott Hartman. Specifically, this one: [link]