Thursday, April 1, 2021

Painting Patagotitan

Patagotitan, oil on board, 10x13”. Maquette is epoxy clay. 

This sauropod is called Patagotitan, one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered. When I make a maquette I want to control the overall size and the relative proportions of the sculpt. 


To do that, I use a photocopier to enlarge the scientist’s skeleton drawing to the actual size I want to make the maquette. 


I take the maquette (with additional maquettes by David Krentz) outdoors and photograph them in actual sunlight. 

The relative scale and quality of light and shadows will look right regardless of the size of the object. I move the little dinosaurs around like chess pieces on the rough piece of rock, which looks like the bank of a little pond at the edge of the forest.
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Watch the full video on YouTube
See the article in Ranger Rick Magazine
Amazon links: Model MagicMagic Sculptacrylic.

1 comment:

isaacbenjamin said...

I imagine such a creature must have had special ankles, like a giraffe, to support it's weight. Probably an enormous heart also, to pump blood to the head. Thanks for sharing your artistic technique.