A little over a month ago I shared a beautiful black & white drawing paleo-artist Michael Skrepnick created for the unveiling of "Gordo," a long-lost Barosaurus lentus that has now gone on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. Now Mike has graciously allowed me to post his absolutely gorgeous colored version of Barosaurus, an very wonderful reconstruction, indeed. Unfortunately for those in the area of the ROM I wasn't able to post this sooner as there was a big event this past weekend, but starting Dec. 27th the museum will host a number of programs under "Dinosaurs Galore" that you should check out if at all possible. The revamped dinosaurs exhibit (now open) has it's own website, so even if you can visit it's worth a look (and it includes some information about the new star-attraction, too).
[Barosaurus image courtesy and copyright Michael Skrepnick]
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*looks through my copy of "Dinosaur Imagery"*
*looks at Barosaurus picture*
*sighs*
I love your art, Mr. Skrepnick, but why are all your dinosaurs brown?
Thanks for your comment Zach.
Although it's true that a number of the dinosaurs I have reconstructed are in the brown/gold range, there are also many that are not (my website currently has green/yellow Monolophosaurus,green with reddish plates Stegosaurus, bluish grey Triceratops,etc... the website has been in a state of serious neglect by the way, but will soon be rebuilt with new work completed over the last 5 year interval ).
That said, I would agree that the majority of larger dinosaurs I have rendered, in general are in the earthtone range of colors, as reflected in many modern analogs - large reptiles ie. crocodilians, monitors, and also large mammals sporting earth / dunn coloration. Whereas mammals are not necessarily good reference from a comparative standpoint anatomically, I think that dull external coloration in large terrestrial vertebrates could be a loosely universal trait (while cryptic patterning or striping in herbivores may have played a role,although less necessary depending upon the relative size of local predators, the use of localized color/ornamentation as sexual/display characteristics seems highly likely).
Smaller dinosaurs, (feathered or not) may well be the exception and looking again to modern analogs, small reptiles and birds, make a good case for wider variation in both patterning and color... which I think is incorporated into my imagery to a degree.
Finally, a certain amount of personal taste/artistic license flavors the work I suppose, although I might surprise you one of these days with the appearance of a highly chromatic archosaur !
Cheers,
Mike S.
Thanks for the answer! It makes sense, too.