Dorygnathus tweets its way through development

For various - and mostly good - reasons, there's not been much chance for blogging of late, but the upside is that I have a lot of new art, discussion and science to share in the near future. In the interests of not completely abandoning the blog in the interim, here's a series of Tweets posted over the last two days documenting work on a painting of the Early Jurassic pterosaur Dorygnathus banthensis. I can't say too much about the painting at this stage, because it's earmarked for an upcoming project and its context will be best explained there. Still, there's no harm in leaving a few notes about the restoration and painting process, so here goes...

Just for fun, I'll be posting progress on a painting of the early pterosaur Dorygnathus as I work. Here's the start. pic.twitter.com/5SWIkB1NzX
— Mark Witton (@MarkWitton) October 17, 2014

The initial digital sketch, complete with Kevin Padian's (2008) Dorygnathus skeletal reconstruction in the top corner for basic guidance. Padian's (2008) work was my principle reference here, and is probably the go-to paper for all things Dorygnathus. Those of you who know a bit about pterosaur research may be aware that Kevin was the main, and rather vocal, proponent of pterosaur bipedality in the 1980s and 1990s, so may be surprised to see his name attached to a quadrupedal pterosaur skeletal. Kevin is now on board with the consensus view that pterosaurs were primarily or exclusively quadrupedal animals, although he still argues that bipedality was essential for rapid terrestrial locomotion. I don't really agree with him, but that discussion will have to wait for another time.

90 minutes in, and Dorygnathus is starting to take shape. But it's tea time, so he'll have to wait for more work. pic.twitter.com/xSutwXrvYw
— Mark Witton (@MarkWitton) October 17, 2014

A little rotation of the underlying sketch, some basic outlines of the background complete the overall composition. I've had this image knocking about my brain for about a week now, and think the layout is a fairly good approximation of what I've been imagining. This painting has a message to deliver about the sprawling posture of the animal, and I think this composition demonstrates that well enough. There is a lot of compelling anatomical evidence that Dorygnathus and many other non-pterodactyloids could not adopt erect forelimb postures, which is partly why they're considered inferior terrestrial animals to pterodactyloids. But is that the case for all non-pterodactyloids? I'm saying nothing else at this stage, other than that this painting has a contrasting sister image.

End of play on Dorygnathus today. Tomorrow's goal: make him look 50% less evil. pic.twitter.com/lSPmgsURHp
— Mark Witton (@MarkWitton) October 17, 2014

A lot more detail by the end of day one. The eye was shrunk to fit the orbit a little better, and the animal now looks generally larger as a result. This is good: Doryngathus is about 1.8 m across the wings, so needs to look seagull-sized. The basics of the colour scheme are added now too. There's a lot of evidence that rhamphorhynchines* like Dorygnathus were seabird like in their habits, so it makes sense to use common seabird colours - whites, greys, blacks and - here. There's a butt-tonne more detail here than I'm used to working with, the result of a big upgrade to my painting hardware and software. A graphics tablet built this decade? Imagine that!

*I don't really agree with Bennett's (2014) proposal that Dorygnathus is a scaphognathinid/ine/whatever. Ah, non-pterodactyloid pterosaur taxonomy: what a mess.

Back on the Dorygnathus wagon. Starting work on the background: weathered limestone coastlines for the win! pic.twitter.com/fY4q9Pzwf7
— Mark Witton (@MarkWitton) October 18, 2014

Lots of laminae - fine scaling bedding - in the rock here. Got to put that training into sedimentology to use somewhere.

Quick Dorygnathus update before lunch. Not much more to do now... pic.twitter.com/ShltDx5krS
— Mark Witton (@MarkWitton) October 18, 2014

Nearly there by this stage. Note the similar dip-direction on the rocks jutting out into the sea. Their angle means we can have a few splashy waves here and there, which is nice, and you could map the geology of this bay quite effectively. Because if you had a time machine and visited the Jurassic, mapping grey rocks would totally be the thing to do.

And I think we're done. Dorygnathus on a rock, next to the sea, surrounded by the guano of his friends. pic.twitter.com/47pKhyXYYP
— Mark Witton (@MarkWitton) October 19, 2014

And done. The only real differences between the last two images are some tidier shading, a few background Dorygnathus and some splats of guano on the hero rock. I've long thought that locations supporting lots of pterosaurs would literally be a bit crappy, but never put it into art until now. I expect their guano looked a lot like that of birds and other reptiles: a mix of white, pasty stuff and darker gunge. Nice.

OK, time at the blog. Sorry for the short post, but I may have some good news soon for anyone interested in buying prints of my stuff - just in time for Christmas! I'll leave you with a larger version of the image than the low-res versions afforded by Twitter.

Dorygnathus banthensis at the coast, surrounded by the filth of its contemporaries.

Reference

• Bennett, S. C. (2014). A new specimen of the pterosaur Scaphognathus crassirostris, with comments on constraint of cervical vertebrae number in pterosaurs. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie-Abhandlungen, 271(3), 327-348.
• Padian, K. (2008). The Early Jurassic pterosaur Dorygnathus banthensis (Theodori 1830). Special Papers in Palaeontology 80: 1-64.