Mosasaurus

For June 2015: Mosasaurus!

Here he is without any light effects:


This was such a fun painting to do, and a nice way to break my present art block (ummm yes. I've been a bit blocked lately/nothing has turned out right)! Mosasaurus was an aquatic reptile. I've never drawn anything quite like it before. The markings aren't based on any one particular animal, though I was leaning into the category of freshwater fish (such as an angelfish) or a reptile (primarily forest-dwelling iguanas with their banded tails!) I just imagined it with some kind of banding along its body, but also a somewhat dolphin-inspired palette of grey that tends to be just a smudge lighter on the underbelly.

This also made me a little nostalgic. As a child I loved checking out books at the library featuring artists' renditions of what dinosaurs might have looked like. I was such a dino-nerd back then!

As with my previous underwater painting of a dolphin,


I must quote AuldBlue as an inspiration once more. Her underwater stuff is stellar and always makes me want to paint something like this! I took advantage of some texture-y stuff using a custom brush and gave the thing some scars to give it a little personality and a weathered look.

I'm tempted to place this thing on another background in the future, but for now I think the background will suffice to show of the concept of a living Mosasaur(us?).

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3 hours in CS5.

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Art © 2015 RachelMcCoy
Do not reproduce without permission.