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3/01/2014

pterodactyl

I learned something when making this pterodactyl. The open mouth invited teeth, so I looked it up to see if the creature actually had them. Yes teeth, but no to bat-wing shapes. Because at first he looked like this:
It was inaccurate. I had spent quite a bit of time putting those wing fingers in between the membrane, and carefully aligning them to the corners. My initial sketch was inspired by a toy figurine, which had the bat-like structure. Should have done the research first! I had to redo the wings.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sorry I have to nitpick, but a creature like this has still never lived on this planet.

Pterosaurs were quadrupedal, not bipedal animals. The most famous pterosaur genus Pteranodon, which had a head crest like your image did not in fact possess teeth (the name means toothless flier) and pterosaurs with the head proportions of your image did not have long tails.

In conclusion, your creature is an almagation of several different pterosaur species, none of which combined all the features of your drawing in a weird bipedal pose.

However, I am impressed that you actually did some research and noticed your most glaring error. Most illustrators would probably not even have done that.

Jeane said...

Well, thanks. I admit I know next to nothing of any pterosaur species. The sketch was based on a Childs toy which unfortunately combined all those dissonant characteristics. I did not realize, I was just having fun drawing it.