Lords of the South
Painting showing a trio of the theropod Giganotosaurus carolinii, possibly the largest predatory dinosaur discovered so far, though the original material is fragmentary. Regardless, Giganotosaurus and its relatives seemed adapted for hunting the gigantic sauropods that shared its environment in late Cretaceous Patagonia. I painted a group as a close relative, Mapusaurus roseae, is known from a find that indicates some kind of social behavior, and the larger second claw here is a nod to that found on its other relative, Meraxes gigas.
In terms of how this painting was made, I included the 3D render I worked from, as well as a video showing how the scene was set up. I tend to still “design” over a 3D render, drawing in features and refining a pose, but the underlying maquette is immensely helpful for understanding volumes and how light will affect the forms of the sculpted dinosaur. From the render and once a design pass is settled on, I then created a value composition, and then a color thumbnail from there. Things changed a bit from the color thumbnail to the final, but the value composition especially was invaluable for creating a target for a final look.
Final painting
Final blender render and composition- as this was a painting I only began with a very loose thumbnail, a lot of time was spent building up from that idea in 3D. This is very different compositionally from the initial sketch, but the key elements (reflection, upshot view) are there, just refined with additional information. Close relatives of Giganotosaurus were seemingly social, and I wanted to depict a group venturing out early in the morning, with the focus on their reflections.
Video panning around the 3D scene- I worked with my 3D camera already set up from a block-in so I knew where to focus attention, sculpting more detail on the ground near the camera to create an interesting shape arrangement in the reflective puddles.
Value composition- I settled on this as a way to have the highest contrast be the lighter silhouette of the dinosaur against a darker sky, while having all of the ground elements grouped by value in such a way that they allowed for an easier read of the reflection as a separate element.
Original color thumbnail- though things changed from here to the finish, the basic idea of keeping the reflections significantly warmer and lighter than the actual ground elements stayed consistent.
Early exploratory sketches- I knew I wanted something that felt “majestic” but also that differed from just a painting of a dinosaur in an environment just walking by. I kept working through the idea of some kind of unique framing, ultimately being inspired by a landscape piece by Forrest Dickison to really have this piece be all about the reflection of a Giganotosaurus, with only the feet of the animal actually visible in-frame.
Profile view created as a guide for the sculpt and texture painting.