It sometimes feels like the fundamental difference between how i approach my #paleoartprocess & how some ppl on the internet view #paleoart is summed up by the way some respond to me; as though they assume I am confident about my reconstructions.

but i'm not.

at all.

(thread)

Which is why, wherever possible, I go to the source material (fossils & living animals) & consult/collaborate with experts in the specific fields related to the reconstruction I'm working on. #PaleoartProcess

Along the way I constantly check and re-check reference material, & solicit critique from my collaborators & friends.

As much as possible I will work and re-work a piece in an attempt to smooth out issues with anatomy, behavior, posture etc through multiple phases of revision, sometimes even including major re-works deep into the process.

Often, that refining process only stops when it absolutely has to for practical reasons: the piece is due, the exhibit is opening, and/or I need to finish the job to get paid & pay rent.

...& in the end the only certainty I am left with is that these animals are far from understood, & that #paleoart - no matter how rigorous - is only an echo of the truth of these once-living beings.

It's true value is in the exploration it attempts to honor & hopefully inspires.

In the case of this #mural for the @WesternCenter's #ValleyOfTheMastodon #exhibit, @AltonDooley @captainfossil et al would later publish that its subjects - at the time thought to be American mastodon aka Mammut americanus - are in fact their own species: the #PacificMastodon.