This illustration for Skybalonyx was something else to work on, went through a bunch of different iterations but I’m glad I settled with this. Big shout out and thanks to @semifossorial for getting me on this and everyon else: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2020.1810058 (process-thread:)

First and foremost I started off by doing a really quick color feel for the animal (went through a bunch, and this one changed a bit towards the end)

I then went in and started trying to play ar with perspective and numerous different compositions

I eventually settled for this one, going for a more photography oriented approach, going with an almost fisheye like range (not quite tho) and getting relatively low to the ground

Then it’s just a matter of blocking in and working from the back up forward, helping me get a good sense of the lighting and enough time to adjust it before getting to the star (the Pseudopalatines were fun to work on)

The plants were a hell to work on

And then, finally: the star

Keep note that I bulked up and made the snout a bit blunter, and the back a lot flatter and wider to make this animal more suited to its inferred digging lifestyle.
Hope y’all enjoyed this #paleoartprocess and #sciart