DRAWING DINOS
How do artists start with a bunch of dinosaur bones and create lifelike drawings of these extinct animals? Here are some tips from Mick Ellison, a paleo-artist at the Museum.
What You’ll Need:
What To Do:
STEP 1
Start with the bones
Find a picture of a dinosaur skeleton. You will use these bones to help you draw a picture of what the dinosaur may have looked like when it was alive. In this example, the artist chose Mononykus.
STEP 2
Give those bones a body
Put a piece of tracing paper over the skeleton. Use the bones to help you draw where the dinosaur's flesh might have been. As you can see in this example, the thigh has a lot of muscle.
STEP 3
Shadow time!
Use shading to make your dinosaur look like it will pop off the page! To make this Mononykus more lifelike, the artist put shading on the belly and on the backs of the legs.
STEP 4
Scaly skin and maybe feathers
Add details such as feathers and skin texture. Fossils of Mononykus show that this flightless dinosaur had feathers. Although fossils don't tell us anything about skin color, you can pick a skin color (or colors) that you think this animal may have had. And fossil evidence show that some dinosaurs were covered in scales!
STEP 5
There's no place like home
To make your drawing more lifelike, put the dinosaur in an environment with other prehistoric plants and animals. For example, Mononykus lived in a desert with many other kinds of dinosaurs, lizards, and small mammals.
Now it's your turn! Print out this PDF and try drawing these dinosaurs by following these five steps.