Well, it’s taken me for-freaking-ever, but I’ve finally gotten around to updating this thread.
This picture, the second piece of LBT-based artwork I completed, is my LBT dinosona: myself as a LBT dinosaur. I made it shorly after I first joined the “In The Land Before Time” RP, in which GOF members visit the LBT world, with the option of having dinosaur forms. I chose
Microraptor (the same species as Guido), because I wanted a kind of dinosaur that no one else had taken as a dinosona, and one that I thought represented me well. I share numerous traits with Guido, and have long imagined that it could be interesting if he met another of his own species, so he seemed like a natural choice. At the time, Guido was also one of the few characters whom no one was playing in the RP at the time, and since I needed a character for my dinosona to regularly interact with, felt like I could portray him believably, and thought that having me meet him could make for some fun situations, I requested to play him. I wanted my fellow RPers to have an idea of what I looked like, and decided what better way to provide them with such an image than an illustration? I originally posted this image in the “Dinosonas” thread. You can view the post (which also includes a personality profile)
here. (This version of the picture has been cleaned up on Photoshop.)
Unsurprisingly, Guido was my primary reference for this picture. I looked at several screenshots from LBT XII while drawing it. However, although I like Guido’s character, I’m honestly not that fond of his design, because I thought that he didn’t look enough like a
Microraptor. I reasoned that, since he wasn’t quite fully grown (I see him as a young teenager personally), he would look a little different as an adult. Since
Microraptor is a member of the raptor family, I gave my dinosona a longer snout, thicker tail, and more horizontal posture, similar to a fast biter (though I don’t think I actually looked at fast biters for reference). He still doesn’t look much like a real
Microraptor, but it’s about the best that I can reasonably do.
The hands are proportionately smaller than Guido’s, because Guido’s hands seem to follow the cartoon bird tradition of converting his wing feathers into fingers whenever he requires the use of hands.
Microraptor, however, had actual hands, and thus this would not be necessary (I’m not a big fan of “feather-fingers”, anyway). I considered putting claws on his fingers (and his toes as well), but since Guido doesn’t have visible nails on any of his digits, I decided it would look too odd. I only drew one visible hand, because hands are a pain to draw,
and I figured that the left one would simply be hidden behind the wing feathers. Now that I look at it, though, it looks a little strange (Next time I draw him, I’ll probably draw both hands visible).
I don’t have much experience in drawing expressions, but I tried to make my dinosona look shy, friendly, and a little nervous, in keeping with my own personality. I depicted him in this picture as tentatively stepping forward to greet someone, his right arm and hand outstretched in a timid wave (I usually hold my hand low when I wave to someone I don’t know well).
From the beginning, I had a vision of how I wanted my LBT
Microraptor self be colored. Originally I envisioned him as having darker colors: a maroon body with a tawny yellow underside and golden head and tail plumes. However, when I was coloring the picture, I couldn’t find a shade of colored pencil that fit my original vision, so I just went with the darkest red I could find (Next time I’ll try to find an even darker one). I chose red because it’s a color I like, not many LBT dinosaurs are that color, and it’s a color that tends to be associated with me. My hair has a slight reddish tinge to it, and I often wear red or maroon shirts. I also had a down comforter (I still have it, but have replaced it due to its age) that was red on one side and light beige on the other (similar to my dinosona’s colors). Whenever I wrapped myself in it and held the sides out, I’d look a little like this character.
Adult
Microraptor were about three feet long, and I imagined my dinosona as not being much bigger than that; one-and-a-half to two feet tall at most. Of course, since we don’t know the exact sizes of the LBT characters, it’s been hard for me to determine how large that would make him in comparison. I’ve described him in the RP as being half again as large as Guido, and tall enough to look Cera in the eye. I have yet to check how large he would actually look in comparison, however, and whether those two standards of measurement are even mutually compatible. :unsure:
DarkWolf gave me some much-appreciated feedback on this picture when I first posted it. Her main point of constructive criticism related to the posture of the spine, which she thought looked hunched (probably due to the overly sharp indentation where the back meets the shoulders) and too horizontal given the design of the legs and feet, which are more or less the same as Guido’s (who stands much more upright).
The next time I draw my dinosona, I’ll probably have him standing on his toes, which hopefully will allow me to keep the foot design but still make his feet look like they are supporting him believably. My logic is that adult two legged dinosaurs in LBT usually stand on their toes, even if their young walk flat-footed (Chomper and Ducky are examples of this). I also may make his spine slightly more diagonal, since in this picture he is taking a step forward, and many bipedal LBT dinosaurs adopt a horizontal stance when they are walking, with a more upright posture when they are standing in place.
I like to think that my dinosona represents me quite well. He’s a small and virtually harmless dinosaur (a real
Microraptor could give you an unpleasant bite and some painful scratches, but would probably be no more dangerous to a human than a hawk or falcon), much as I am introverted and non-confrontational, but at the same time, he is hard to miss due to his bright colors and bizarre appearance, reflecting my desire to be noticed and recognized. One detail I might add to him the next time I draw him is some short, bushy feathers on the sides of his face, mirroring my prominent facial hair.
