·:[ Rusty Innards ]:·
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  If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that I love dinosaurs.  To whittle it down a bit more, I love theropods.  What’s that?  I need to narrow the statement down even further?  Alright, I love feathered theropod dinosaurs.  The near-infinite amount of possibilities when it comes to feather arrangements, patterns, etc. makes them an absolute joy to concept up and sketch out.

  The big fellow in the above sketch that looks like some sort of freakish skeksis-bred monster is a Segnosaurus.  I’ve talked about members of his family, the therizinosaurs, in prior posts.  Segnosaurus was an interesting one amongst the Therizinosaurs, as it’s thought they lacked the condor-like cheeks the rest of the therizinosaurs were theorized to have.  As I often do with the big therizinosaurs, I referenced ostriches and emus for the shaggy, fur-like feathers and threw in a bit of turkey for the gnarled, warty, bald neck and head.

  The little guy that sort of snuck in on that sketchbook page is a Caudipteryx….Think of him like an adorable little clawed dino-bird with tiny, sharp buck teeth.  This little guy is so bird-like in his body structure and features that some some scientists classify it as a flightless bird.  That said, I decided to push the bird features further than I normally would have, and give him an overall modern-avian appearance, complete with a little crest of feathers for display.

Would either of these guys necessarily have looked this way?  Perhaps.  Could Segnosaurus have had more extensive feathers?  Of course.  Might Caudipteryx have looked a bit more dinosaurian and a bit less like a modern bird?  Most certainly.  It’s these things that make paleo-art so much fun..the endless possibilities.