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| Copyright A V S Turner 2015 |
My first completed restoration of 2015 shows a pelagic scene in European waters of the mid-late Jurassic period. Featuring from left (more or less!): Icthyosaurus, Hybodus, Thalassiodracon, Rhomaleosaurus, Dorygnathus and Eurrhinosaurus. It occurred to me some months ago that I hadn't tackled an underwater scene properly yet and, having recently taken up scuba diving, felt inspired to start researching some subjects. I wanted to show a feeding frenzy like those recorded in wildlife documentaries (normally my first port of call for injecting realism into a prehistoric scene), capturing the energy of the chase and the wide range of species such an event attracts. I also wanted to pay some homage to Mary Anning by depicting some of the species that she discovered. This gave me a starting point for nailing the period and geographical location to research (so often the most difficult part, with so much to choose from!). Once I had settled upon a reasonable selection of species to depict I then got on to the all-important scale guide. As you can see, I don't generally bother to spend too much time on intricate detail on these studies; I just use them to get a general idea of the scale of the species relative to one another:
What I find most exciting about this stage of development is the little surprises it can bring. I had always assumed that Pliosaurs generally reached much greater sizes than Icthyosaurs, so I was surprised when I first compared the size of Rhomaleosaurus to that of Eurrhinosaurus. What a Whopper!
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