Recent Paleoillustration from David

I try not to use LITC as a way to just share a ton of my work, but I'm in the mood to at the moment, so you'll just have to bear with me. This spring I did a couple of feathered theropods, and looking back at them I'm still rather pleased with the style. I find that I'm finally to the point where I generally like things I create more than I dislike them. That feels like some sort of milestone.

Falcarius by David Orr

Utahraptor by David Orr

So I decided to draw a stegosaur, because I don't often (ever) do that. But I couldn't just pick Stegosaurus because that's a little obvious. So I went with good ol' Kentrosaurus instead.

Kentrosaurus by David Orr

Anyhow, I won't keep you too long. If you're fond of these and would like to support some independent art on this fine day, feel free to check these out in my Redbubble shop's Paleoillustration section. Even though it's a mouthful, I like "paleoillustration" as a term for this kind of thing - less baggage than "paleoart." Feels like it affords more wiggle room for whimsy.

Sauropoda Coat of Arms

Long-time readers may remember that five years or so ago, I created a collection of dinosaur family crests. They proved to be a decent seller in my shop. Eventually, I decided to retire them, along with some other design collections, to keep the designs in my shop more current. But I always intended to revisit the idea, and now I am.

The first of the new line is dedicated to the great thunder beasts of Sauropoda, featuring Brontosaurus rampant. It's available in my shop on a wide variety of merch. Purchases are always appreciated, of course, but at this time they'll be especially helpful in our efforts to move to WordPress.

Sauropoda Coat of Arms © David Orr

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and look forward to filling up the collection. I've begun figuring out Thyreophora, and after that will likely be Ornithopoda. And I suppose Theropoda will be coming down the pike. Stinkin' theropods. They'll be added to the collection at Redbubble, which can be accessed by this direct link.

One last thing: I would be remiss not to mention that Rebecca Groom does some absolutely delightful heraldic designs, including her Yi qi, currently available.

Ask me about...

I enjoy wearing my love of prehistory on my sleeve (I'm wearing my Raven Amos Ichthyovenator as I type and my Rebecca Groom Microraptor just arrived in the post). For one, it's fun just to have some amazing paleoart on my shirt. But it's also because it may invite a conversation from a fellow paleo-enthusiast or just a curious outsider.

Recently while I brainstormed ideas for new design sets for my shop, it struck me that it would be cool to just come out and tell people that it's fun to talk about natural history. So the "Ask me about..." series was born, featuring simple, (hopefully) charismatic illustrations of prehistoric critters.

These initial four designs are now available in my shop, on various colors and styles of tees and hoodies and other merchandise. A "bird evolution" version is in the works, and from there I think I'll move out to explore other facets of natural history.

The March of the Dinosprites

Last week I shared some pixel art dinosaurs I was working on and said I'd been continuing them as a series. It's a fun little project to kick off 2015, with a new one shared every Friday, and added to my Redbubble shop as well. I've decided to call the series Dinosprites, because it seems like a pretty catchy name.



I'll mainly be sharing this at Facebook and Twitter, but I'll probably post the full series here in a few months when this series is complete.