September 6, 2015

When a PaleoArtist Doodles in the Margins

Our September SciArt Blitz is bringing you new science-inspired art every day this month, and of course we always enjoy featuring work from the rich ecosystem of paleoartists. When Emily Willoughby returned to class in the past couple of weeks, she did want most visual thinkers do: she doodled in her notebook. And what a doodle!

By Glendon Mellow

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Our September SciArt Blitz is bringing you new science-inspired art every day this month, and of course we always enjoy featuring work from the rich ecosystem of paleoartists. Today: feathered-dinosaur painter living legend Emily Willoughby.

When Emily Willoughby returned to class in the past couple of weeks, she did want most visual thinkers do: she doodled in her notebook. And what a doodle!

Emily Willoughby, in her Facebook post: "Now that class has resumed, so have dinosaur doodles. So here's a speculative semi-volant Deinonychus juvenile contemplating the FFA."
(© Emily Willoughby, shared with permission.)

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Willoughby's doodles look close to other peoples' finished drawings. Here's another sketch she shared recently, this time of some Utahraptors:

About Utahraptors, Willoughby thinks perhaps they were not "just oversized Deinonychus--I envision them as low-slung, muscular, shaggy cassowary-eagles."
(© Emily Willoughby, shared with permission.)

The first time we shared some of Willoughby's spectacular feathered dinosaur art on Symbiartic was back in 2013, when an image she had created was being shared not only without permission, but with her signature cropped out. The quality of her work lays not only in the stunningly real compositions with lush colours, but also in being scientifically sound. Paleoart is a hard biz, and achieving professional quality skill as both an artist and anatomist can be hampered when each new illustration gets passed around without credit. Make sure to learn more about the vital importance of original paleoart to science in this paper by Darren Naish, John Conway, and Mark Witton on Palaeontologia Electronica.

Emily Willoughby regularly updates her portfolio site and shares her work across social media platforms, and it's a treat every time. Make sure to check out the links below. Oh, and in case you're not familiar with her work, here's what a finished piece looks like compared to the doodle above:

Balaur bondoc is a Bird - one of Willoughby's spectacular recent completed paleo illustrations. Read more about this illustration and the science behind it on her site.
(© Emily Willoughby, shared with permission.)

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