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Deviousness `anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
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Sta.sh
I DO like that you put some muscles on his legs. I think they had dewlaps, though I seldom draw them myself.
As for armor; I'd say yes. And yes, the effect can be done at the putative distance we are viewing the animal at. Up to you. I believe they all had some form of armor (titanosaurs and maybe other sauropod groups) no matter how big they grew. Why? Unless they were born close to full size out of the egg, (OUCH! Poor MAMA!), they were in danger from theropods as they grew up. If armor was necessary for smaller titanosaurs, then it might have been just as necessary for young futalognkosaurs. Just my opinion.
Normally I am not a fan of dewlaps on sauropods but you made this one look very nice, it's lifelike and not overdone like you usually see. (Booth, Marshall, and Pastori could take a few cues here
A few little suggestions I might have.... first the spine probably was not shaped as blocky as shown here, like most living animals with tall neural spines (many mammals have them) the contours of the spine would merge with the animal's sides more smoothly... there were muscles around the neural spines. Here it looks more like he has the Great Wall of China on his back. Also the cloaca was most likely slit shaped or closed most of the time... Then there's the issue of armor... I suspect Futalognkosaurus had at least light armor, since its relatives Malawisaurus and Mendozasaurus both have armor osteoderms (I made the same mistake on my Puertasaurus, but at that size perhaps armor was lost?). I drew it with some small osteoderms in my own live version: [link] Being so big and difficult for predators to tackle, it's unlikely that the armor was heavy like Ampelosaurus or other small titanosaurs.
Normally I am not a fan of dewlaps on sauropods but you made this one look very nice, it's lifelike and not overdone like you usually see. (Booth, Marshall, and Pastori could take a few cues here ) It's not shrink-wrapped IMO, the level of angular shaping is just right (aside from the spine, but I admit that's tough to get right from this angle).
I'm glad to know what you approve the dewlap I drew. I just wanted to give my reconstruction a little bit of speculative elements, both because it's not impossible structures like this were present, and because I wanted to make my artwork different from the other reconstructions of this beautiful sauropod.
A few little suggestions I might have.... first the spine probably was not shaped as blocky as shown here, like most living animals with tall neural spines (many mammals have them) the contours of the spine would merge with the animal's sides more smoothly... there were muscles around the neural spines. Here it looks more like he has the Great Wall of China on his back.
I totally agree with you about that the spine is way too angular. I wanted to show how tall neural archs of vertebrae are, but it went all too far. There definitely should be more meat, to make the curve between spine and rib cage smoother. I love the comparison with the Great Wall of China!
Also the cloaca was most likely slit shaped or closed most of the time...
You're right about the cloaca shape too. Recently I realized this is repeated problem in my reconstructions, but for some reason I can't get rid of it (I even make the same mistake in my last drawing). Will fix it for sure in my future artworks.
Then there's the issue of armor... I suspect Futalognkosaurus had at least light armor, since its relatives Malawisaurus and Mendozasaurus both have armor osteoderms (I made the same mistake on my Puertasaurus, but at that size perhaps armor was lost?). I drew it with some small osteoderms in my own live version: [link] Being so big and difficult for predators to tackle, it's unlikely that the armor was heavy like Ampelosaurus or other small titanosaurs.
I decided that at the given size of the drawing, I simply can't pull of the drawing of dermal armor in the right proportions, so I just left it out. It would had made awesome details though, and probably give the animal more personality and life-like appearance. I also tried to make my reconstruction as different as possible, because I didn't want to look like I'm simply copying your work, which may also explain the lack of osteoderms (I considered them kind of speculative, yet still more probable than the dewlap).
Not "shrink-wrapped" at all.
The word "graceful" fits very well the way I imagine and try to depict sauropods.