This is craaaaaazy good. You did a wonderful job. :3

Thank yooou! <3

I'm not kidding, I thought this was a photograph at first.... AWESOME!! :D:D

Oh man, I wish that the archeopteryx still existed so that I could photograph it. Heck, I'd probably keep one as a pet if they could be domesticated.

Thanks!

Oh wow... this came out beautifully... every time I see a piece from you, it's one more leap of improvement.

I love, love, love the dogwood petals and the detail in the character's feet and feathers.

Oh wow, thank you very much! I'm really trying to push myself to learn new things and become better at art, so it's nice to hear that other people are seeing the improvement. I sometimes can't see it myself, haha.

Dogwoods are so pretty. <3

You're like "I think I'll paint some dinosaurs and birds" and then BAM. You seriously rocked it! You worked so hard, and did so good, I really love this piece!

Awwwww, thank you so much, Eski! I'm actually really happy that I chose a bunch of feathered characters from the watcher's giveaway. I've certainly learned a lot about feather textures by painting all of these damn feathers. XD I'm still not as comfortable with them as I am with fur, but I'm getting there.

This is really gorgeous!

Though I'm wondering what made you choose to put the wing feathers on digit 3 rather than 2(as with deinonychosaurs and birds)?

They should also have a 'killing claw' like deinonychosaurs, rather than a gripping hallux like that on perching birds(their hallux is just on the inside like most other theropods)

Oh yeah, I knew about the killing claw but I couldn't get it to look right at this angle. It would be a lot easier to draw them if we were seeing her feet from the side, haha. I'll probably go in and fiddle with it a bit more since there are other minor things that I'd like to edit in this picture.

Killing clawrs are def hard to get right at angles, I can feel ya there

Fixed the wings and the toe claws. Thanks for the feedback. :>

I'm sorry to have mislead you with my poor reference material!
The wings look much better, but the toe you corrected here is actually not the flexed digit - the innermost toe is vestigial, the second digit would have been the retracted toe. Here's a good skeletal ref - http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h....._WDC_small.jpg You don't have to change it of course, and had I realized my own ref sheet was so out of date I would have said something way way way sooner. I'm so sorry!
This painting is still just absolutely immaculate :) Thanks again.

Thanks!

I guess I misinterpreted the diagrams. Do you mean something more like this shape? http://sta.sh/0efif45n28x

Yup yup. Non-avian dinosaur wings are no different than avian dinosaur (bird) wings, everything goes in about the same place, they just usually have less 'layers' to their wings is all.

Okay WOW. This is absolutely stunning!! Your colouring and composition are beautiful, I love that they're in a dogwood tree!!
You also did a great job rendering Pim's feet, her toes look so soft and fleshy - I'm so impressed and so happy!
Thank you so very much for this. I'm so lucky, and I appreciate all yourtime and effort you put into this piece - it paid off, this is lovely.
Thank you.

You're very welcome! Your character really pushed me to try out new things involving feather textures and the like. I really love the archeopteryx so I'd always jump at the chance to draw one.

By the way, is her name "Pim" or "Pump"? The ref sheet said Pim, but you referred to her as Pump so I don't know if you changed her name or something. I remember you calling her Ping as well... but I might be misremembering that one. XD

I also updated the picture today. I added the killing claws you mentioned a few months ago (couldn't get them to look right at first) and changed a couple of other things around as well. Nothing major, but I thought you'd like to know anyway!

Her name is Pim! Most of the messages I sent to you were from my phone, it must have autocorrected her name without my realizing. Again, so sorry!

I did see the corrected killing claw, my comment was actually aimed at that! The innermost toe would have been small and raised and the second innermost toe would have been the killing claw, as in the skeletal diagram. Unless that is what you did change it to a second time, and my browser won't reload.
I am not wanting to pressure you to change any more whatsoever, I do love this painting so much! But I wanted to apologize and acknowledge my reference mistakes, however overdue they were.

Oh good! I felt really bad because I thought I was forgetting her name. I always try to memorize the character's name when I'm working on a picture for someone.

The innermost toe being raised is the newest version. The older version had a more bird-like toe. I understand the mistake now, but think I'm going to leave the picture as it is. I'd have to redraw both the feet to correct it and I simply don't want to do that. Thanks for the skeletal reference, though! It will certainly help me if I decide to paint another archeopteryx sometime. <3

No problem at all!
And don't feel bad about that, I certainly wasn't helping, hahaha.
It was an absolute pleasure working with you ^_^

woooowwwww This is BEAUTIFUL <3
I love everything about this piece <3<3

Thank you very much! :>

STUNNING work, and an unreal amount of detail!

Thank yooou! :>

This is insane!
LOVE dinosaur/prehistoric life-related things, and seeing one of these guys with its descendant is so neat. <3

Thank you very much! <3

Wow!! Love the texture!!!!!
(When you say pse do you mean photo shop elements??)

Thank you!

Yep! PSE = photoshop elements.

truly amazing

Thank you! :>

I've come back to this piece time and time again, but somehow neglected to both favourite and leave a comment. Today I’ll remedy both.

I’m extremely taken by the light in this piece and how the setting sun makes the most beautiful rich colours on the border to shadow. Like how certain parts in the archeoptoryx’s plumage seem to be lit from within, or the multitude of chocolate browns in the branches.
The source of the light also works perfectly with the composition – the lit flowers seem to lead the eye around after you’ve gotten a good hard look at the centrepiece.

(Oh, and I’ve a weakness for eyes lit up like that. It makes me feel nostalgic somehow, perhaps it is linked to nambroth? Who knows? It certainly works for me!)

The textures are also just… so, so good. I wish pictures were edible, ‘cause this would taste like a piece of heaven to me. I’m actually licking my lips as I study how you did the feathers in the wings and the scales on its legs and the folds in the leaves and flowers. I feel kind of creepy, but also grateful that I get to experience this for free. The Internet is a wonderful thing, indeed.

This painting has so many good things going for it. I think one of my favourites is how you handled the white or light-coloured parts. I’ve a thing for “white-that-is-not-white” thanks to such artists as James Gurney and M. Hussar and the cream, peach, light browns, warm and cold grays, pale yellows you’ve managed to pack into this is spectacular.

If my comment made no sense, I just wanted to tell you that you did a great job on this one. It’s certainly my favourite from you to date. The effort and time put into it was truly worth it.

Completely gorgeous.

Thank you! ^^

You are very welcome. :)

would you consider doing prints of this?

Maybe. What size were you looking for? I think the original was.... 4000 pixels wide, I wanna say? So that's about ~13 inches wide if printed at 300DPI.

i suppose something that fits a standard frame size, such as 8x10 or 11x14, so long as it fits such dimensions without too much trouble. how much do you think it might be, and is the commissioner okay with me having a print?

I just keep coming back to this one. This picture is so gorram perfect, I love every aspect of this and I'd love to have a print on my wall someday.