Jeff West Digital dinosaur illustration with skin texture experimentation
This digital illustration piece evolved as a tangential work from another project, leading to experimentation with Photoshop texture brushes. The realistic skin rendering of this dinosaur was and enjoyable creative deviation.
Initial sketch
I had the idea for a wildly alternative nativity scene whilst working on the DinoBunny Christmas season greetings cards. Under the title of Nativity Cryptozoology, I added a couple and their offspring (Medusa, Black Lagoon Creature and Kraken) surrounded by onlookers and guardians from paleao-history and mythology. The film Jurassic Park III was fresh in my memory at this time and Spinosaurus aegyptiacus was “on-trend”.
Starting the artwork
I scanned and cleaned the pencil sketch as a reference for the digital painting.
Texture by necessity
This composition featured a number of textures, creatively pulling me away from the smooth gradient rendering of the DinoBunny scenes. Straw, fur and feathers needed consideration and I started to illustrate these compnents in a slightly more realistic manner.
The elephant in the composition
Spinosaurus was again in the movie world pipeline in 2025 as Jurassic World: Rebirth was born. I selected Spinosaurus from the herd and used some elephant skin Photoshop texture brushes to explore more realistic rendering. I had purchased Aaron Blaise’s Creature/Elephant Skin Texture Pack and this was the chance to play with it.
Re-skinning the Spino
By using Photoshop’s comprehensive layering and warping tools I used the skin textures to stretch and fold over the basic body shape. The linework and realistic light and shading completed the look.
Final artwork
I used assumed realistic colouration for the dinosaur, which lived in what is now Egypt. In the Cretaceous period, though this geography was very different, in fact Spinosaurus was probably semi-aquatic. I have chosen a colour palette based on golds in reference to the original compostion … to be revealed later.
Socials publication
“Spinosaurus aegyptiacus has migrated southwest from her original composition, retaining her gold colouration but gaining complexion. I experimented with a digital collage effect using @aaronblaiseart elephant hide texture brushes. She will shed this skin back in her native habitat but in the meantime, she stands alone, just her and her shadow.”
