RAWR! Dinosaur Friends

Digital cel-shaded art of a little velociraptor with a big nasty attitude. The velociraptor is posed in an attack position with its mouth wide open, tiny needle teeth ready to chomp. It is colored somewhat like a roadrunner with speckled brown feathers and red eyes. The velociraptor is perched on a square isometric chunk of rock meant to look like a bit of Gobi Desert where this dinosaur once dwelled millions of years ago. Tufts of desert grass stick out from the chunk.

Digital cel-shaded art of a diplocaulus, which is an ancient amphibian with a wide, boomerang-shaped head. The diplocaulus is depicted underwater in some kind of pond, floating over a chunk of pond dirt that contains underwater plans and fallen fern leaves dissolving into green muck. The animal has orange spots on its dark green skin, and the light of water overhead dances across its form.

Digital cel-shaded art of a kentrosaurus, a stegosaur notable for two big spikes poking out of its shoulders. The kentrosaurus browses an ancient African jungle at night under the light of a crescent moon. It leans against a cycad while perched on an isometric, square chunk of forest earth with trailing roots. Everything is painted with stylized blue and teal tones. The moonlight catches briefly on the kentrosaurus’s spines.

Digital cel-shaded art of a rhamphorynchus, a small shore-dwelling pterosaur known for its bent beak and mouth full of sharp teeth. It has two membranous wings attached to its long pinkie finger and a narrow tail that ends in a spade shape. The pterosaur was colored with inspiration from a red-footed booby, and features a blue and magenta beak to accent its largely yellowish/grayish body. The pterosaur dips its toe into a bit of tropical ocean water, which is contained inside of a stylized ‘cube’ of the animal’s environment.

Digital cel-shaded art of a Borealopelta, an ankylosaurus most well known for being ‘mummified’ in stone. The dinosaur sits in an isometric, square chunk of sunlit meadow, surrounded by purple tulip-like flowers stretching upwards. The borealpelta is largely peach-colored with neon pink knobs lining its armored shell. It barely fits on the chunk of earth. Its long tail, which lacks the typical ‘knob’ associated with ankylosaurs, curls around the resting spot from behind.

Digital cel-shaded art of a wibbly wobbly Dickinsonia, a weird wobbly lifeform from before the Cambrian era. It looks like a floppy frisbee with bilateral lines sectioning its body into many gelatinous ribs. It lives underwater surrounded by fleshy ‘plants’, including orange charnia with spots and neon green hylaecullulus. Since I’ve interpreted Dickinsonia as a transparent creature, the other life forms can be fuzzily seen through its body. This little scene is set on an isometric square chunk of sandy seafloor.

Digital cel-shaded art of a leaping psittacosaurus, a bipedal precursor to triceratops. It is largely orange-brown with white countershading on its underside. The dinosaur has small stripes and spots marking the gradiation between its dark side and its light side. It’s jumping over a log and a bush set in some sun-dappled woods in the deep past. Worms inch inside of an isometric square of dirt that grounds the whole scene.

Digital cel-shaded art of a gorgonopsid, inostrancevia, one of the Late Permian reptilian mammals (or perhaps mammalian reptile). This animal most closely resembles a pit bull’s musculature crossed with a monitor lizard’s splayed legs. It is colored with big brown patches on yellow, orange, and green lizard-like scales, inspired slightly by komodo dragons but more bright and saturated. It’s very freckled and speckled all over with its patches of color migrating into each other. It sits in a pose reminiscent of how dogs sit when they don’t care about being noble: Leaning to one side, legs akimbo, tongue dangling out. It parked its silly butt on an isometric chunk of sea-green limestone. The gorgonopsid has a giant head compared to dogs, proportionally, and in its mouth is the thick femur bone of a dicynodont.

Digital cel-shaded art of an ichthyosaur leaping, dolphin-like, out of an isometric square chunk of open, frothing ocean water. The ichthyosaur has been colored like a mashup between a sea turtle and a common dolphin, with a long white stripe along its sleek body, white countershading on the belly and under each fin, and a pop of yellow around each eye. Its eye takes heavier inspiration from sea turtles with sideways, wrinkly eyelids and broad but hydrodynamic scale patterns all over the face. In most respects this animal looks like a dolphin except for its nostrils being closer to its eyes, tail being vertically-oriented instead of the mammalian horizontal orientation, and a big toothy grin full of reptilian teeth in its beak.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a purple Hallucigenia worm perched on an isometric chunk of rocky blue seafloor. Yellow spots line its sides. It has a long, tubelike body that narrows at the neck, resulting in a beady-eyed face constantly in a state of surprise with its mouth open like a small letter ‘o’. It has many legs al down its long body. The first six legs are little more than tentacles that wobble around freely in the currents. The Hallucigenia has fourteen additional legs that end in feet with two tiny claws per foot. On its back are two sets of eight defensive spikes, each tipped in white. Overall the creature is gelatinous and slightly see-through, a delicate specimen.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a saber-toothed tiger (smilodon) parent picking up its kitten by the nape of the neck with its mouth, as cats do. The kitten appears to be a little unsure of itself, as anyone would be with a giant curved canine right near their throat. The parent has no intent to harm its baby, it’s just trying to move the child from one place to another. Sabertooth tigers tend to be stockier than most modern big cats, with a bigger head. These two big cats in particular have been rendered with countershading: Light tan underbellies, and an orange coat that fades into sunset-like reds and purples. Leopard-like spots mark the cat’s shoulders but fade towards the short stubby tail and belly. The scene is posed on top of an isometric chunk of grassland at sunset, when everything takes on golden shadows. A small, windblown sagebrush bush rests at the front paw of the smilodon.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a blue oviraptor sitting on a dirt nest of giant, speckled blue eggs. It holds one of the eggs in its big chunky beak playfully. It’s probably a cannibal! Its head resembles a cassowary head with a bony crest on top and a short, powerful beak in front, with dark eyes and orange freckles around the orbit. This oviraptor was colored with inspiration from a Stellar’s Jay, so its front half is darker, less-saturated blue, while it brightens towards the tail. It has black stripes on its wing pinions and tail feathers, and flashes of iridescence crest its chest and wing. The drawing is part of a series of prehistoric animals sitting on isometric square ‘chunks’ of land, so this chunk shows a cross-section of the dirt nest. A pair of eggs have attempted to escape the chunk, one on each side.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of an enormous orange sauropod, Amargasaurus, traipsing through a flooded isometric square chunk of swamp. The animal casually towers over nearby cypress trees. It looks over one shoulder but for its size, few things would alarm it. Pterosaurs flap away from it, diminuitive in comparison to the dinosaur. The Amargasaurus has giraffe-like hexagonal markings all over its body, mingling with spots and concentric rings along its back. Its trademark head and neck fins have been rendered as fully enclosed by flesh, rather than spiky like many reconstructions depict. The swamp water is green with algae and other yummy stuff for a big browsing herbivore to enjoy.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of an ancient Devonian apex predator fish, Dunkleosteus. It’s just a very very large fish with a very large mouth and big, scale-like bony teeth on a bony face. This one is countershaded with dark shades on top and a white belly, with freckle-dappled midtones between them. Usually this fish is portrayed as being very long and slim, but this dunkleosteus has been rendered more like a, well, for lack of a better term, short king. Very short body. Still fierce and also adorable. The fish is suspended over an isometeric square chunk of sandy seafloor. Water reflections dance over the fish’s skin, hard rocks poking out of the sand, and a discarded nautilus shell.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a giant ground sloth chowing down on avocados, straight from the avocado tree. This sloth is twelve feet tall with gorgeous locks of algae-yellow hair all over its body. Its face bears the typical sloth ‘mask’ of dark spots around the eyes and a white muzzle with a wet snuffly nose at the end. The sloth’s mouth is open, bearing two absurdly long upper fangs and equally sharp-looking lower fangs, while an entire avocado gets crushed between its molars. The tree is small compared to the sloth, and planted into an isometric square chunk of prehistoric South American earth. The ground sloth grasps the tree in both of its arms and bends its trunk over one hairy shoulder in order to nab one tricky avocado in its mouth. More plump avocados await the beast’s appetite as they dangle in the tree’s branches. Knowing how fast a sloth goes it’s probably set for a few hours, if not days, of feasting.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a startled corythosaurus, a duckbilled hadrosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous. The corythosaurus is beige fading to dark brown at the back, with striking horizontal stripes lining the sides of its form. It has orange cheeks, amber eyes, and yellow spots for eyebrows. It’s leaning far back with its tail about to strike. The object of the corythosaurus’s surprise is an enormous orange cockroach-looking bug, which seems to have zoomed out from underneath the nearby isometric chunk of fern-covered forest soil. The roach may make it to safety as long as it avoids a powerful swat from the dinosaur’s tail.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a yi qi caught mid-bath, inside an isometric square chunk of a rain puddle with small round pebbles at the bottom. The yi qi is super iridescent with a purple face, blue head, eggshell-blue back and wing feathers, and a fan of reflective purple tail feathers. All feathers are floofed as the dinosaur runs beads of water over its body. The interesting thing about yi qi is that it has membranous wing structures under its feathers, like bat wings, but supported with an elongated wrist bone instead of fingers. These wings of skin are matte purple instead of shiny. The dinosaur looks back at the viewer with a yellow eye, like, are you for real right now? Seriously?

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a chunky, creamsicle-colored triceratops plonked into an isometric square chunk of marshy grassland. The dinosaur is sitting, winsome expression directed at the viewer, with its reptilian tail poking out the back. The horizontal lower half of the triceratops is covered with bluish-black mud, some still wet and sliding down its body. A chunk of wet grass in the triceratops’s beak drips into the muddy water surrounding its feet and butt. More grass remains to be eaten around the triceratops’s hedonistic resting spot.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a plesiosaur at the end of a failed lunge to catch one of ten fish. The plesiosaurus is giant, whale-like, with its vertical tail poised upwards in the seawater, and its head brushing the sandy seafloor. Clouds of disturbed sand float around the plesiosaur’s head, long neck, and fin. This plesiosaur was drawn from the more modern idea that giant sea animals have a lot of blubber. This means its neck starts out as thick as its belly and then tapers, evenly, to the width of its narrow head. The fish being hunted are yellow, with red heads and purple rainbow fins. The whole scene takes place on an isometric chunk of seafloor, during a sunset that stains the sand and rocks violet-pink. Red corals perch on a corner of sea rock nearby. A sad little fish skeleton can be seen buried in the sand.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of an archaeopteryx in a moment of exasperation, as it swooped onto the beach only to find out that a yummy thing flashing in the waves was merely an empty scalloped shell. The archaeopteryx is a dark bird with flashes of magenta iridescence across the wings, teal shine to its tail, blue shimmering from its pinions and head, and a little gold gleam in a scruffy feather collar around its neck. The scene takes place on an isometric chunk of beach sand with the thinnest, shallowest reach of an incoming wave stroking its surface.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a Tully Monster, which is a hagfish-adjacent pink wiggly worm fish from the Carboniferous. It has a long, ribbed body with soft pink flesh, encased by protective slime that imbues it with a purple hue. It has a tear-shaped fleshy tail, primitive ‘pore’-shaped openings lining its sides for gills, zero limbs, and a head that is probably going to take a hot minute to describe well so hang on a second because I might as well write my will and testament at the same time. Okay. Here we go. Its eyes are shaped like a preschooler’s craft project, with each orbit glued onto either end of a narrow stick, and the stick has been awkwardly glued onto the creature’s head, right on top, no care for aesthetics. It has a long, stiff trunk. There is a raised hole in the trunk’s base on the front of the head that could be a misinterpretation of other reconstructions on my part, because I have no idea why there would be a hole there. The trunk itself looks very unbending cartilaginous to me on most reconstructions, with a stiff ‘elbow’ in the middle to bend it. For this composition I chose to make the trunk even bendier. The trunk has a fun surprise in the shape of a beaky mouth full of too many lamprey teeth. So what is this tully monster even doing here? It is suspended inside of a pond over an isometric chunk of pondscum-covered dirt and rocks. Tiny pinecones have fallen into this pond, as well as some twigs. The tully monster hoists a spare pine tree branch over its head, with no idea what to do with it, because during the Carboniferous trees were literally just stacking up with nothing to break them down and return them to whatever cosmic hole the Tully Monster slithered out of.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a longisquama, a little lizard with big showy skin frills on its back. I have drawn this to the best of my understanding, which is that the frills are vaguely feather-shaped, fanning out like a peacock’s tail except vertically, down the lizard’s spine. The frills are not feathers, though; they are made of colorful skin. The lizard’s body is yellow with brown skink striping, and the frills are a riot of blues, reds, yellows, and browns. Longisquama is posed aggressively inflating its spiky dewlap on an isometric chunk of tree, tail ready to whip anyone who dares deny its majesty. After all, the smaller you are, the meaner you gotta be to survive the Triassic (which it did not survive, at all, that we know of).

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a purple trilobite trucking across an isometric chunk of sea mud. Trilobites are generally shaped like giant roly polies, with segmented bodies and heads shaped like crescent moons. Its eyes are multifaceted and protrude from the sides of its face. As a member of the Kolihapeltis species, this trilobite is particularly blessed with spikes in its shell. It has four long spikes coming out of the back of its head, one spite originating from each ‘eyebrow’ bump, and two additional spikes jutting from where the base of the head meets the body. It has spikes generously lining the sides of its body like it’s half sawblade or something. It has numerous armored, segmented legs that end in sharp points…you could say those are spikes, too. Its tail is also… Wait. The tail is not spiky at all. It’s round and fin-like, or maybe it’s a shell, as it was hard to tell from the fossil. Either way, this animal is 90% no-touchy.

Digital cel-shaded artwork of a big fluffy white yutyrannus, a tyrannosaur known for being covered in feather-like stuff. This one was rendered like a polar bear, with off-white proto-feathers and black skin for absorbing as much of the sun’s heat as possible. The dinosaur is hunkered down with three of its tiny offspring, each sporting their own puffy winter coat, on an isometric chunk of snow. Two of the tyrannosaurus siblings proclaim their dominance on top of the dinosaur, while the third snuggles up under the parent’s teeny two-fingered wing. The yutyrannus perches on its own tail, using the feathers as insulation for its big clawed feet. Sunlight drapes along the dinosaur’s back.

Collect Them All!

Here are all 24 drawings of extinct animals I did for Art Advent Calendar 2025, in a single post for your ease…yes, this has nothing to do with me exploiting a chance to show them all again…

For individual alt texts visible in the text of the post, please browse my Art Advent Calendar archive tag here: https://rawrdinosaurfriends.tumblr.com/tagged/ArtAdventCalendar

Digital cel-shaded art of a big fluffy tyrannosaurus with three little tyrannosaurus babies in the snow. Complete description is in text of post.

Day 24: Yutyrannus

Who’s tyrannus? “You’s” tyrannus!

This is the final gift in my calendar. Thank you so much to everyone for following along!

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a big fluffy white yutyrannus, a tyrannosaur known for being covered in feather-like stuff. This one was rendered like a polar bear, with off-white proto-feathers and black skin for absorbing as much of the sun’s heat as possible. The dinosaur is hunkered down with three of its tiny offspring, each sporting their own puffy winter coat, on an isometric chunk of snow. Two of the tyrannosaurus siblings proclaim their dominance on top of the dinosaur, while the third snuggles up under the parent’s teeny two-fingered wing. The yutyrannus perches on its own tail, using the feathers as insulation for its big clawed feet. Sunlight drapes along the dinosaur’s back. [/id]

Digital cel-shaded art of a trilobite scuttling along the ocean floor. Complete description is in text of post.

Day 23: Trilobite

Any guesses on what will show up for day 24?

(In the meantime, Try-a-bite!)

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a purple trilobite trucking across an isometric chunk of sea mud. Trilobites are generally shaped like giant roly polies, with segmented bodies and heads shaped like crescent moons. Its eyes are multifaceted and protrude from the sides of its face. As a member of the Kolihapeltis species, this trilobite is particularly blessed with spikes in its shell. It has four long spikes coming out of the back of its head, one spite originating from each ‘eyebrow’ bump, and two additional spikes jutting from where the base of the head meets the body. It has spikes generously lining the sides of its body like it’s half sawblade or something. It has numerous armored, segmented legs that end in sharp points…you could say those are spikes, too. Its tail is also… Wait. The tail is not spiky at all. It’s round and fin-like, or maybe it’s a shell, as it was hard to tell from the fossil. Either way, this animal is 90% no-touchy. [/id]

Day 22: Longisquama

What would you name this lizard if it was your pet? I’m leaning towards Mr. Flappy

[img id] Digital cel-shaded artwork of a longisquama, a little lizard with big showy skin frills on its back. I have drawn this to the best of my understanding, which is that the frills are vaguely feather-shaped, fanning out like a peacock’s tail except vertically, down the lizard’s spine. The frills are not feathers, though; they are made of colorful skin. The lizard’s body is yellow with brown skink striping, and the frills are a riot of blues, reds, yellows, and browns. Longisquama is posed aggressively inflating its spiky dewlap on an isometric chunk of tree, tail ready to whip anyone who dares deny its majesty. After all, the smaller you are, the meaner you gotta be to survive the Triassic (which it did not survive, at all, that we know of). [/id]