#concavenator

[ID: digital illustration of a concavenator in an unnatural pose with a vibrant color scheme, floating over a dark blue square on an off-white background. the front of its body and head are facing the bottom right corner. It looks up in profile view, its mouth opened. one arm, covered in fluff snd quilled feathers, is raised out from its side, tge other, mostly blocked by a fluffy upper body, has irs hand visible. One leg is bunched up and back behind it, while for the other, only ila partially outstretched foof is visible. its tail bends up, running parents to the rectangle for a moment before zig zagging back down towards its face. it also has quills along it hump and tip of its tail. In the bottom left corner is a watermark reading: “LEAVES AND INKS”. /end ID]

Oh Las Hoyas, what a joy to research and paint you are! Ever since I got myself a book on this locality in 2016 I wanted to do a bigger piece depicting the complex and diverse ecosystem that has been preserved here. While Concavenator and other archosaurs might be the main draw...

for most, for me this locality was always a near perfect window into a lost world just out of reach. For this piece the idea came together surprisingly quickly. While I initially had planned to show a Plicanimimus nesting colony it just didn't want to click.

Eventually I decided that I couldn't just leave Concaventor in the background and instead made it an integral part of the composition. This specimen is resting after a good meal in shallow water. The remains of a Pelicanimimus still floating next to it and attracting a lot of fish, insects and other small scavengers. While other critters go about their day, not bothered by the large predator that sits near motionless. Still enough to have small birds collect feathers from it for nest building purposes.