I know many of you are familiar with this picture. It is one of my best-known pieces and even became the avatar for my website.
But this version is a little different.

The original portrait was created years ago, and this time I was commissioned by a client to recreate this iconic piece using traditional watercolour.

I made this picture as a proposed cover for one of my books in 2016. The publisher went with another one, though. Since so much time had passed since I made the original, I decided not to simply copy it. Instead, I took the opportunity to revisit the anatomy and bring the reconstruction up to date with the latest scientific understanding, as well as with my own work reconstructing and preparing the skulls we unearthed back in 2014. The new version is based on my more recent 3D visualization work, and in particular, my updated interpretation of the skull anatomy.

So, while it may look familiar, this is actually a new and updated version of the original piece, and, as far as I know, the most up-to-date depiction of Psittacosaurus skull anatomy that I have created so far.

After quite a long break, I finally picked up my traditional tools again. I had some struggles along the way, especially with creating a dark background while keeping it watercolour-like, without losing the quality of the paper or losing some of the colour in it. But in the end, I realized just how much I still enjoy working this way.

I also rediscovered something else: traditional art can be surprisingly expensive! At least here in Canada, good-quality paper, paints, brushes, and all the other tools add up quickly. It was much affordable back when I started to work with watercolour and gouache 20 years ago. If I decide to return to traditional work more regularly or go into acrylic on canvas, I suspect I’ll be investing in quite a few more supplies, including better paper-stretching equipment, more brushes, and probably a lot of other things I haven’t thought of yet.