Prehistoric Setting
In my digital arts class, we were given an assignment to make a landscape that was either in the past or in the future, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this project. As a prehistoric enthusiast, this project will showcase Germany, 160 million years ago during the Jurassic. Before there were alpines, there were archipelagos. Reptiles ruled the lands, the seas and the skies. While 215 million years ago in the Triassic, pterosaurs started to appear, here in the Jurassic, pterosaurs, like this rhamphorhynchus, became more common place. Especially in coastal environments, where fish was plentiful.
Starting Reference
I needed a base to start off with, so I looked through my vacation photos and combined two of them to get the overall look of a rocky shore. I used a combination of 3 pictures. A sunset from Cape Cod, a rocky mountain top from New Hampshire and a lake from Washington D.C.
Adding Shading
I had to add shading and light in the correct places to made it look less out of place. Because the setting was during a sunset, there would have been more shading than light. The sun’s reflection was added to the water to have it blend in to the setting.
Adding Pterosaur
After adding a light layer of orange onto the foreground to further sell the emersion, it was time to add an animal and the Mesozoic coasts were a hotspot for pterosaurs. While often mistaken for dinosaurs, pterosaurs, despite being related by a common ancestor, were there own unique clade of reptiles. The genus I went with was rhamphorhynchus, who's name means beaked snout.
Finishing Touches
The last thing I had to do was to add shading to the pterosaur where they were needed to keep it from looking like it was just photoshopped in.