Dani Mays

Birds are dinosaurs who shrugged off a couple apocalypses. Some eat bone marrow. Some drink nectar. They outswim fish in the sea. They smile politely at gravity’s demands. ‬

‪I am grateful to see them. I am grateful to feed them. I am grateful to know them.‬

"If the Big 4 does not survive this, it also spells the death knell for most printed sewing patterns like ours, since there will no longer be a printer capable of producing large-scale tissue sheets."

I … did not know I should be worried I might not be able to get patterns ever again

DO NOT BUY JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION 3

They’re using ai generation in their game, boycott this shit and force their hand to remove this garbage from their game entirely.

store.steampowered.com/app/2958130/...

You wouldn't download everything every artist has ever made and put it into environmental destruction clippy, in the you wouldn't download a car meme format

They used to make commercials about this

Watercolor painting of a great blue heron standing in shallow water, underneath branches of live oaks.

Great Blue Heron
Inkwash, watercolor, gouache

#birds #art #wildlifeart

A grayscale painting of a chickadee sitting on a branch.

Chickadee in inkwash and gouache
4x6"

#birds #wildlifeart #art

A grayscale painting of three whistling ducks.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in inkwash
4x6"

#birds #wildlifeart #art

Work in progress of a painting of several Ediacaran species. So far, there are pencil outlines of two Dickinsonia (flat, ridged organisms resembling wide worms) and several Kimberella (smaller egg-shaped organisms resembling mollusks)

Ediacaran painting take 2

A long, horizontal watercolor painting. The painting is mostly green and gray. Seen from below, looking up through the water, an adult unenlagiine picks a mollusk up from the riverbed. Behind her, her three chicks swim, chasing after minnows. Near her foot is a salamander trying to stay inconspicuous.

A mother unenlagiine hunts in shallow waters, followed by her three chicks.

Watercolor and white ink.

#paleoart #sciart

Loved it as a kid, haven't seen it since like 2010 I think. I still have my DVD of it--might give it a rewatch! (I still bring up the over the rainbow record player scene as a stellar example of diagetic music.)

It would be great if my pets would stop dying or having medical crises one after another. Awesome, even.

some how to train your dragon stuff

Crustaceans abandoning their more familiar (to us) forms and becoming messed-up parasites is peak body horror to me. Cronenberg eat your heart out, dendrogaster exists

Btw artists if you want to help combat AI slop sneaking into your research I am begging you to STOP relying on Pinterest for reference gathering. Familiarise yourself with the free online collections of museums of which there are several and how to search them effectively

A painting of an Ichthyosaur in watercolor and ink

A collection of paintings in water media: a pair of Hatzegopteryx on the beach, two Daspletosaurus competing for food, a deceased Microraptor lying among gingko leaves, and a Spinosaurus swimming seen from below.

A collection of paintings and drawings: A graphite bust of Deinocheirus, an oil painting of Microraptor, an ink painting of two Velociraptor, and a watercolor painting of two Kulindadromeus.

A collection of cartoon digital drawings: Kulindadromeus, a Mosasaur, and a Microraptor eating chips out of a bag like a modern-day blackbird.

Hey everyone!

I'm open to #paleoart work! Realism (with a painterly touch), cartoons, anything in between. Reconstructions, illustrations, fine art.
(possible painting sizes anywhere from 5x7" to 16x20", 350dpi scans)

Some more examples and information on availability in the replies!

#sciart #art

the eternal struggle with doing a webcomic: trying to balance "I'm only human, let's not torture myself with drawing something complicated" with "don't be a fucking coward and do the cool shit"

Merry Christmas, everyone! And happy holidays!

Very beautiful. Very powerful.

Parasaurolophus I salvaged from a basic dinosaur origami tutorial I messed up almost immediately

Merry Christmas!!

An unfinished drawing of a Microraptor. Its wings are semi-folded, and it looks over its shoulder.

Found this unfinished Microraptor drawing. Might turn it into something

'Welcome!

Illustration of a fantasy character reaching toward the camera with their hand wreathed in blue-green flame. The character wears a hooded capelet, within which their face is two glowing eyes and a sharp, pointed grin. Below the capelet their torso is an exaggerated ribcage with a blue-green light at its core. They wear a belt made of bony, diamond-shaped plates.

#commission for @fairyshotgun.bsky.social !
Had a ton of fun with this. Such a great design for really leaning into the heavy spot-blacks on the lineart.

Paleoart of a deceased Microraptor zhaoianus nestled in fallen gingko leaves. Painted in watercolor and colored pencil, the Microraptor is iridescent blue-green and purple; the leaves behind are a vibrant warm green. A bright white halo rings the Microraptor's head.

"This Will Matter"
7x8.5", ink, watercolor, colored pencil. 2024.

*Will Smith poses at my little digital cartoons* As the holidays roll around these make great gifts for people with specific favorite dinosaurs, creature OCs, pets, etc.
Starting at $40 USD; each additional one is 25% off ($30/each). ~1 week turnaround. Multiple slots open.
#commissions

A painting of a rabbit leaping, with the sun forming a halo behind him. From the right emerges an amalgamation of wings and snapping skeletal canine teeth. The painting is based on the opening mythos of the novel Watership Down: The Prince With a Thousand Enemies.

A dragon boss token designed and drawn for a homebrew dungeons and dragons campaign I was in at the time. It's snakelike, with three pairs of legs (two of them arms) and has the wings of a luna moth. It holds an energy orb that gives off a trail of smoke.

A digital piece. Ninea, the protagonist of my webcomic Falling Leaves, stands on a plane of pink glass beneath a sky full of stars and blue-green clouds. Below her, the glass is cracking. She is an alien species created for the comic: she is humanoid, green, with clawed feet and a tail, with frills on her tail, shoulders, and head. She wears a simple gray tunic and pants, and a flowing gray scarf.

A page from my webcomic Falling Leaves. In it, a group of unknown soldiers runs past a defeated mech (shaped, broadly, like a paper nautilus's "shell") and toward a long winding staircase down into a hole in the planet flanked with concrete and metal struts. Dialogue indicates that they have breached the planet's Nucleus.

I also do fantasy artwork! Need a token for your ttrpg? I'm your gal.

(And while I'm here--I write a webcomic! It's a sci-fi called Falling Leaves with characters/settings based on cells and their molecules. Read for free at www.fallingleavescomic.com and on comicfury and webtoon canvas!)

Business card illustration for Matthew S. depicting a red T. Rex as a games producer, with formatting like the king of hearts playing card.

A digital sketch of Jormungandr walhallensis diving into the sea

A pen-and-ink timelapse comic of a fox decomposing

Two cartoon velociraptors drawn for Lindsay Haddon. They're both smiling, one facing left the other facing right. One is beige and blue, the other is gray and tan.

I have some ongoing projects at the moment as well, so I'm open to probably one painting at a time (with the exception of the simple digital cartoons.)
DM me or email me at dani.mays.art@gmail.com to inquire for details and pricing!

A small bipedal dinosaur hunches over a dead branch against an arid, parched landscape. The dinosaur has yellow-orange quills over its back, face and tail, with paler legs and facial ruff. The snout is blue and the interior of the mouth yellow. Stiffened quills project upward from the shoulders. A collection of twigs and pinecones at the base of the image represents a bowerbird-like display structure.

New to the internet #paleoart: "Ubirajara jubatus", the strangely filamented Brazilian compsognathid famous for its history as an illegally exported fossil. Here, it's signalling to us with colourful mouthparts and a fetching bower of twigs and pinecones. Drawn for @palaeogames.bsky.social.

Indie devs and a major game storefront losing revenue because Funko used an AI tool to confuse a domain registrar that has no appeals process is a very 2024 enshittification stew

WIP of an oil painting of a Deinonychus. The Deinonychus is underpainted in reddish brown; some foliage is blocked in behind it in greens and browns.

Working my way through my WIP drawer a bit before starting something totally new