Tyler Keillor

Met this little guy casting a big Mothra shadow on our dog walk after work! #kaiju

Driving home in Chicago today, a group of black SUVs w/ tinted windows swerved to block traffic & U-turn near a bus stop at an intersection (55th & Kildare), masked tactical wearing terrorists jumped out and ran down a residential street. I called: www.icirr.org/fsn
www.chicago.gov/city/en/site...

Another repair I made at that same time (’99-‘00) to the ribs of the defeated Lambeosaurus…after a visitor apparently climbed over the railing & onto the mount to pose for a photo! Mainly cracked plaster filler on bent armatures, which I filled & painted to match with Bill Simpson‘s guidance

The ramp was so close to the Apatosaurus that visitors could reach over the wall and grab the tail: here I am in ‘99 or ‘00 repairing a caudal that was snapped by a visitor (after receiving how-to instructions from Bill Simpson in Geology) back when I was on Exhibits Maintenance staff

#SciArtSeptember -prompt today is Fellowship- I’m so grateful to the researchers out there who value the power of art to communicate to the public & collaborate with artists like me to realize these projects! My #paleoart Cyonosaurus yawned all the way to the Field Museum to join Arjan Mann’s team!

Natural bristles from a brush glued onto snout, trimmed and painted for a subtle fuzzy display…I think it’s done! I‘ll add some final thoughts on my new Cyonosaurus sculpture in a follow up thread next-

It’s debatable wether these guys had whiskers or fuzz of any kind, but Arjan was open to the idea, and the skulls do have interesting pattern of foramina which I could see supporting some kind of sensory features. Short lengths of nylon monofilament are used to suggest simple vibrissae

Research team Naiomi & Arjan approved coloration direction & gave some suggestions as I refined the paint job. Last steps after this: to add protowhiskers and some fuzz, next!

The acrylic teeth aren’t painted, but for the skin I use acrylic paint applied by hand with brushes in many layers; here’s the base coat, blocking out areas on the Cyonosaurus cast

I used dental acrylic cast into the teeth, & tinted polyurethane resin slushed in layers for the skin, then filled w/ foam to backfill solid but lightweight. I don’t usually cast w/ the glass eyes in-place, but did this time & used darker resin there because that would work w/ color scheme planned

3rd thread in my Cyonosaurus behind-the-scenes process:
First cast out of the mold here turned out great! Sometimes the first time I fill a new mold, I’m learning how to work with it & it isn't always a useable cast, but no major defects this time. My son gave a hand demolding🙏

Beautiful little green-legged spider (could fit on my fingertip) spun a giant gleaming web across garden stairs. Go get ’em little guy!

Last two posts in this mold-making process thread out of order, but anyway here’s the final mold, opened off of the clay Cyonosaurus sculpture. Next thread will highlight finishing & painting the cast!

A sharp xacto blade slices through the silicone along the thickened midline, & I use a little zig-zag while cutting so the halves will align well along this seam.

The silicone mold of Cyonosaurus easily pops out of the plaster shell- now to get the rubber off of the clay sculpture…

Opening the 2-part mother-mold shells after curing. A wedge of clay on the first plaster flange leaves a soft spot along the edge - after both sides are built - to insert a screwdriver to pry open the shells. Vaseline kept the left and right halves from bonding together.

Kept It simple with burlap strips dipped in white hydrocal plaster to make the mother mold shells, after adding rectangular rubber keys onto the dividing wall margins so the two halves will have a perfect registration with each other.

Along a thickened midline ridge of silicone, inserting T-pins, then covering with cling wrap, for a quick dividing wall separating left and right sides of the rubber mold. A rigid 2-part mother mold will be next.
Cyonosaurus #paleoart process

After a few more layers of silicone w/ thickener to buildup final mold thickness, I applied release Inside the mouth and filled with a softer quickset silicone to make a removable plug, & here adding silicone button keys so the rubber mold won’t misalign inside the rigid mother mold that comes next

Molding Cyonosaurus- third layer of silicone, this one with the sculpture rotated to get into the mouth more easily. Still not using any accelerator or thixotropic agent, to prevent air bubbles from getting stuck too close to the clay skin surface.
#paleoart process

I’m so grateful for this commission: sculpted a life-reconstruction of the gorgonopsid Cyonosaurus for researchers Arjan Mann & Naiomi Cookson this summer. Previous thread on the sculpture, here I’m starting the silicone mold. First few layers are thin so bubbles aren’t trapped at the surface detail

new thread will show molding and painting of the cast for anyone interested in the making of this Cyonosaurus bust…

I looked at the wrinkles on the necks/jaws of yawning hairless cats to inspire the folds for my Cyonosaurus. There’s no clear fossil evidence for skin texture: what do you do for something that’s not a reptile & not a mammal? I gave it a coarse skin texture w/a stamp I made from a cool pebbly leaf!

For #fossilfriday #paleoart process:
Bulked out Cyonosaurus clay sculpture. With approval from researchers Naiomi and Arjan, I dove into details next-

But how to flesh-out the oral margin? Not a mammal, so muscular lips unlikely; yet the enamel seems to point to covered teeth, so I’m going with simple lizard-like lips that seal the mouth when closed but yield when biting. Working out the lip-line before attaching the jaw-

We decided that a yawning pose would be a great way to show the incredible jaw gape & have the palatal teeth visible; fossils & scans of other specimens supplemented the holotype skull. Size is based on a different Cyonosaurus individual
#paleoart

This summer I had the pleasure of collaborating w/ researchers Naiomi Cookson & Arjan Mann (Field Museum) to reconstruct a flesh-model bust of Cyonosaurus. After getting to meet the holotype, I started roughing out the skull armature. More of the process to follow!
#paleoart

Anyone attending RiotFest in Chicago this weekend? Keep an eye out for my newest #paleoart sculpture debuting at the Field Museum’s outreach table! I made a really good beast- if you see it there please send photos!🙏

Kolchak was so notorious for that, his coworkers Emily and Ron didn’t want to loan him their phonebooks at the newspaper office!

Any paleo folks in the Chicago-area tomorrow, come see what we’re working on at the Fossil Lab! Our monthly Open House: Sept.18, 3:30-5:00pm. Just West of the UChicago main campus: 5437 S. Wabash Ave.
Preview new discoveries under prep, meet staff & students, here about Paul’s newest expedition !