Natee Himmapaan's Camptosaurus Challenge

The Camptosaurus Challenge Strikes Back!

Illustration Paleoart Gallery

More Camptosaurus coming at you! As in literally, a lot of these look like they’re coming directly at you! I have to say, I’m just tickled by this whole thing. To think that Brian tweeted out this hashtag and then people all over the place spent the next few days drawing Camptosaurus in front-view… it’s a beautiful thing. Even when folks strayed from the “rules,” there were very few lateral views shared on the hashtag, and a lot of stylistic variety. I’m confident that I can say that in the history of blogging (not just dinosaur blogging, either), there has never been this much Camptosaurus crammed into a post. I’m thinking of revising the title of this whole dang website.

So here’s round two of the #CamptosaurusChallenge. Kicking it off: the Tasmanian terror, Matt Van Rooijen. Then we’ll bring it back around to Brian Engh’s follow-ups to his original tweets and see what your faithful LITC bloggers were up to during this whole fracas.

Brian Engh returned with two more illustrations, first wisely taking on a slightly overhead lateral view that really shows off the beast’s considerable girth and then doing a close-up on that noggin.

Your trusty LITC team took part as well. Natee contributed a few delightful pieces, as we’ve all come to expect.

I joined in, as well. I mean, I’m half-responsible for this thing, so I couldn’t very well abstain. It began pretty rough, I have to say. But then I kept sketching, with and without reference, and it became easier and easier to conjure this animal which I’d never attempted to draw before.

I followed up on the threat in that last tweet, too! I’m really happy with how this one turned out.

To wrap this up, I have to admit that this was a far more fruitful exercise than I thought it could be, considering its origin. I found myself wrapped up in thinking about this often overlooked taxon and appreciating its weirdness anew. Each of my sketches improved on the previous one, and as I moved away from looking at a reference, the results both felt more right and more naturally my own. I don’t usually lay my sketching process out publicly – not because I’m embarrassed, necessarily, but because I just don’t take the time to do it. But this was a challenge all about the process, and I like the way it all played out. I certainly didn’t think I’d have a finished piece Camptosaurus illustration under my belt a week ago!

Thanks to Brian for turning my tossed off idea into something so rewarding (and for being a consistently challenging voice in the community). I hope that everyone else who participated in the Camptosaurus Challenge benefited from it, too.

P.S. Gareth Monger is a cheater.

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