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Theropod Tutorial

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A sequel of sorts to the Raptor Tutorial. Again, this is as much for me as anyone else; my hope is that other people will be able to benefit from my rather nonsensical scribblings. I should be updating my comic tomorrow.

Theropods are pretty hard to nail down; saying you're going to draw them is like saying you're going to draw a canine or feline. There are a LOT of variations, and half the scientists in the world are debating who goes where. I focused on the clade that Acrocanthosaurus belongs to, because those are the ones I'm really studying. (They're the villains in mah book.) I did add T-Rex in, but mostly for the benefit of showing the pinnacle of specialization the guy was. That bulldog neck and battering ram skull more than make up for his dinky forepaws.

Theropods really were the ultimate predator. I don't care what you compare them to: sharks, orcas, tigers, bears, wolves. I have a wall chart that shows how big the various species in my book were in relation to each other, and seeing an Acro go after an Astrodon must've been like watching gods fight, let alone what a Giganotosaurus would have looked like going after an Argentinosaurus.

You just can't beat something that could run you down and eat you in a couple of bites.
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DR-Studios's avatar
I need to point something out here.  First off love your tutorials, very dynamic and full of good information for poses, anatomy, pretty much all is really good.  However there is a bit of an anatomical error here with the feet.

Theropods did not have five toes.  That is a basal characteristic of reptilia, but in Theropods they have four digits, one of which (Digit 1 the innermost digit and the smallest) is vestigial and does not touch the ground.  The 'fifth toe' is not actually a toe but a vestigial metatarsal.  Now in basal theropods, such as Herrarasaurus, this fifth digit does have tarsals which make it a full toe, however in the more derived theropods (Maniraptorians, Tyrannosauridae, Charcarasauridae), this is vestigial and there is no evidence that it broke the skin.

Otherwise your tutorials are amazing!