Horns01: Turanoceratops
200 Favourites32 Comments7K Views
acrylics 2010,
Turanoceratops tardabilis.
Hunt: Blue Mist
Turonian, Late Cretaceous (90 million years ago)
Now Uzbekistan
A liquid green light filters down through cycad fronds; I feel the bars of warmth ripple across my back. Beyond my half-closed eyes, the orange glow and the scent and excitement of deepening dusk.
A noise across the water; I lift my head.
My heart throbs faster in the cavern of my ribs. The ground throbs too with the passing of feet. The sun dips lower, spreading its gold across the lake, silhouetting the shapes of my prey. I see their great curved backs; smell the damp rising from their tough, scaled skins. I feel a slight stab of fear at their great horns and shielded heads but my hunger eclipses my apprehension.
The colours in the sky bleed out to a cool blue. Mist rises from the water and ebbs at the shore. I leave the wet closeness of the cycads and feel the still-warm sand beneath my claws. The mist has washed out my vision: volcanic black sand, the rest an eerie blue. The scent of my prey rolls in over the lake and I revel in it. I am panting.
My blood is up.
I pad over the sand, my footprints like a dark trail behind me. The mist is my cover and there is no wind to carry my scent. I dart through the shallows between stark, blackened rocks. They stab the sky like teeth beyond the shore.
Then between the rocks, a sharp cacophony of sound: shrieks tearing through the misty stillness. A flock of birds rise and I desperately snatch at their small, feathered bodies until the sky fills with their torn paper shapes. My prey is spooked. I catch the white flash of their wide eyes. The surface of the lake boils with their stampeding feet as they make for the forest. I hear twigs cracking in the distance, the noises fading.
Birds sweep across the sky. Now there is only my shallow breathing. And the cold of the water as it runs down my skin. And the coldness of hunger. And the chill of the approaching night.
Text by
the winner of the Writing Contest I announced.
Turanoceratops tardabilis.
Hunt: Blue Mist
Turonian, Late Cretaceous (90 million years ago)
Now Uzbekistan
A liquid green light filters down through cycad fronds; I feel the bars of warmth ripple across my back. Beyond my half-closed eyes, the orange glow and the scent and excitement of deepening dusk.
A noise across the water; I lift my head.
My heart throbs faster in the cavern of my ribs. The ground throbs too with the passing of feet. The sun dips lower, spreading its gold across the lake, silhouetting the shapes of my prey. I see their great curved backs; smell the damp rising from their tough, scaled skins. I feel a slight stab of fear at their great horns and shielded heads but my hunger eclipses my apprehension.
The colours in the sky bleed out to a cool blue. Mist rises from the water and ebbs at the shore. I leave the wet closeness of the cycads and feel the still-warm sand beneath my claws. The mist has washed out my vision: volcanic black sand, the rest an eerie blue. The scent of my prey rolls in over the lake and I revel in it. I am panting.
My blood is up.
I pad over the sand, my footprints like a dark trail behind me. The mist is my cover and there is no wind to carry my scent. I dart through the shallows between stark, blackened rocks. They stab the sky like teeth beyond the shore.
Then between the rocks, a sharp cacophony of sound: shrieks tearing through the misty stillness. A flock of birds rise and I desperately snatch at their small, feathered bodies until the sky fills with their torn paper shapes. My prey is spooked. I catch the white flash of their wide eyes. The surface of the lake boils with their stampeding feet as they make for the forest. I hear twigs cracking in the distance, the noises fading.
Birds sweep across the sky. Now there is only my shallow breathing. And the cold of the water as it runs down my skin. And the coldness of hunger. And the chill of the approaching night.
Text by
the winner of the Writing Contest I announced.Image details
Image size
2500x1683px 2.07 MB
Published:
© 2010 - 2021 tuomaskoivurinne
Comments32
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Amazing work! So beautiful! Like a dream!
Very serene. 
Just revisiting this. I have decided to enter your competition using this image. Will post a link in your journal...
Sounds great!
Done. Hope you like it.
Great! Added yours here link.
Thanks. I may write another because I'm all inspired and imaginative now... even though I should be sleeping (yawn - I actually did!)
Sounds even better. It's often so that the best ideas and inspiration catches you when you're going to sleep.
I'll be up all night, as working on the night shift...
I'll be up all night, as working on the night shift...
I'm always best at drawing during the day but certainly at writing during the night - usually most inspired around 1.00/2.00am. However, I need to get a decent sleep in as it is my 21st tomorrow and I am sure I need to rest for that!
What type of work do you do if you don't mind me asking? Don't worry if you don't want to say - I'll just imagine you as looking after a Natural History museum at night like Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum! XD
What type of work do you do if you don't mind me asking? Don't worry if you don't want to say - I'll just imagine you as looking after a Natural History museum at night like Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum! XD
Congratulations! Will you be having a big cake with a stripper inside?
Ben Stiller-reference made me laugh a bit (although I found his films not that special). I am a security guard. But the job is... quite a bit different
Ben Stiller-reference made me laugh a bit (although I found his films not that special). I am a security guard. But the job is... quite a bit different
View all replies
Todella kaunis kuva... sinisensävyt näyttää mahtavilta, ja eläinten asennot on tosi luonnollisen näköisiä. Lintuparvi taustalla ja sumuinen maisema luo myös hienosti tunnelmaa.
Upeaa vesivärin käyttöä. <3
Upeaa vesivärin käyttöä. <3
one of the best!! I love that scene!
Vähän etupainoisen näköistä laukkaa.
Yippee! More paleoart from my favorit paleoartist!
Thank you
Mahtavat värit! Toi vesi on todella onnistunutta.
Ah, so that's what you were...
Amazing. I'm going to enjoy this thoroughly!
Amazing. I'm going to enjoy this thoroughly!
Thank you, hope so I... what? I was what?
I... what? I was what?Dunno... just wanted to cut the phrase in half. I would end up saying some thing like "Ah, so that's what you were preparing..."
Like the mood and setting.
Spike.
Spike.
Thanks, Spike
woow, great work...
I love the reflections in the water and the skin details...
I love the reflections in the water and the skin details...
Great series to go with the ceratopsian explosion last month!
Thank you, my original aim was to do 12, but then I just HAD to add couple more.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In