Last of the dinosaurs

I have the privilege of living a mere 1 1/2 hours from a non-profit conservation center located on nearly 10,000 acres of reclaimed mine land in rural southeastern Ohio. Called “The Wilds”, they offer safari-like tours that allow folks to view exotic animals in an almost natural environment. Go during feeding time, and you can get amazingly close! The giraffes are so friendly that a 70-200 lens will be pretty useless unless you want to count their eyelashes…

During a visit in 2019, I captured this image of a Greater One-Horned Rhino and her newborn calf. This image stuck with me and I revisited it several times while looking for some painting projects.

Now, you may notice something different between the reference image and the final painting. At some point, I decided to paint mama’s horn back on and while looking at reference images, somehow got stuck with images of White Rhinos (two horns), rather than Greater One-Horned Rhinos (one horn. obviously). I apologize thoroughly to anybody who recognized that mistake - I was so bogged down in the details of painting that I totally missed the big picture! I have since made revisions to my personal files so that she only has a single horn!

I wanted to give a dreamlike fading quality to the image. While the Greater One-Horned Rhino has recently been moved off of the endangered species list thanks to conservation efforts, there are still less than 3,700 of these animals left on the planet. Seeing that young calf certainly brought a feeling of hope, but I wanted to emphasize the vulnerability of these armor-plated behemoths.

The rhino was already pretty monochromatic but there was enough variation in her color that I didn’t want to make a pure black and white image. I also wanted some crisp detail that was a bit lost in the noise of a high speed image. I decided to paint the detail back in, retaining all the original color of the rhinos, but removing color from the grass and painting in a more “exotic” background. This process was extraordinarily time-consuming; I don’t usually paint this much detail so it was an exercise in patience over several weeks.

Once the image was painted, I made very few edits. I received some feedback during affiliate competitions that had me playing with the vignetting, color, and mats and I did change the composition slightly. But the final image is pretty much how I first painted it. The final touch was the title - thank you to fellow artist Dana Rose for her suggestion of “Last of the Dinosaurs”. It perfectly encapsulated the feelings that I wanted to convey (even if paleontology fans cringe a bit).

“Last of the Dinosaurs” won first place in the PPO Nature/Landscape category, was honored with a Judge’s Choice, scored a 100 and placed 3rd in the Wildlife category at Animal Image Makers print competition, was a top 10 finalist in the PPA NE District competition, is part of PPA Imaging Excellence Collection, and is a finalist for the PPA GIA award. It also looks great as a 15x30 metal print with a float frame!

Reference image.

First painted version of the image.

Final version of the image - with the corrected horn.