A commission inquiry came out of left field recently, for a project that I couldn’t resist taking on. How often do you get paid to draw dinosaurs enjoying a traveling carnival?? Thomas Carnival has been in business since 1928, so it’s pretty amazing to have been given an opportunity to add some posters to their lineup. Thanks, Andrew!

I burned a few weeks stressing over wanting to ink it with real pens on paper, but my test attempts were all turning out awful (because have I mentioned I’m rusty from taking a year off??) so I switched back to what has apparently become “old faithful” after working on Delegates for 18 months…. digital ink brushes in Paint Tool SAI. The familiarity was a comforting relief. I also got to channel two massive childhood inspirations: James Gurney and his iconic Dinotopia books, as well as Bill Watterson’s comical but expertly-rendered dinosaurs from the Calvin and Hobbes strips. Oh and I guess Jurassic Park too. And a little Land Before Time. My childhood was apparently 100% dinosaurs haha.

I’m pretty dang happy with how the rimrocks and plant life turned out, as well as the dinosaurs and their goofy expressions. Raptors dropping ice cream off of ferris wheels and working as carnival barkers, and oviraptors stealing popcorn instead of eggs just make me smile, and hopefully they’ll do the same for others too. Here’s close-ups of some of the details:

So, if you’re in the Billings MT area, go check out this fair! Or see if you can’t at least spot one of these posters in the wild. Send me a pic if you do find one, and I’ll mail you a sticker as a thank you :))