Palatal views of fossil turtle skulls.

Each drawing represents weeks of research as well as weeks of careful rendering. Fossil specimens are typically crushed, discolored, and otherwise distorted. Photography is often an unsatisfactory option, necessitating the kind of deep rendering shown here. Reconstruction is based on available material - sometimes mirroring existing structures, left to right; sometimes combining information from more than one individual. Rendering techniques range from graphite pencil to digital painting, but are now mostly a hybrid of the two.