raptorrobb

Dispatches from the Studio: March 2022

Hello Dear Patrons,

I hope this dispatch finds you well. February ended up being quite the busy month for me and March is promising to be even more so, with my in-person workshops beginning to ramp up again now that, at least in New Mexico, the cold weather seems to be behind us. 

The studio is quiet, after the completion of multiple large projects with rather quick deadlines. 

 The first of which was cover art submission for the scientific journal ...

Dispatches from the Studio: February 2022

Hello my raptor pack, 

Welcome to the first of what I hope will become something you all can begin to look forward to every month. This winter was a real busy one and as I continue to learn to find balance in my life as a Freelancer...Mercenary....bounty-hunter? Self employed person... I want to once again make engaging with the members here, and hopefully grow the pack some more. That includes a slight restructure of the Patreon itself. I'll keep the tiers the same but change what...

Update

I think this will be personal little print for everyone. I'm making something else, perhaps as a card, since they are usually in high demand during the holiday season. I have a few contenders, can't wait to show you all what I have in mind. 

Stay well everyone!

love,

~rob  

Holiday Patron Gift

Hello Patrons!

I've been away for a while, finishing up some commissions and workshops. And now that most of the deadlines have been met I'm taking some time to work on some personal work. 

So, to show my everlasting gratitude for your continuing support, I decided to turn this new personal piece into an exclusive gift for you all. I'm not sure exactly what the final form of this will take but I'm getting close. Stay tuned for the announcement of what and when to expect this ...

What should RaptorRobb be saying?

I'm sure most if not all of you have seen this image at the end of my last comic on social media. If you remember, my raptor avatar was holding a string of letters that spelled out the phrase "Please Buy My Art" this seemed to get a lot of good attention and I figured I would fully render the image to say other things. Maybe as  a sticker that would change with various topical discussions. What should the first one be? VOTE BELOW!! Do you have a better idea? Put it in the comments!  ...

Back from Utah

Hi everyone!

So Molly and I are back after 2 weeks in Logan, Utah teaching our summer workshops. I drew a ton when I was there but this field sketch page of a juvenile Cooper's Hawk that I found in the yard of the friend we were staying with. 

I wanted to share it with you all first. 

My shop is open now on my website rob-soto.com

You can find all my stickers as well as my new poster. Patrons get a discount!

Thank you thank you thank you for ...

More spots for the river trail

Hello my wonderful patrons!

I thought I would share these little vignettes that have become my favorite part of my current commission. They tell the stories of the different names the Logan River (they guy with the beaver sled) has had over time. 

As this job starts to wrap up and the high work load begins to dip I am once again filled with such a sense of gratitude for those of you who continue to support me. It really does make a difference. Now that I will have some more t...

Sneak peak at some figurative work

Hello Patrons! 

I've been working on a ton of figure work these days, most for the new river trail panels for Stokes Nature Center.  Mostly fur trappers. 

It's always good to practice the human figure, even if you specialize in plants and animals. Its' really tough some times but I do enjoy it, despite how much I complain. 

I'm really trying to push to get my store up and running soon which will include the Velociraptor stickers I've been promi...

Final images of the Stokes Nature Center renovation

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share the final versions of the interpretive panels with all the graphic element's incorporated! It was amazing to see these installed at the nature center. I'm proud of how they came together.

Coloring page from a galaxy far far away....

Hello wonderful Patrons!

I thought I'd give you all a fun new page, to celebrate this May the 4th I thought a Tauntaun, one of my favorite star wars creatures. Perhaps this will be the start of a new series of fan art coloring pages of some fun creatures. Let me know if that idea sounds fun to you guys!

Anyway here's the sketch of what I have planned. I'm back at work now with another panel series so things are busy in the studio, but know that I am so grateful to have your suppor...

Flat color previews

Hey guys! I've got a quick look at the works in progress for you today. I had a lot of fun painting my New Mexican dinos over the past week or so. I tried to be original with my choices as well as drawing on other artist interpretation of how these animals may have looked. 

More art soon.

Enjoy!

March coloring page

The falsely accused "egg thief". Right in time for finishing the last of your Easter candy

Some tasty Dinos for your hungry eyeballs!

HELLO fine folk of Patreon! 

please excuse my lengthy silence. I just survived a major deadline for the Nature Center (big splash on that to come)

In the meantime I've got some full line art drawings of the Dinosaurs of New Mexico poster for you to enjoy. The peeps on social media have been getting samples but they haven't seen all of them. That privilege is reserved for you, generous patron.  

ALSO, you'll see a mix of linework here, I'm working on swit...

Coelophysis linework

Happy Friday Patrons! 

Now that I have the line up for my Dinosaurs of New Mexico poster all picked out it's time to start on the linework!

I've been thinking about how I want this style to look and I think using this pencil brush is going to work well. It looks organic and has nice texture. The lines also really hold well while fading into the color when I need them too..in theory anyway. We'll see what happens when I get to coloring them. 

February coloring page

Can someone please tell me why there is an "r" after the "b" in February if we don't say it?? 

Honestly the older I get, the less I think "I'm a bad speller" and the more I think "English is a bad language." 

Anyway hope you all are enjoying this especially short month. To aid in that enjoyment, I present Kritosaurus. I recently replaced it on my "Dinos of New Mexico" with a species of Parasaurolophus only found in NM, which fits the theme closer. 

But I spent...

Before and after

I always love progress shots. It amazes me the transformations a piece goes through from step to step, even when looking at my own work. 

This hadrosaur started out as a member of my up coming project on dinosaurs of New Mexico and instead ended up being the coloring page for this month. More on that decision later. 

for now, hope you enjoy this drawing of Kritosaurus going from derp to dope

~rob 

January Coloring page

Hello everyone! this is a bit late, but here we are at last: the January edition of the coloring page rewards. I'm trying out including some fun facts that are approachable for kiddos so I'll probably be playing around with the layout for a while. 

I really have fun making these and they have become a tradition at our house that Molly and I sit down with a box of colored pencils and a glass of wine and color these in every month, it's always very interesting to see how they come ou...

Bison rider

an idea that came to me the other day. not sure if it'll become anything or why I felt compelled to this image but figured I should follow it as far as it goes. 

Stoke's Nature center update

Hello my wonderful patron people! 

By now you should all be receiving your signed prints!! You may have to flatten them for a few hours...Next year the print will be smaller so I can afford to send them all FLAT! 

This month has been a little quiet and I'm sorry. I've been very busy with this piece, the human history of the area where Stokes is. as you can see, much of it is still under construction.

My current battel is re-arranging the elements in order to accomm...

December Coloring Page and Psittacosaurus preview

Happy New Year everyone!

I know I said this would be the coloring page for next month, but I was able to force myself to finish it, taking this small spot reconstruction from sketch to finish in 3 days. You guys get a preview of the fully colored version as well. 

I'd love to see what you guys do with this one, so if you decide to print it out and color it please mention me wherever you post it. Of course you can always just send an email or message as well. 

Enjoy...

Doodles

Hey everyone!

thinking about what the new coloring page should be. This'll probably be for Jan- got a lot on my plate this month. Thinking about doing this little dino. It's been in the news a bit lately. 

It's been a rough few weeks and I've found it difficult to make a lot of work, so I relished the opportunity to draw something at random and listen to music that might be called melancholy because all the Christmas music lately have made anything upbeat is almost undigestib...

The Trouble with Triceratops

Just kidding. Triceratops' are never any trouble. They are perfect. 

These stickers went out to the top tier a earlier this week. As with last time, I'll open up sales to the other two tiers. So if any of you Aquilops or Deinonychus folks want a sticker for $2 message me! 

They will go on sale to the general public after the holidays. 

Coloring page for Nov 2020

I was wondering what I'd do for this month's coloring page and as I sat down today to figure it out I saw one of my favorite Podcasts: The Common Descent, had dropped and episode about sauropods. 

So, enjoy this Brontosaurus (yes, it's a real thing-after some major developments in 2015) coloring page!

Arboreal Predation

Hello Patrons!

How about some concept art? 

You all know by now how much I enjoy depicting behavior of extinct animals. Especially hunting. Not just because it's exciting but there are so many things to explore with this theme. 

I'm returning to an old idea of a paraavian, like archaeopteryx, in pursuit of some other tree dwelling species. The original version, which you guys can find on my website, had a Microraptor-like thing going after a lizard. 

Thi...

Breaking in the new Tablet

So I have some exciting news! 

I recently purchased a Wacom Cintiq! After years of looking at the competitors and finding them not quite up to the task, Wacom released an entry level to their legendary tablet series. It's not fully loaded like the Pro line but it is absolutely an upgrade to my current setup. 

So over the past two weekends I've been doodling on it and you guys get to see the results of some of my better sketches. I'll have more for you guys in color soon!...

Nature Center Project update

Hello wonderful patrons!

I wanted to update you on the thing that is still keeping me busy- the interp panels for the stoke's nature center. 

Two of the panels, detailing the Geologic history and the panel showing the mammalian wildlife that once occupied the valley, are getting closed to finish. like 85% ish. 

These are meant to be placing in a "frame" with text at the bottom and so on that a graphic designer is...designing.  I'll have versions of those for y...

the tops of the Tops

the client for this project picked these two for the finalists. hopefully if she picks the bottom one I can figure out those damn ankles, they always give me trouble. 

Can't post these online, lest the client's intended recipient see them and ruin the surprise. 

Which one would you choose?  

Thumbnail concept sketches

Hello beautiful nerds!

I'm happy to report I am being kept quite busy with my current illustration commision but I'll always make room for a new paleoart commision, albeit a small one.

A friend of mine asked me to create a high quality pencil drawing of her husband's favorite dinosaur: Triceratops! Lucky for her, Triceratops is currently my most drawn dinosaur in my professional career. Might have to balance that out with some hadrosaurs or something. Does feel good to distance my...

October Coloring page

Hey Patrons!! sorry I missed the post last week so this will be a double post week.

October being by birth month n' all, I thought I'd treat you all with a special coloring page of my first and most favorite dinosaur: Stegosaurus!! 

I made sure it was 8.5x11 this time and should be good for printing or importing to digital.

Hope all of you are "pandemic okay" or maybe even actual "okay"! 

I'm so grateful for all of you being here. Big patron reward coming soo...

Nature Center Interp panel update

Hello everyone. I thought i'd share an update on the project that is taking up most of my time these days. The Stoke's nature center panels are all mostly figured out in the concept sketch stage. Two of the panels have been taken to color though they are still pretty rough. 

These are the individual assets that will occupy the panel on the fauna that once lived in the Cache Valley. I'm having a lot of fun with the bear but the wolves continue to give me trouble.  

You gu...