Dani Mays
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danimays.bsky.social
Dani Mays
@danimays.bsky.social
350 followers 500 following 100 posts
Paleoart, among other things. Bringing life to that which we cannot see, with digital and traditional media. Author of the webcomic Falling Leaves. KCAI 2023


- #art - #paleoart - #sciart - #webcomics - #fantasyart -
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danimays.bsky.social
Great Blue Heron
Inkwash, watercolor, gouache

#birds #art #wildlifeart
Watercolor painting of a great blue heron standing in shallow water, underneath branches of live oaks.
May 23, 2025 at 7:05 PM
danimays.bsky.social
Chickadee in inkwash and gouache
4x6"

#birds #wildlifeart #art
A grayscale painting of a chickadee sitting on a branch.
February 24, 2025 at 5:01 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in inkwash
4x6"

#birds #wildlifeart #art
A grayscale painting of three whistling ducks.
February 24, 2025 at 5:01 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Ediacaran painting take 2
Work in progress of a painting of several Ediacaran species. So far, there are pencil outlines of two Dickinsonia (flat, ridged organisms resembling wide worms) and several Kimberella (smaller egg-shaped organisms resembling mollusks)
January 21, 2025 at 6:57 AM
danimays.bsky.social
A mother unenlagiine hunts in shallow waters, followed by her three chicks.

Watercolor and white ink.

#paleoart #sciart
A long, horizontal watercolor painting. The painting is mostly green and gray. Seen from below, looking up through the water, an adult unenlagiine picks a mollusk up from the riverbed. Behind her, her three chicks swim, chasing after minnows. Near her foot is a salamander trying to stay inconspicuous.
January 18, 2025 at 7:19 PM
danimays.bsky.social
Parasaurolophus I salvaged from a basic dinosaur origami tutorial I messed up almost immediately

Merry Christmas!!
December 25, 2024 at 5:17 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Found this unfinished Microraptor drawing. Might turn it into something
An unfinished drawing of a Microraptor. Its wings are semi-folded, and it looks over its shoulder.
December 20, 2024 at 11:05 AM
danimays.bsky.social
#commission for @fairyshotgun.bsky.social !
Had a ton of fun with this. Such a great design for really leaning into the heavy spot-blacks on the lineart.
Illustration of a fantasy character reaching toward the camera with their hand wreathed in blue-green flame. The character wears a hooded capelet, within which their face is two glowing eyes and a sharp, pointed grin. Below the capelet their torso is an exaggerated ribcage with a blue-green light at its core. They wear a belt made of bony, diamond-shaped plates.
December 19, 2024 at 7:42 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Working my way through my WIP drawer a bit before starting something totally new
WIP of an oil painting of a Deinonychus. The Deinonychus is underpainted in reddish brown; some foliage is blocked in behind it in greens and browns.
December 1, 2024 at 10:27 PM
danimays.bsky.social
If you see this, post a dino 🦖
A watercolor painting of a deceased microraptor, iridescent blue-green-to-purple, resting in a bright green bed of gingko leaves. It has a thin white halo behind its head.
December 1, 2024 at 2:16 PM
danimays.bsky.social
*Will Smith poses at my little digital cartoons* As the holidays roll around these make great gifts for people with specific favorite dinosaurs, creature OCs, pets, etc.
Starting at $40 USD; each additional one is 25% off ($30/each). ~1 week turnaround. Multiple slots open.
#commissions
A cartoon drawing of the pterosaur Dearc Sgiathanach in flight against a gray background. The pterosaur has a blue body wirh orange wings. Three cartoon digital drawings: A gray and red Kulindadromeus, an iridescent black Microraptor eating a bag of chips, and a blue and gray Mosasaur A cartoon drawing of a blue-green Anurognathus. Its eyes are pink, with wide round pupils and exaggerated highlights to emphasize its cuteness. Cute cartoon of a black long-furred cat with orange eyes, with a vacant stare and its tongue out in a 'blep'. It's wearing an orange witch hat with a lighter orange patch.
November 24, 2024 at 1:43 PM
danimays.bsky.social
One more for the road -- Hideous Zippleback
Reimagined with a tail fan resembling a decoy head
#paleostream
Reimagining of a Hideous Zippleback dragon from How to Train your Dragon. Its head is viper-esque in appearance, with pits in its snout and a large slit-pupil eye. Its neck is long (shorter than the canon design). The drawing only goes to the chest, but also shows the tip of the dragon's tail, which is a display with patterning superficially resembling its face. It's green and blue, with yellow eyes and belly and red spikes along its back. It has a horn on its snout and a fan of feathery structures on its chin and on the tail display.
November 23, 2024 at 12:53 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Sketching along so far with the #paleostream How to Train your Dragon stream, reimagining some of the HTTYD dragons. (Mine lean less into realism but c'est la vie)
I've loved HTTYD since childhood--this has been fun!
So far: Whispering Death, Rumblehorn, Nadder, Razorwhip.
A reimagining of the Whispering Death from How to Train your Dragon, as a stocky lizard-like dragon with large blank eyes, small wings and legs, spines along its head and tail, and a large fleshy nose. Its teeth face inward, and when it opens its mouth it stretches to the side and exposes bright green oral tissue. The dragon is blue-green and green; its nose and spines are red. Reimagining of the Rumblehorn from How to Train your Dragon. It's a large, stocky dragon, with small, short, lizardlike legs and a short tail. It's predominantly green, with red spines on its upper limbs and tail. Much of its back and stomach are covered in lighter green armored scutes. Its head is red, with golden antlers and insect-like mandibles. It has three sets of wings; the first is green with a red underside, forming an elytra of sorts. The second two are bright golden, and merge into the same set of membrane, forming a shape resembling a beetle's wings. Reimagining of the Deadly Nadder from How to Train your Dragon. It's a slender, theropod-like dragon, covered in feathers, with membranous wings. Its face is a blunt beak with a large horn, fleshy wattles, and yellow eyes. Its legs feature a fan of feathers, and its tail has long feathery structures that it's capable of kicking in a tarantula-esque fashion. It's predominantly blue, with a tan belly and feathers, and yellow wings. Reimagining of the razorwhip dragon from How to Train your Dragon. It's metallic silver throughout, with a long neck and large head, with an arcing horn over the nose. Its back is covered in plates, its chest is covered in spines. It has large membranous wings, and an incredibly long whiplike tail with an elaborate, spiky thagomizer at the end.
November 22, 2024 at 11:33 PM
danimays.bsky.social
Share your blue art! 🌊
Watercolor painting of an Ichthyosaur floating in calm water. The painting is blue-green, the ichthyosaur is gray. A digital painting of a Jormungandr walhallaensis descending into the ocean. The painting is blue-green; the animal is gray. A watercolor painting of a raven perched on a branch, with a simple blue square background. The raven is iridescent from blue-green to purple. An oil painting of Utahraptor, facing left. The background is blue; the animal has blue-gray feathers on its face and back, blue eyes, an orange snout, and pink feathers on its chin.
November 18, 2024 at 12:13 PM
danimays.bsky.social
If you see this, post a bird 🐦
November 18, 2024 at 12:06 PM
danimays.bsky.social
Art VS Artist 🎨
A picture of me standing by the Deinonychus cast at HMNS, pointing toward it and smiling, holding my sketchbook. I'm wearing a shirt with the mRNA-amino acid chart on it. A watercolor painting of an Ichthyosaur floating in still blue-green water. A watercolor painting of a Spinosaurus swimming through vibrant blue-green water, kicking up bubbles with its feet, seen from below. The sun shines from behind it. A watercolor pencil painting of a deceased Microraptor lying in a bed of gingko leaves. The Microraptor is vibrantly iridescent from blue-green to purple. Behind its head is a thin white halo.
November 15, 2024 at 10:53 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Chapter 1 may still be in progress, but the prologue is complete--come check it out!

I can't wait for y'all to see what I have in store.
Ninea, the protagonist of Falling Leaves. She's an alien designed for this comic; she's humanoid, with vibrant green skin, large blue-green eyes, large mouse-like ears, and yellow frills on her head, shoulders, and long flexible tail. She has clawed, three-toed feet, resembling a theropod's, and her tail has large scales on its ventral side, like the scutes of a snake. She wears a gray tunic with a blue-green border, baggy brown knee-length shorts, and a lighter gray scarf. She holds a piece of paper in her hand. She stands on a patch of grass; at her feet sits Mem, a cat-sized gray-brown robot with a triangular head, a long neck, a long prehensile tail, and limbs resembling a pterosaur's. Mem looks up at Ninea.
November 14, 2024 at 11:56 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Y'all, go check out my webcomic if you enjoy science fiction, cell biology, or both! The entire setting is based on a cell's workings (see if you can guess what the mechs here represent)

Chapter 1 is coming soon!

www.fallingleavescomic.com (+ webtoon canvas & comicfury)

#sciart #webcomics #promo
A panel from the webcomic Falling Leaves. Several crouching masked figures hide behind a large boulder, out of sight of a pilot (wearing a different, more complex mask, and a semi-armored uniform) who controls a mech meant to resemble the "shell" of a paper nautilus/argonaut. The mech has large scythes on its forelimbs, which drip ominously with vivid pink blood. All characters are an alien species designed for this comic, with tails, large mouselike ears, and frills on their heads and shoulders. Their coloration varies; the central figure here is blue. (Dialogue: "....hold.") The figure in the foreground, having run from their hiding spot, turns around in time to see the argonaut mech moving quickly toward them, slamming one scythe-blade into the ground. The same characters from the first two images now run past a fallen mech, its pilot seen dead through the cracked window of the cockpit. The person who killed the pilot stands on top of the robot, ushering the other characters to hurry. (Dialogue: "Go! Hurry!")
November 14, 2024 at 11:38 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Did I ever post my cell dragon here?

This was originally done for a Smaugust challenge I half-finished; the prompt for the day was 'small'.

I went really small.

#sciart #biology #fantasyart #art #dragons
A colored pencil drawing of a dragon the size of an amoeba, eating a smaller cell. It's legless, translucent and full of cell organelles, with an open spiky mouth and large round eyes. Essentially, a cell in the shape of a dragon. Flagella form fans along its sides and back, on the back of its head, and on its tail.
November 14, 2024 at 11:04 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Went through to see what my most-liked art on twitter is, and I'm pretty sure it's this one. I still love this drawing to bits

#paleoart #art #dinosaurs
A digital sketch of three feathered velociraptors watching Jurassic Park on an old crt-screen television. Two of them are holding tubs of popcorn; one has its snout buried in the popcorn as it munches. The third has a large cup of soda.
November 14, 2024 at 10:05 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Scan time
A painting of an unspecified unenlagiine followed by her three chicks, wading and swimming through a shallow stream.
November 13, 2024 at 7:31 AM
danimays.bsky.social
I also do fantasy artwork! Need a token for your ttrpg? I'm your gal.

(And while I'm here--I write a webcomic! It's a sci-fi called Falling Leaves with characters/settings based on cells and their molecules. Read for free at www.fallingleavescomic.com and on comicfury and webtoon canvas!)
A painting of a rabbit leaping, with the sun forming a halo behind him. From the right emerges an amalgamation of wings and snapping skeletal canine teeth. The painting is based on the opening mythos of the novel Watership Down: The Prince With a Thousand Enemies. A dragon boss token designed and drawn for a homebrew dungeons and dragons campaign I was in at the time. It's snakelike, with three pairs of legs (two of them arms) and has the wings of a luna moth. It holds an energy orb that gives off a trail of smoke. A digital piece. Ninea, the protagonist of my webcomic Falling Leaves, stands on a plane of pink glass beneath a sky full of stars and blue-green clouds. Below her, the glass is cracking. She is an alien species created for the comic: she is humanoid, green, with clawed feet and a tail, with frills on her tail, shoulders, and head. She wears a simple gray tunic and pants, and a flowing gray scarf. A page from my webcomic Falling Leaves. In it, a group of unknown soldiers runs past a defeated mech (shaped, broadly, like a paper nautilus's "shell") and toward a long winding staircase down into a hole in the planet flanked with concrete and metal struts. Dialogue indicates that they have breached the planet's Nucleus.
November 13, 2024 at 4:58 AM
danimays.bsky.social
I have some ongoing projects at the moment as well, so I'm open to probably one painting at a time (with the exception of the simple digital cartoons.)
DM me or email me at dani.mays.art@gmail.com to inquire for details and pricing!
Business card illustration for Matthew S. depicting a red T. Rex as a games producer, with formatting like the king of hearts playing card. A digital sketch of Jormungandr walhallensis diving into the sea A pen-and-ink timelapse comic of a fox decomposing Two cartoon velociraptors drawn for Lindsay Haddon. They're both smiling, one facing left the other facing right. One is beige and blue, the other is gray and tan.
November 13, 2024 at 4:30 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Hey everyone!

I'm open to #paleoart work! Realism (with a painterly touch), cartoons, anything in between. Reconstructions, illustrations, fine art.
(possible painting sizes anywhere from 5x7" to 16x20", 350dpi scans)

Some more examples and information on availability in the replies!

#sciart #art
A painting of an Ichthyosaur in watercolor and ink A collection of paintings in water media: a pair of Hatzegopteryx on the beach, two Daspletosaurus competing for food, a deceased Microraptor lying among gingko leaves, and a Spinosaurus swimming seen from below. A collection of paintings and drawings: A graphite bust of Deinocheirus, an oil painting of Microraptor, an ink painting of two Velociraptor, and a watercolor painting of two Kulindadromeus. A collection of cartoon digital drawings: Kulindadromeus, a Mosasaur, and a Microraptor eating chips out of a bag like a modern-day blackbird.
November 13, 2024 at 4:18 AM
danimays.bsky.social
Leggy
Work in progress of a watercolor and ink painting. The legs and snout of an adult unenlagiine are fully painted; behind her, two chicks are still halfway finished. The painting is predominantly green.
November 9, 2024 at 5:04 AM