The beginning:

This piece initially started as an elaborated drawing of a cow/bull skull. This single drawing was an assignment at the end of my Master's of Scientific Illustration program.

The goal was to draw the ventral view of the skull with as much detail as is visible in the specimen while using the most refined drawing technique. I began first by measuring and drawing the skull in 1:1 aspect then scanning and scaling it down to roughly 70% of it's original size for the actual drawing process.

The drawing technique used is a refined hatching technique which starts with the hardest graphite pencil (9H) to the softest (2B), for a smooth build-up that leaves no lines or unnecessary textures, creating a clean seamless drawing. I definitely wouldn't be the first to admit that this technique is incredible time consuming, however, the finished result is beautiful.

After finishing the drawing, I decided to colorize it...purely out of curiosity, and that's what brought the idea along.  

After the digital coloration of the pencil drawing, I decided to challenge myself to draw the remaining 3 aspects of the skull with the goal of achieving the same level of detailing, coloration, form, and 3-dimensionality as the initial drawing. The only exception was that I wanted to have the same end result digitally without a preliminary pencil drawing base.

While working out how to finish the 4-aspect drawings, I came across some information and data about ancient/ ice-age cows/bulls that captured my imagination. Living next to a farm for the past 2.5/3 years, the views of my morning commute were filled with images of grazing cows. So, I decided to combine these two ideas into one; and what better way than to utilize drawings that I was already working on.

I am grateful to the Natural History Museum of Maastricht and the head paleontologist for giving me access to the skull specimen. This gave me the chance to measure, draw, and inspect them for specific details and visual traits that I could capture in drawing.

For the Auroch skull drawings, I opted to use the pencil drawing base with digital coloration technique because I wanted visually set the two species apart somehow on the page of the infographic. The pencil drawing gives the coloration a grittier look, which I think adds to the theme of the age and antiquity of these ancient beasts.

All the weeks amount of work combined to give you the finished product that you viewed at the top of the page. I hope you enjoyed this.