This image was produced as a private commission. I was trying to keep things accurate by using animals from the same locality and age. I was also trying to show a scene as if viewed 'for real' without incorporating emotion in the way that is so popular with wildlife artists at the moment. I chose Archaeopteryx lithographica and Compsognathus longipes because they are of similar size, and I wanted to suggest a rough evolutionary lineage (non-avian theropod to avian theropod). The illustration began life as scale card models, which were then photographed, and finally rendered in gouache. Afterwards, the finished painting was scanned and tidied up in Adobe Photoshop. The actual image size is approximately A3.

Editor's note: The Compsognathus has been given sparse integumentary fibers (as in the related Sinosauropteryx, albeit more sparse) which are difficult to see at this resolution.