Voices of Palaeoart - Hodari Nundu

This is the first iteration of our brand new series ‘Voices of Palaeoart’, in which we interview various artists in the community to hear more about their motivations and creative processes. Today we feature Hodari Nundu! A talented digital palaeoartist, with a unique stylized design. you can find him on Twitter, Instagram, and DeviantArt.

What medium of palaeoart do you create?

“I mostly create digital art.”

How long have you been involved with Palaeoart?

“I have been sharing my art online for over a decade, but I didn´t consider myself a paleoartist until very recently. I realize different people have different definitions of that means; for me, sketching for fun was not enough to qualify, even if my subjects were largely extinct creatures. It was only in late 2020 that I decided to take it seriously and hopefully make a career out of it. So if you ask me, I am only getting started!”

What was your motivation for getting into Palaeoart?

“I have always been interested in paleontology and prehistoric life, but I’m also passionate about extant wildlife and wildlife conservation. Art- paleoart in this case- has the power to fuel imagination and spark a sense of wonder; lots of paleontologists got into their careers because of a piece of art- be it a painting, illustration or movie- that left a great impression in them as children. Beyond helping paleontologists better conceptualize their study subjects and introducing them to the world, I think paleoart can also get people interested in the wildlife we still have today, which is threatened all over the world and in desperate need of attention. I focus mostly on Pleistocene megafauna because their extinction is very, very recent, so much it still has an effect on modern ecosystems. When you look at the Pleistocene, you are looking at the same world we live in, but in its much richer, “original” state. So I think paleoart is a powerful tool show people how much we have lost, and crucially, how much we risk losing.”

Fig 1. Two Protocyon troglodytes chasing a Greater Rhea (Rhea americana) during a thunderstorm in the Pleistocene Brazillian Cerrado

What is your research process when setting out to reconstruct an animal or setting?

“I try to find and read all pertinent literature on the subject, and I take lots of notes and draw lots of rough sketches. Then, I collect reference images for both the environment and the creature; these can be skeletals, previous reconstructions if available, and photographs of related or ecologically equivalent animals. I also like to reach out to the people who actually have studied the fossils, although this is not always possible. I also have to say that there’s a very open community of paleontologists and paleontology enthusiasts online who take it upon themselves to collect references and are happy to share them with artists. I owe a lot to them, as some references are otherwise hard to obtain!”

What do you do when the information is lacking - say a species has no information about certain key morphological features. How do you go about reconstructing it?

“It really depends on what animal you’re trying to reconstruct, because in many cases there will be related taxa that you can extrapolate from to make an educated guess. This is the case with say, Pleistocene mammals, many of which have close living relatives. But there are other cases in which you don´t even have that, either because the specimen is extremely fragmentary, or because there are no close relatives to extrapolate from. In those cases I rely mostly on intuition. You get to a point in which you’re familiar enough with modern day animals that anything off in a portrayal of them would immediately stand out to you; ideally, you should be able to sense this in your art as well, and try to make it look as organic as possible- like something that would function and make sense in real life. In some cases this is all you can do until future discoveries shed further light on your subject.”

What is your artistic process when doing a piece?

“A bit chaotic, if I have to be honest. I am doing my very best to conquer my main demons as an artist, of which the worst is probably impatience; still, often I do lots of preliminary sketches that end up having no use at all, I tend to abandon works halfway through because I thought of a better idea at the last moment, and frequently forget to separate things in layers which inevitably comes back to haunt me later on. I often listen to music while working, which simultaneously pumps me up and helps me focus for longer. Normally once I start a piece, I don´t stop, but as I strive to improve I’ve found that yes, leaving it for a while to do things such as sleep and eat is good, and it always helps to take a fresh look at your work in the morning rather than impulsively declare it finished after several hours of nonstop work. Also there’s usually a cat around as a supervisor.”

Any particular inspirations among other palaeoartists or artists in general?

“I am a big fan of Velizar Simeonovski and Mauricio Anton, among the masters who paint Pleistocene megafauna. Among my peers I am inspired by and have a lot of admiration for Julio Lacerda, Sergei Merjeevski and Dhruv Franklin.”

Which piece portraying the Pleistocene are you most proud of?

“It has to be a tie between two recent pieces that, interestingly, feature the same Pleistocene predator, the canid Protocyon troglodytes, which occupied a niche like dholes or African wild dogs but in the Neotropic. The first piece showed two Protocyon chasing a rhea in the Brazilian cerrado during a storm. This was, at the time, the piece that took me longest to create, and it was also the first in which I went through the whole process of researching the literature, creating scale charts and preliminary sketches to figure out the animal’s proportions, etc. In many ways I consider it my first serious paleoart piece. The second one shows a ground sloth Xibalbaonyx climbing up a cenote wall to escape a pack of Protocyon, in Pleistocene Yucatan. I rather liked how this little piece turned out, and as far as I know it is also the first piece of paleoart ever to depict Protocyon in Yucatan- where it was only recently identified based on remains previously mistaken for those of coyotes. Before that, Protocyon was thought exclusive to South America. To me, the discovery added a very interesting dimensión to the Pleistocene fauna of the region, so it was exciting to draw it and show it to the world. “

Fig 2. A pack of Protocyon troglodytes chasing a Xibalbaonyx which is fleeing up a cenote wall in Late Pleistocene Yucatan

Are you involved in any projects you would like to tell people about?

“Yes, I am currently involved in a very interesting upcoming project about the Pleistocene-Holocene fauna of the Serra do Espinhaço, a very interesting region in Brazil that not only has a very rich extant biodiversity but also an incredible fossil fauna. The project is being coordinated by Brazilian naturalist and science communicator Pedro Henrique Tunes, who is a great friend of mine, so anyone interested should follow him on Twitter (@PedroHTunes) and Instagram (@pedrohenriquetunes) for updates. Also I have a couple projects of my own that I’m working on very hard, and which if all goes well will be announced soon, so do follow me too on Twitter (@HodariNundu) and Instagram (@hodarinundu).”

Finally, what is your alltime favourite animal?

“If you asked any of my friends they’d tell you my favorite animal is the tiger. I myself am always reluctant to answer this because of how sincerely and deeply in love I am with all wild creatures. It’s like asking me which of my cats is my favorite!”