How to Draw an Extinct 14' Tall Animal for a Museum

Lynda Wallis
The Narrative
Published in
6 min readJan 23, 2020

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My illustration of an extinct Megatherium americanum, Lynda Wallis

I was hired to recreate a 100+ year-old illustration of a megatherium, a 14' tall, veggie-eating, slow-moving sloth that roamed the Americas between 12,000 and 14,000 years ago.

Part of the magic of visiting a good museum exhibit, play, ballet, or concert, is the illusion designed from the ground up by good designers, writers, thinkers, researchers, fabricators, musicians, actors, directors, etc. The aim is to immerse viewers in a story or an experience. We don’t consider the intricacies of the magic behind what we’re seeing. When it works, the magic happens and we are truly transported.

Original image of Megatherium americanums

The 100+ year-old illustration supplied to me was about 2” tall. The problem with the original? There wasn’t enough visual information in the original 2” drawing to enlarge it to be 14 feet tall. The exhibit designer envisioned a life size image of the megatherium as part of the redesign of a small museum.

My job was to recreate the original image so that it could be printed out at 14’ tall. I challenged myself with the task of making my drawing better than original. Honestly, the megatherium in the original was a little mushy and not very well defined…

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Lynda Wallis
The Narrative

Deeply rooted in the mid west, I write about little things — everything is a little thing-art, the creative process, the natural world, and love.