Experiments in Sauropod Color
Few dinosaurs present more challenges for an artist than sauropods. To do them properly, you not only need to set their necks and tails at believable angles (i.e. not have either snaking around or the former arching swan-like above the ground), but you also need to capture the sheer size of their bodies and their comparatively tiny and often-bizarre heads at the same time.
Perhaps even more difficult, though, is choosing an appropriate color scheme for these creatures, especially if — like me — you don't want to just make them uniformly gray or dull brown like elephants or rhinos.
When coloring dinosaurs in general (or at least those without preserved melanosomes), I try to follow these rules:
1) Choose a color scheme that won't make it too obvious to predators, or — if your dinosaur is a predator — too obvious to prey.
2) For a realistic-looking color scheme, the modern animal kingdom is a good place to start. But...
3) If you adopt a modern animal's colors directly, make sure it's not too obvious. What are the chances that a Triceratops would be white with thick black stripes like a zebra?
4) When possible, you should consider making a dinosaur's oddest features the most brightly- or boldly-colored ones. Crests, plates, frills, sails, and even horns may likely have played some part in species recognition or sexual selection, so why not make them stand out? For sauropods, I tend to do this with their necks.
Few dinosaurs present more challenges for an artist than sauropods. To do them properly, you not only need to set their necks and tails at believable angles (i.e. not have either snaking around or the former arching swan-like above the ground), but you also need to capture the sheer size of their bodies and their comparatively tiny and often-bizarre heads at the same time.
Perhaps even more difficult, though, is choosing an appropriate color scheme for these creatures, especially if — like me — you don't want to just make them uniformly gray or dull brown like elephants or rhinos.
When coloring dinosaurs in general (or at least those without preserved melanosomes), I try to follow these rules:
1) Choose a color scheme that won't make it too obvious to predators, or — if your dinosaur is a predator — too obvious to prey.
2) For a realistic-looking color scheme, the modern animal kingdom is a good place to start. But...
3) If you adopt a modern animal's colors directly, make sure it's not too obvious. What are the chances that a Triceratops would be white with thick black stripes like a zebra?
4) When possible, you should consider making a dinosaur's oddest features the most brightly- or boldly-colored ones. Crests, plates, frills, sails, and even horns may likely have played some part in species recognition or sexual selection, so why not make them stand out? For sauropods, I tend to do this with their necks.
No book or course openly preaches these rules; I've just set them for myself over the years and believe they've helped my paleo-art. I'll let you be the judge.
Isanosaurus
(with koi fish colors)
Brachytrachelopan
Futalongkosaurus
(with monitor lizard stripes)
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