Hello dear people,


I want to paint some dinosaur models but in a proper "realistic" way if that makes sense?

I have been searching high and low, several times over the span of years, but gave up every time because I just couldnt find a proper way or ways how to paint them

the ones from the Stan Winston studios and the JP movies have this "realistic" look, I wish I could go in that direction somehow. and I now that's aiming for the moon, but still. there must be some ways somehow ?

I can recall books from school and the library where the dinos and this real look also with the camo patters, but that is also hard to find somehow on the internet somehow, or I am looking in the wrong direction.

thank for thinking along and helping me out

Welcome to the Planet!

Regarding your question, I think you want to frame it less as "How do I paint them realistically", since no one has ever seen a dinosaur, and more as, "How do I paint it according to the latest fossil evidence and interpretations?"

Stan Winston's dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" met that standard pretty well, for their time. Michael Crichton researched the most recent finds and interpretations, when he wrote the original novel (which was far better than the movie, by the way). I think of paleontologists like Jack Horner and Robert Bakker, especially, who helped replace the older idea of dinosaurs as big, sluggish lizards with the idea that generally, dinosaurs were warm-blooded and more active. The case for close kinship to modern birds was made more strongly, but the discoveries that suggest that specific species were feathered were still being made and interpreted. Crichton described the baby tyrannosaurs as covered with downy feathers, for example, which they had for insulation and shed as they grew.
But as far as colors go, and how many had feathers or didn't, is still not 100% proven in every single case.

So what you will see online will consist of a lot of artistic license.

Having said that, you can still look to existing examples in nature for inspiration and for guidance. For example, there are animals with leathery skins, which might serve as models for you for large animals like the sauropods, or the ceratopsians. You can decide on the lifestyle your animal led-was T-rex an ambush predator, living in forests? Then what would make sense for an animal like that? Or you can decide that your animal didn't need coloring for survival, so it had color for signaling-to rivals, to mates.

You can decide that since modern birds have this or that feature, it makes senses that animals distantly related to them, earlier in the biological tree, had similar features (that's what Crichton did in much of his descriptions, for example). Birds can see colors, for example, so it makes sense that they use it for a lot of things. Dinosaurs may have had similar vision, and so, maybe they used colors in similar ways. Dilophosaurs had crests-were they brilliantly colored? Or did they support some other structure, and so, looked different? What about ceratopsians? Traditionally, a lot of illustrators depicted them like rhinos or elephants. Were their crests colored by species?

And then, the feathers-which animals had them? There is fossil evidence now for some species, remnants of the support structures for feathers, for example, or imprints in the stone. How much were they like the feathers of today's birds, whose feathers are varied, too? There are flight feathers, feathers that provide insulation, and feathers that don't help with those functions, but help with display and recognition, like a peacock's feathers.

Those are all things to consider, and yet, you still have a lot of room for your own imagination.

As far as searching the web goes, I'm afraid I can't give you any pointers. I run a search on "dinosaurs" and find a lot of illustrations, at least. I do have a similar beef about finding the latest info in print. The last books I bought were Bakker's "Dinosaur Heresies" and Horner's "Compleat T-Rex", and those are now 20 years or more behind us. I don't know of any contemporary paleontologists who have written like Bakker and Horner, for a general audience. There is content on YouTube, and I'm probably showing my age when I talk about looking for books, when someone in his 20s instinctively goes for online content. Having said that, I follow a Facebook page for paleontological artists, though I'll have to get the exact name for you. But if you use Facebook, just search on "dinosaurs" and I'm sure you'll find a lot of content there. Same goes for YouTube. Another website that has some good illustrated content is DeviantArt.com. It's an artists' forum, but there is a good contingent there of people who do illustrations, and models, of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. I recommend looking there, too.

As far as my own preferences and ideas go, I think a rex would look cool with stripes like a tiger or spots like a leopard-to help conceal the animal from potential prey (I think Horner makes a better case for his ideas). I have the second-generation Tamiya kit, and I'm leaning towards one of those patterns.

But no one's ever seen one, so, who's to say?

There are some other Planeteers who specialize in prehistoric animals, who will probably have better insights to help you, too.

Prost!
Brad

A followup...
This is the Facebook group I follow, "Dinosaurs titans of past time": https://www.facebook.com/Dinosaurs-titans-of-past-time-387756681326078/
You might find it of interest, if you're on Facebook.

Prost!
Brad

Plenty videos on YouTube.
How about this one, for a start:-



That should lead you to many more.

Cheers,
Andrew

P.S. Didn't realise that one was mainly building, with three more episodes of same.
Here's another:-

Hello dear people, thank you all for the fast and great replies. I was also thinking about searching for images on artstation, and searching for some well known dinosaur art artists.

thank you for pushing me in the right direction.

love that facebook group ( I dont have FB but at least I can look at that page an the posts, so thank you ) also love your train of thought regarding dinosaurs Baron . and will pick up the book from Jurasic parc, I can always use a good read, and only heard good stuff about it

I dont have pictures of the models Nap, but they are the ones from Tamiya, and I want to experiment also on warhammer lizardmen models to see how "realistic" dinosaur skin tones would transalte on those models, I think it could look amazing and could be a joy to paint if done that way.

ARJ, thank you for posting those links, the painting part for me is a frustrating one at the moment and I really hope I can find some help here on this forum for that, I am familiar with the youtube links posted. the first one is indeed lots of builds but no painting as good as.

the 2nd one ; I am not sure what paints he uses. I only have vallejo, scale 75, abt AK oil paints, and tamiya. and it seems he applies his paints really thick. if I do that with my paints I think it will be a mess?

the thing is I can recall that from the amazing modeller there used to be a vhs video series called modelmania with David Fisher. he airbrushed a dinosaur in that (its at the 1:17 mark) so I did recall that correctly. and I also recall that he used a dark sludge paint substance in which he covered the model and then wiped it off, thus leaving all the scales very nicely shaded and with rich contrast, he also uses this technique on a medusa model at the 1:37 mark.



I just cant recall the video properly, it has been ages. can anyone recall who saw it how he did that or what he uses? is that some acrylic gel mixed with oil paints? (which wouldnt be possible right ? so it would be really thick oil paint or acrylic gel with acrylic paints?) . the thing is I saw that video and I am so confident that that would be the way to help me tons to paint the dinosaurs better, but it could be nostalgia too of course or just pure frustration

I know it was released on dvd, but they seem to be impossible to get a hold of I understood ?

I am looking for similair tutorials in that vein, because I think and hope that would give the best results but are also reasonable to execute somehow ?

I saw I can still get one of those modelmania dvd's but they are region locked, US import. I cant play those in the Netherlands, Europe.

I have copies of his DVDs. The first two are poor quality since they came from video tapes.
He doesn't state the maker, and I can't make out the name on the tubes he uses, but there is a definite 'L' at the beginning.
My guess is that he's using Basic Liquitex Acrylics:-
https://www.liquitex.com/row/products/basics/range/colors/
For his dinosaur, he uses an airbrush for most of the work.
Then he uses a thickish wash made with a gel base (Liquitex I presume), which he then rubs off to get the deep recess effects.
Unfortunately, I can't select the necessary segment from the video.
Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Andrew

Dear Andrew,

thank you for the reply.

what kind of gel do you think he used ? I saw Liquitex sells several kinds.

and what do you think the colors are he used for that gel wash ?

and would I be able to varnish over that once it has dried?

sorry for all the questions, but I think it could really help, I hope.

thanks again

Don't know how helpful this will be but here's my method for painting my Horizon Velociraptor.

I studied a lot of pics of the Stan Winston props and wanted to try and replicate the look as much as possible.

I airbrushed three different skin tones with acrylics starting with the lightest colour for the inside of the legs and the belly and bottom of the jaw and tail.

I then airbrushed a mid tone for the mid section of the body and then a final darker tone for the top section.

I then switched over to oil paints. Because the base is acrylic, you can muck around as much as you like with the oils and they won't mar the underlying paint job. I first applied a general wash of brown oil colour which helped bring out all the wrinkles etc.

I then applied the striped markings in dark brown oils and then blended the edges a little to make them appear softer. If you want to get the nice reverse colouring which you see on the head with the lighter tones in the cracks you can drybrush the scales with a darker oil colour leaving the lighter colour in the gaps and you can also brush lighter coloured oils into the gaps to further accentuate.

I also picked out some of the scales in dark, almost black oil colour to get the bit of variety you see on the head.

Claws etc were painted acrylic ivory then painted with brown oils which was gently wiped with a tissue whilst still wet.
For working with the oils I'd recommend the VMS additive they produce for oil paints which speeds the drying time and can be used to ensure either a flat or semi-gloss finish.

Happy to answer any other specific questions but hopefully this gets you started.

oh Harto, thank you so much ! this is exactly what I am looking for, thank you ! will probably indeed hit you with some questions from time to time.

again everyone thank you !!!

Since I can't give you a sight of my DVDs, I've prepared a series of screen shots.
They've been prepared in sets and presented in thumbnail view. Just open them in a separate tab to get them at full size.
The first is a shot of David starting to give his talk on paints. You can see the probable 'L' and what looks like an 'x' at the end.



This next one shows him mixing his glaze and applying it, followed by a wipe off, and the final effect.
He mixes the glaze using the gel, black and a little brown for that particular figure (the colour mix can be whatever you like for your effect).
He thins it with airbrush thinner until he gets a mayonnaise consistency of the glaze.
This is applied with a brush in sections, and wiped off.
Before I forget, he sprays the figure with matt lacquer and lets it dry thoroughly before applying the glaze.



I said in my earlier post that David airbrushed his dinosaur.
There are a number of stages, but this gives you a bit of an idea:-



My final set is of the glaze being applied to the dinosaur (unfortunately, he didn't give the colour mix for this)



Hope this is of some use.

Cheers,
Andrew

Dear Andrew, thank you so much for the time and effort you spend on this. this really helps me a ton ! thank you so much, I really appreciate all the effort you have put into this, I can not thank you enough. this means so much to me.

Hey Harto I forgot to ask how did you do the mouth and the nails ? and I dont have any experience with drybrushing oils; regarding where you did darker tone drybrushing to show the lighter cracks so to speak. do you thin the oils when drybrushing or just pure from the tube ? thank you for your time

well, that is a GREAT thread
i like all and every messages here !

for my part, my 2 canadian cents ... LOL , i would go wild on colours but in a realistic way, think of Armoured Vehicles Camo today in the shade of colours you want, look at reptilians creatures today and apply the scheme which please you

looking forward to see pictures of your work

Heya Franck, yes it is ; I am so happy with all the help and the great tips ! it means the world to me, I have been wanting to do this for ages. and will start this or next week. the more I look at various art , the more I get the idea that painting dinosaurs in a certain way is indeed like painting armoured vehicels, or German WW II tanks if that makes sense. looking forward to it tons . to be continued !

The mouth was done in a similar fashion with a basecoat of acrylic flesh with some extra red added and then washed over with some thinned crimson oil paint. The teeth were handpainted in acrylics starting with white mixed with yellow ochre and a touch of dark brown at the base then yellow ochre and white at the mid point and then tips finished in off white. The whole mouth was finally given a couple of coats of gloss acylic varnish. Make sure the oils have thoroughly dried before you varnish, if you are just using washes of oils (I tend to use odourless white spirit for my washes) they tend to dry quite quickly in a day or so anyway especially if you use the VMS additives.

Claws were undercoated in acrylic white mixed with yellow ochre. I then used burnt sienna oil cover over the top painting the claw completely in this colour and you can then slowly wipe off the oil colour leaving it in the crevices and at the base of the claw. A cotton bud is the best way to do this stroking it from the tip back towards the base. If you want to go ultra detail you can do some banding in a darker black/brown colour when you do the basecoat and the oils will help blend it together.

On drybrushing, oils are probably the easiest paints to drybrush. You would typically thin the paint as if you were going to be applying an overall coat of the colour, same consistency as you would use for regular brush painting. Use an old flat headed brush but it helps if the bristles are still quite soft. take some paint onto the brush as if you were going to paint normally and then take some kitchen towel and paint on that with backward and forward strokes. You will want to do this until you see that very little paint is getting deposited onto the towel and it is basically leaving a light brown smudge. You are then ready to gently stroke the brush over the raised detail and the paint will be deposited onto the raised detail. Best to practice first as it takes a bit of trial and error to figure out how much is the right amount of paint and how gentle or firm you need to be with the brushing action, I'd use an old tank model with lots of rivets etc and spray it a contrasting acylic colour to the oil you want to drybrush, if you are doing it correctly, only the rivets and edges will pick up the oil paint. Once you get the hang of it you can practice using different shaped brushes and different pressure when applying to the model. To ensure I was getting decent coverage on the raised scales I'd be using something like a number two brush and quite a bit of pressure and using the side of the brush rather than the tip to drybrush the paint.

If you want to go funky colours, take a look at the Dinotopia series. I painted a T rex for my son using a green, purple and yellow scheme from one of the books and he loved it.

thank you Harto for that detailed info, cant wait to use it

yeah Nap, this forum is so impressive, I am really stunned by the kindness and all the help, really

these are the subjects on which I will use the paint techniques, besides some tamiya dinosaurs as well to be continued !

here is something i'm working on as a commissioned work ... i used a lot of purple mixed with skin tones for the belly and with deep blue for the top parts ... i hope it helps