Choosing a color scheme for Corythosaurus

[fenrishunter500]

First off, I'm new here so if this is the wrong place to post this let me know and I'll move it.

For background on my actual question, I have been in the modeling hobby for well over two decades now, albeit on a very on-and-off basis in high school and early college (though I did do a good bit of wargaming during this time.) Thusly, I've got a firm grasp of painting techniques, model preparation, and all of that jazz. So on to my question.

This past weekend I was able to get my hands on two old model kits. The first is the Jurassic Park Lindberg Tyrannosaurus rex kit from the first movie. ('93 printing? Certainly, it's copyrighted as '92 in the manual.) The second is an old Airfix Corythosaurus kit from '79. As Jurassic Park is as high profile as it is, I have no problems figuring out a color scheme for that one. However, I am finding myself at a loss on how to approach picking a color for the Corythosaurus.

How do the rest of you choose your color schemes for your repaints? I don't want to do something bland like greens, greys, and browns, but I also don't want something so brightly colored that it just looks totally out of place.

Thank you for any input or direction you can point me in, and happy painting all!

[paintingdinos]

Welcome to the forum! Those are two very nice model kits to start with!

Sometimes I pick one color I like then just go from there. As in, "I think I would like the focal point of this model to be red", so I figure out what parts I want to be red then just sort of organically add or subtract colors around that.

When painting something with a prominent feature (like the head crest for Corythosaurus), maybe pick that one focal color for the crest, then decided what naturally flows nicely with it. Maybe the more boring colors like brown or green work best for the main body, so you can keep that key unique feature the main emphasis of the piece.

Look forward to seeing what you do with them either way!

[bettashark]

When I don't know what color to paint an animal, I do one or a combination of 4 things:
1. Look at animals that fill a similar niche
2. Look at animals that have similar ornamentation
3. Look at art of mythical creatures from cultures of the region the animal was found
4. Sort my paints into warm colors, cool colors, and neutrals, and pick one of each at random. Add black and white. Do test mixes to see what colors can be made using these colors. Then go wild!

[Stegotyranno420]

Combine the patterns of different modern animals.

Look at minerals and try to incorporate those colors onto a dinosaur

Make a contrast of said bland colors with vibrant colors, but keep some natural balance. For example, a black bird with a golden yellow head, or a dark colored spinosaurus with a radiant sail.

Combine colors from pleasing internet pictures.

Draw them out, or you can find a good sketch and draw the colors into it, or better yet, get a picture of the model you want to paint and repaint it in photosyop.

Look at geometric or pattern art, and try to refine it until it looks natural, realistic yet aethsethic(tip don't add said patterns on the entire body)

Watch professionals or experienced painters do the process and try to add-on to that color scheme, make it with a twist.

I'm looking forward to what you will make

[fenrishunter500]

Thanks all! Some really solid tips here, I am looking forward to playing with them tomorrow while waiting between the dreaded meetings-that-should-be-emails.

So far, I've mainly been diving into existing artwork and repaints to see if anything strikes me as particularly, well.... striking. I've taken quite a liking to the Corythosaurus from PNSO as seen over on the review side of the forums. I'm thinking of toning down the yellow and upping the saturation on the two colors on the crest, but I'm deff still in the early stages of brainstorming palette choices.

[Halichoeres]

A couple of other things I like to keep in mind when choosing an animal's color scheme:

What would it look like to other members of its species?

What would it look like to predators or prey?

We live in a world where most of the large land animals have two-color vision (in other words, red-green colorblind). We and other primates have re-evolved the lost red-green distinction, but dinosaurs probably never lost it in the first place. Some of them may have even had four-color vision. As we see with other primates (snub-nosed monkeys, mandrills, guenons) and other animals with good color vision (lizards, insects, birds), when you have that kind of sensory capability, it is occasionally hijacked by sexual selection even at the expense of camouflage. To my mind, I think that means that an artist can be more daring with color than they would be if they just applied the coloration of the closest ecological analogue, if that analogue happens to be a colorblind mammal.

[fenrishunter500]

Oh, I think I know what I am going to do, actually!

I asked my 3 y/o what colors I should do. She has about a million of those "100 dinos in a tube for $5" dinos, you know the ones I'm talking about right? Somehow, *every* single Corythosaurus that has come into this house is orange; so, of course, her answer was for me to paint it up orange and red. Duh, dad.

Then it hit me. In high school, I worked for my biology teacher who also was a snake breeder. My job was all of the not-so-fun jobs, aka cleaning cages and tending to meals for the stubborn snakes. Over the years we'd go to reptile shows all over the states. During this time, I had an amelanistic motely corn snake (affectionately named Molly). For those not in the know, amel corns are bright orange with reddish-orange markings.

So I think I am going to try to work in that coloring to the Corythosaurus. Maybe on the crest I'll do some sort of blue-to-green fade as an accent.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! It really helped me dial this in!

[fenrishunter500]

So it's not great, by any means, but I am fairly happy with how it turned out!









Edit: Huh. Why aren't the photos showing up?
Edit #2: Fixed it

[Halichoeres]

I like the high-contrast crest.