Sauropod paint scheme ideas

[SenSx]

Hello,

I'm about to order a Patagotitan statue, but the creator is giving me the choice of my own color.
I did not know I'd be allowed to, and I don't really have any ideas, do you guys have some pictures of interesting paint schemes I could choose ?

I might pick the same color as this one:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XIMLdzZOjc&t=439s

Not very original to copy someone, but I find it's the perfect balance between natural and vibrant color.


I don't have much imagination, sorry to relie on you 

[ceratopsian]

I lack imagination too when choosing paint schemes, you are not alone.

One thing I often do is to have a look through any encyclopaedias I have. They are often well illustrated and can give you some ideas. For my own Patagotitan I found a couple of images in the thick reference book Dinosaur World that I bought earlier this year.

I don't think there is anything wrong in asking for something like the Dinosdragon version. You could perhaps think of something about it you would like a bit different, if you don't want something exactly the same. Or perhaps say to the artist that you like that scheme, but could he perhaps vary it a bit.

Good luck!  It seems quite a few of us have been inspired to order one of these leviathans!

[Rayeknor]

The sky is the limit. For the one I ordered I considered things like the environment where the animal lived so no grass on the ground and lots of big trees. For a big animal it would want to make heat exchange work so something in-between dark and lighter coloring like elephants, rhinos, crocodiles and komodo dragons and also with some countershading..

And as a (very) large herbivore generating pigmented scales all over its body would be difficult but I personally believe sauropods signaled at least on their necks with less drab colors. All this considered I landed on a kind of standard dark drab big sauropod 101 scheme for the body but with a signaling color on its neck that could also work as a camouflage in an environment with lots of big green plants and trees in floodplains like Argentina had around 100 million years ago:



But we really have no idea what they looked like, I decided to try let science and sensibility lead me, and the green head and neck felt quite risky compared to the "safe" darker body color but the maker pulled it off so well I'm glad I asked for it.
 
The dinosdragons scheme from the YouTube video is also great, but personally I felt it would be more fitting for an animal living in a more barren climate then Patagonia was back then. If you don't want to consider realistic musings just go with the colors you personally prefer, the artist will make it look good, he's a fantastic sculptor but also a very capable painter.

[Bread]

Funny enough I am looking into colorschemes for sauropods too. Having the Haolonggood Apatosaurus repainted soon.

I've always felt common interpretations that were grey, brown, and black to be realistic but bland. But if a collector wants to spice things up a bit, they should. Plus, something large and eye catching brings a great presence to your shelf.

I think having a bright color to contrast with a dark earthy tone works the best. Like a bright blue head down to the neck, almost shoulder area fading to a dark brown or dark grey would look great!

I really do like the read head combo too. Reminds me of Prehistoric Planet's Dreadnoughtus.

I guess you could consider and research the animals habitat to really give a better scientific outlook.

Another option would be to contact a well-known repainter/artist. Sometimes a different set of eyes who work on pieces like so have a keen eye for things like this.

[Remko]

I have ordered the Patagotitan as well, and narrowed it down to two color schemes.

This one:



Or this one:

[BlueKrono]

R @Remko I like the second one better.

[ceratopsian]

I like the artwork that accompanied the recent publication of Chucarasaurus. Sober brown/grey. But enough interest in how it is handled to look good on a large model.

As a collector, I think there are two different aspects to think about in choosing a scheme. One is the fossil animal's environment and what might be plausible. But the other is the model as an artwork on your shelf. A really plain scheme might suit a massive animal living in an arid environment. But that might not look so good on a 70 cm long model. I'm not saying it needs to light up like a Christmas tree and look gaudy, but the scheme needs enough variation and interest within whatever palette is chosen to hold the eye.

[Remko]

I like the artwork that accompanied the recent publication of Chucarasaurus. Sober brown/grey. But enough interest in how it is handled to look good on a large model.

As a collector, I think there are two different aspects to think about in choosing a scheme. One is the fossil animal's environment and what might be plausible. But the other is the model as an artwork on your shelf. A really plain scheme might suit a massive animal living in an arid environment. But that might not look so good on a 70 cm long model. I'm not saying it needs to light up like a Christmas tree and look gaudy, but the scheme needs enough variation and interest within whatever palette is chosen to hold the eye.

In my opinion, the bland brown and grey colors for sauropods we often see in artwork are misleading, but understandable.

We only know large mammals, and these are generally not brightly colored. But that's because of a simple reason, most mammals don't see colors like we do, and certainly not like reptiles do.

And sauropods are reptiles. We might prefer the term archosaurs, but that's just a sub-group of reptiles.

And most reptiles are very colorful, even those with camouflage patterns.
Large crocs aren't a good comparison, because these benefit from being unseen. But even the largest saltwater crocodiles have interesting patterns.

But sauropods? Especially the really large species, these can afford to be brightly colored. They won't be able to hide between the trees anyway, and the largest ones are generally immune from predation. So why not go all out with bright colors. Even if it was only the males in mating season.

And yes, this also makes for a very cool display piece on the shelves.

[SenSx]

Thanks everyone for you comments and help !

Rayeknor => your Patagotitan is beautiful.
I was thinking of something like that, but with a blue head, just for the beauty of it and not for realism.

Remko=> love those patterns, but I'm afraid it could be complicated to execute, I wonder what the result would be on the figure.

But in the end, I think I like the Dinodragon version the best, it feels so natural and vibrant as the same time, it makes me think of Prehistoric Planet, and I like to be able to see the alwreadyt finished version with it.

I did not find any other idea.

Sorry if I bothered you for nothing 

[Remko]

Thanks everyone for you comments and help !

Rayeknor => your Patagotitan is beautiful.
I was thinking of something like that, but with a blue head, just for the beauty of it and not for realism.

Remko=> love those patterns, but I'm afraid it could be complicated to execute, I wonder what the result would be on the figure.

But in the end, I think I like the Dinodragon version the best, it feels so natural and vibrant as the same time, it makes me think of Prehistoric Planet, and I like to be able to see the alwreadyt finished version with it.

I did not find any other idea.

Sorry if I bothered you for nothing 

What kind of colorscheme are you looking for?
You could try doing a google image search for sauropod art. It helped me find lots of examples.
Using genus names can also help in finding different examples.

Have you looked at his Instagram profile?
He has various examples for the figure.

https://instagram.com/ademar.p.nascimento?igshid=MmJiY2I4NDBkZg==

[Rayeknor]

More of Ademar's stunning work on patagotitan

[andrewsaurus rex]

 just peruse paleoart until you find something you like.....there are a lot of imaginative ideas on the net.

an Idea I had a while back, which you may not be interested in but i'll put it out there, was an albino sauropd......there's even a discussion thread on it in the Paleontology forum.   There was some interesting input given.

But you're probably looking for something more conventional, so look at paleoart,  pick 3 you like the best and then choose one of them for your model.  It'll be easy to get overwhelmed with ideas though and at some moments like everything and can't choose and at other moments not like anything. ....ask me how I know. 

[Bread]

an Idea I had a while back, which you may not be interested in but i'll put it out there, was an albino sauropd......there's even a discussion thread on it in the Paleontology forum. There was some interesting input given.

This is definitely an interesting concept and take to see on a model. Besides a possible sauropod, I thought about getting two different of the Haolonggood Allosaurs and having 1 represent an albino individual.

[thomasw100]

just peruse paleoart until you find something you like.....there are a lot of imaginative ideas on the net.

an Idea I had a while back, which you may not be interested in but i'll put it out there, was an albino sauropd......there's even a discussion thread on it in the Paleontology forum.   There was some interesting input given.

But you're probably looking for something more conventional, so look at paleoart,  pick 3 you like the best and then choose one of them for your model.  It'll be easy to get overwhelmed with ideas though and at some moments like everything and can't choose and at other moments not like anything. ....ask me how I know. 

Would an albino sauropod have any chance of survival as a hatchling and juvenile? They would need to hide from predation and a white juvenile would be easily detected by small to large predators.

[andrewsaurus rex]

interesting point.   Here's the thread I started on this a while back.......some other interesting thoughts in it.

https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=10573.msg333621#msg333621

[Halichoeres]

just peruse paleoart until you find something you like.....there are a lot of imaginative ideas on the net.

an Idea I had a while back, which you may not be interested in but i'll put it out there, was an albino sauropd......there's even a discussion thread on it in the Paleontology forum.   There was some interesting input given.

But you're probably looking for something more conventional, so look at paleoart,  pick 3 you like the best and then choose one of them for your model.  It'll be easy to get overwhelmed with ideas though and at some moments like everything and can't choose and at other moments not like anything. ....ask me how I know. 

Would an albino sauropod have any chance of survival as a hatchling and juvenile? They would need to hide from predation and a white juvenile would be easily detected by small to large predators.

Hey, take something with a one in a million probability, and give it a hundred million chances to happen, and it'll happen a hundred times!

[andrewsaurus rex]

there was a comment like that in the albino sauropod thread I posted the link to above.  It was something like "a one in a million chance happens ten times a day in New York City".   

of course there's a bit more to it than that.  You have to know other parameters like the frequency with which the one in a million chance has the opportunity to occur, to establish a time frame, but the sentiment is sound.   

Even if there was a one in 50 million chance of an albino sauropod reaching adulthood, given the enormous number of eggs laid per year per sauropod female and the tens if not hundreds of millions of sauropods that must have lived over the Jurassic and Cretaceous  periods, there would potentially have been many adult albino sauropod dinosaurs during the Mesozoic era.