"What colour to paint dromedary camels ?" Topic

Hi Guys !

I am painting 40+ african camels for a Beja army. I am stuck with GW paints. I wanted to know what colour people tend to use for camels, as I have tried Gw Bubonic brown ( a sandy coloured light brown ) but it looks a bit yellow, even after a hefty brown ink wash. Do people use darker browns or what ?

Thanks

K

African camels range in colour from a light tan to a fairly dark brown and every shade in between. Bubonic Brown probably is a bit yellow (I use it for Austrian gun carriages which were yellow ochre!) – don't GW do something which is a bit more tan/sand like? The only other GW brown I use is Bestial Brown which would be far too dark for a camel. I usually use cheap artists acrylics for animals, they have every shade of neutral brown you can imagine.

Martin

Camels really aren't all "yellow" (so don't go there!) go for a very light brown (with hints of grey) through to a mid-grey brown, the barest hint of a "yellowy colour" mixed in at the very most but an antique-white or melted-butter drybrush highlight is better.

"Proper" Zoological colour description for Dromedary Camels is ‘Beige or Fawn' fwiw. (<- 1. Bsc Hons Zoology) but you will run into the inevitable problem of "If I colour them correctly won't most people expect to see yellow instead?"

Snakebite Leather might be more useful, highlighted by mixing in Bleached Bone.

Thanks guys,

Will try the snakebie leather later. I was sure some smartarse would just put :

" What colour are camels ? Camel….. "

K

I use the ultimate painting guide…a pack of "Camels" cigarettes. That's what comes to my mind when some one says, "camels".

Oggie

As a painter of many camels in various different scales, I have to put a word in for a non-GW paint. If (by chance) you come across an old Ral-Partha "Asian" fleshtone, this by far is the best color for camels. It's hard to find, but works great.

Sorry to hijeack the intent of your thread, but I've yet to find a more camel-ly looking color than this….