"painting caveman skin" Topic

Ready to start on my lucid eye cromagons and neanderthals. With the research that states the were probably dark skinned how did you paint their skin.

I would go with whatever looks good, no one can say you are wrong!
The only logical argument would be that even fair skinned figures living mostly outdoors would look dark from exposure to the sun.

DNA suggests that at least some Neanderthals were pale-skinned redheads – link

The first modern humans in Europe had dark skin and blue eyes – link

I would suggest:

That going for "historic" caveman skin is a very difficult issue. Any scenario would also most likely be boring.
And considering the exposure to sun and dirt, what would wild human skin look like over all.

So, why not go for Cinematic caveman action, and hence Cinematic cave-people skin:

I just use "flesh" with a brownish wash. It's good enough for me.

I used some 54mm Cave Men toy figures from a bucket bought at Wal-Mart, for AD&D Hill Giants. Hill Giants are large Cave Men, per the game rules.

The figures were tan colored, HDPE plastic, injection molded. I only applied craft paint to the the bits that were not skin (clothing, weapons/rocks, and hair), relying upon the plastic's tan color for exposed skin, which was shaded by a dark brown wash… I painted on Minwax Polyshades Urethane Stain -- Royal Walnut (a dark brown color, not the Black color of Tudor), aka, The Dip Technique. Here are some samples of finished figures, with a matte clear coat: Group Shot (class re-union of the class of 30,000 BCE), Class President of 30,000 BCE.

Similarly, here are some Red Box Dark Alliance, 1/72 scale, Greek Cyclops from Theta-Kappa-Theta class of 1,000 BCE, painted using Folk Art Sunflower color craft paint, for skin, then Dip'ed with urethane stain painted on: block painted next to Dip'ed (still wet), for a before/after shot; a shot of the Class Clown, ‌block painted and freshly Dip'ed; here is a group photo of the finished models, matted.

Since Cave Men are not known to have been tidy in their personal hygiene, simple block painting, with a dark brown wash, works really well: fast, simple, 'good enough to game with' appearance, at arm's length. Cheers!

Any flesh tone will do. As a general rule those close to the equator would be darkest, becoming steadily lighter as they move away from equatorial regions. A wash of strong or dark tone will suffice to show accumulations of dirt and smoke from crouching around the cook fires. In the case of body decoration, it is known that red ocher was used to some extent in burials, and perhaps was used as paint. Red and yellow ocher, wood ash, and charcoal may possibly have been used in such as fashion.