Painting Elephants

Simon Bargery:  For my Tamil elephants (pictured above) I used a black undercoat and then i painted them with Miniature paints chocolate brown all over. I then did a pretty good damp brushing with miniature paints wood brown. Then I added a wash of windsor and netwon nut brown. in the deeper areas I popped a localised wash of peat brown. Then I ran over the whole thing picking out some highlights with the wood brown lightened with a bit of Vallejo ivory (very apt!)  I kept adding ivory and blending in the highlights on the head area mostly. Eyes need to be vary dark with some white highlights.  Tusks are Vallejo beige with a dark brown added to the roots and some ivory streaks towards the points - white was added within these stripes to bring then right up.  I think the use of brown rather than grey makes the animal stand out and looks a bit more realistic - real ellies are actually very grey - but I like the brown look.

Brian Reddington-Wilde:  For painting I give them a base of gray primer, and then just keep dry-brushing with as many shades of gray and tan as I use when I'm painting anything else. I use different proportions on each one so they are all different shades. One Khmer royal elephant is "white" -- a light gray base with mostly flesh colours and light tans on top of that.

James Ivan Hughes:  Here's my take on elephants.  You can best make out the brown undertone in the first picture (Zeus). Its a subtle effect that got lost a little bit in these pictures.  I did these years ago, but if I remember correctly the trick was that I painted them gray (not black, that makes them too dark), then gave them a heavy coat of Coat D'Arms flesh wash. Then I dry-brushed on two or three layers of lighter gray.

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Last Updated: 19 February 2005

Questions, comments, suggestions welcome.
Send them to Chris Brantley, brant@erols.com.