Discussion Lizardmen painting (literally)

[Scalenex]

So I've been watching a lot of Youtube videos talking about historical accuracy or lack there of in fantasy and it is pointed out that fantasy castles often look like real world castles, which are either ruined or some sort of restored ruins. Often grey stone.

In the mediaeval and renaissance era, the people living in this castle, probably painted it. That was the norm. They didn't want to have grey and drabby surroundings and relative to cost of building and maintaining a castle, the cost of painting a castle (even repainting it as the paint wears off) is pretty small.

Most Games Workshop published Lizardmen art and most fan generated Lizardmen art resembles Mesoamerican ruins today, though with the stones in better shape.

I don't know how often the real Aztecs, Incans and Mayans painted their constructions @Warden , you are kind of our expert on this, I'm flagging you.

Historically accurate or not. I don't see why Skinks would not be able make all sorts of paints of any color they wanted. Unless the Slann tell them otherwise or some aspect of the Old Ones great plan says painting temples is sacrilegious, I don't see why a Lizardmen temple city couldn't be beautifully painted. Why shouldn't the Tzunki temple be painted blue or the Sotek temple painted crimson?

That's to say nothing of friezes and more elaborate and detailed art.

Also, not every building the Lizardmen have is a temple. Lizardmen have living quarters, workshops, and storage buildings. They could paint these buildings for fun to their personal tastes and not out of honor to the Old Ones.

What do you all think Lizardmen would paint?

 

[Warden]

Love the idea of this topic! I can speak on some info I am aware of in terms of Mayan painting, both on the temples themselves and on murals.

1) Mayan temples were painted in vibrant colors. Similar to how ancient Roman or Greek statues and ruins were not just start marble white or stone colored, the Mayans also painted their statues and temples with the colors they had on hand. Temples were often painted bright red tones, some have even suggested to mimic volcanoes with plumes of smoking offerings burning at the tops round the clock. They also used blues and yellows pretty frequently too (link to the Mayan art thread). What we think of as Mayan temples could double as either ceremonial buildings but also homes of ruling elite; and ruling elite often have the desire and tools at their disposal to make their surroundings as comfortable and beautiful as possible.

I found these example images, also from the Mayan art thread, to illustrate some examples:

2) Mayan Murals were also painted with bright colors. The coolest and one of the few examples that remains is from Bonampak, it is certainly the most colorful.

These are partially restored examples, but they give a good idea of what they may have looked like in their prime. And they are only a fraction of this specific set of murals too. Several more examples of the murals of Bonampak here and here.

Sadly few examples still remain to the present day, as the elements in this part of the world take a heavy toll on nearly all the pigments used by the ancient Maya in their artwork.


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A note on Mayan colors: the five main colors attested to in Maya script (and the archaeological record) are Red, Black, Yellow, White, and Green. In some cases the Maya consisted green and blue to be the same color, just different hues.

Also is a quote (from myself) on Maya pigments that I posted a few years back:

Black (ihk')- lots of black paint shows up in artwork, often made from charcoal-mixture

Yellow (k'an) - often symbolized the sun, or ripe maize. Probably made from an ochre of some sort? (clay pigment, maybe some metals in there, or even some bright yellow flower sources).

Red (chak)- In some rare cases (such as burials) raw cinnabar powder was used (such as in the burial of the Red Queen of Palenque).

Spoiler: Red Queen

The entire burial chamber and skeletal remains of the Red Queen was covered in a thick layer of cinnabar paint:

Blue/Green (yax)- since it looks like the Mayans considered blue and green the same color, it can be hard to differentiate the sources of their paints. That being said I do know they used a very bright turquoise blue in many paintings called Maya Blue, which is possibly made from a type of indigo dye or even a mineral, but so far as my book sources tell me the actual source of the pigment is still unknown.

Spoiler: Maya Blue

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I hope this is a good start.