Amber the Hedgehog
kiwifarms.net
I'm not saying that rendering looks good, just that it might more realistic than you think.My point is the issue isn’t the color choices necessarily, but the way the reconstruction is rendered. The colorized version is incredibly overexposed with barely any lights or shadows (compared to the pic of the actual statue which is dramatically lit), and we obviously have other art/murals from that period that showed they weren’t total shit at painting.
As someone with interest to stage make up I can tell you a stage can do alot of heave lifting. Something that looks absolutely overblown face to face can look just about enough from the audience. These statues by large were not meant to be looked at near in a good light so strong contrast might have been bigger plus than careful shading, let alone general realism. Fire and directional natural light can really liven up wise dull surfase. Plus they might have counted on normal dirt and wear to pring out shape after a while, these were after all long term investments.



