Changes

[jacon12]

Thanks Randy, I appreciate that!

Jarrell

 

 That close-up shot of the loco looks awesome. Great job with the sky and clouds.

 

                                     --Randy 

[jacon12]

"One caution, make sure that the latex is dry before misting with the spray paint. Some spray paints don't play well with wet latex. "

Too late!  :)

This morning I found out what happens and it ain't purty.

Thanks Karl for all your help!

Jarrell

 

 

 

 

I did buy quarts from my local lumberyard where I have an account. You can also buy two ounce samples but the price per ounce is very high. I got one of a purple shade for brushing in a river in one of the distant mtn. passes.

I took several sample cards home to view under layout room lighting then choose one card. Out of the six shades I used the middle four. Also get a can of white and one of black. You can lighten shades with the white. A few drops of black will darken.

Any paint will work so the Borg stores are fine. My backdrop is 29 feet along one wall and about 12 more along another. A quart of each of four colors almost made it. I had to retouch a few areas and add some trees so I needed to get a second can of the dark green. One caution, make sure that the latex is dry before misting with the spray paint. Some spray paints don't play well with wet latex.

Karl 

[rrinker]

 That close-up shot of the loco looks awesome. Great job with the sky and clouds.

 

                                     --Randy 

[larak]

I did buy quarts from my local lumberyard where I have an account. You can also buy two ounce samples but the price per ounce is very high. I got one of a purple shade for brushing in a river in one of the distant mtn. passes.

I took several sample cards home to view under layout room lighting then choose one card. Out of the six shades I used the middle four. Also get a can of white and one of black. You can lighten shades with the white. A few drops of black will darken.

Any paint will work so the Borg stores are fine. My backdrop is 29 feet along one wall and about 12 more along another. A quart of each of four colors almost made it. I had to retouch a few areas and add some trees so I needed to get a second can of the dark green. One caution, make sure that the latex is dry before misting with the spray paint. Some spray paints don't play well with wet latex.

Karl 

[jacon12]

Great Karl, thanks!  Special thanks for the photos, they really help in showing how the hills recede into the distance with the overspray.  You mention using paint chips..., did you buy quart size paint from Lowes or Home Depot etc?

JaRRell

 

 

Nice clouds Jarrell! I didn't know that trick until mine were mostly done. Some day I'll redo the early ones like you did

For the hills, get several shades of paint from the same series (use paint chip cards).

Lightest/greyest in the rear, greenest in the foreground.

Sketch in mountains/hills.

Paint in the furthest hills. You can even mix a touch of sky blue into the paint. When dry, mist LIGHTLY with white spray paint. this will dramatically add to perceived distance. 

Paint midground hills next, overlapping the background hills. Again mist with white but even lighter. Paint closer hills mist a tiny bit and paint closest hills. You can simulate trees on hilltops with stencil brushes (before applying the spray overpaint of course). Use a tiny one, maybe 1/4" midground and work up to 1/2" or 5/8" for foreground. You can use a fan brush vertically for trees right in front. It takes some practice. Dab at a +10 degree angle, dab again at a -10 degree angle. You can mix dark green and yellow paints on the pallet side by side so half of each tree is "sunwashed".

I don't have a lot of good photos of these steps. Hopefully this one will help. It does NOT have the front trees yet. This is a catskills background.

 

This one has a first iteration of the front row of trees and you can see tree "texture" on the receding hills. 

 

... and this one has some clouds between the mountains.

Feel free to look around my web site for more photos.

Karl 

[larak]

Nice clouds Jarrell! I didn't know that trick until mine were mostly done. Some day I'll redo the early ones like you did

For the hills, get several shades of paint from the same series (use paint chip cards).

Lightest/greyest in the rear, greenest in the foreground.

Sketch in mountains/hills.

Paint in the furthest hills. You can even mix a touch of sky blue into the paint. When dry, mist LIGHTLY with white spray paint. this will dramatically add to perceived distance. 

Paint midground hills next, overlapping the background hills. Again mist with white but even lighter. Paint closer hills mist a tiny bit and paint closest hills. You can simulate trees on hilltops with stencil brushes (before applying the spray overpaint of course). Use a tiny one, maybe 1/4" midground and work up to 1/2" or 5/8" for foreground. You can use a fan brush vertically for trees right in front. It takes some practice. Dab at a +10 degree angle, dab again at a -10 degree angle. You can mix dark green and yellow paints on the pallet side by side so half of each tree is "sunwashed".

I don't have a lot of good photos of these steps. Hopefully this one will help. It does NOT have the front trees yet. This is a catskills background.

 

This one has a first iteration of the front row of trees and you can see tree "texture" on the receding hills. 

 

... and this one has some clouds between the mountains.

Feel free to look around my web site for more photos.

Karl 

[jacon12]

Thanks Mike.  I already have some small brushes so maybe I'll look around in Hobby Lobby for one of those 'how to' books on painting landscapes with acrylic paint.  I think they're less than $10 or so.  Heck, can't hurt..

JaRRell

 

 

JaRRell, I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I've watched enough painting "how to's" on PBS to know this. 

Start with the farthest hills.  The farther away, the less detail and the colors are muted.

Fill the space between the hills with light haze to insinuate distance.

Sharpen the ridge lines as they get closer and add tree detail.

I've seen some of the artists, specifically the late Bob Ross, do amazing things with a 4" brush.  Find a Hobby Lobby or a Michael's nearby and buy a cheap assortment of artist brushes and play on a piece of scrap wood to find a technique you like.

By the way, the clouds look great, I used a similar stencil set do do mine, but I think I stopped too soon.

[mls1621]

JaRRell, I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I've watched enough painting "how to's" on PBS to know this. 

Start with the farthest hills.  The farther away, the less detail and the colors are muted.

Fill the space between the hills with light haze to insinuate distance.

Sharpen the ridge lines as they get closer and add tree detail.

I've seen some of the artists, specifically the late Bob Ross, do amazing things with a 4" brush.  Find a Hobby Lobby or a Michael's nearby and buy a cheap assortment of artist brushes and play on a piece of scrap wood to find a technique you like.

By the way, the clouds look great, I used a similar stencil set do do mine, but I think I stopped too soon.

[jacon12]

A couple of weeks ago I decided to do a major overhaul on some portions of my layout.  That included tearing out some benchwork that had already been tracked and wired.  Ugh!  But, I wasn't happy with it and besides, I wanted to extend my backdrop on around the wall, repaint it and try my hand at clouds, rolling hills etc.  My backdrop is 1/4 inch hardboard so I had to cut part of it away from a corner so I could join in to it better.  Here's a photo of the destruction.

you can see where the backdrop ends in the corner, so it was cut back about a foot and more backdrop attached to it.  That benchwork had to be cut and reworked totally.

Anyway, since my last name isn't Leonardo I decided to go with the template method of cloud painting after repainting the backdrop a darker blue. 

I finished all I'm going to do with clouds this morning..

I put a section of partly sceniked track and a loco in front of it for a test photo..

So!  Now for the background hills and trees and I'm looking for tips on painting those, i.e. colors and technique.  This would be the eastern section of the U.S.  How do you make the colors recede into the distance?  What size brushes are best to use?  Easy way to paint foreground trees.  If you have photos to go along that would be most helpful.

Thanks!

JaRRell