It's still a work in progress and don,t mind some of the buildings in the forground. Some of them arn,t set in place yet. You know how it is. I might add some clouds. You can,t tell by the picture but the backdrop wraps around the mountain behind the track. I painted it on 1/8 masonite so it flex's easy.
N Scale
Glenn
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
SpaceMouse wrote:I'm at the backdrop stage myownself.
I think painting this backdrop was harder than all the rest of the layout. I guess it's turning out allright, I,ve never painted scenes before.
glenn
Glenn,
Great looking backdrop. You can come over and paint mine anytime. The pic look great too.
jktrains
Thanks Selector , JK, as long as you don,t want me to paint trees, never painted those yet. Mountains are hard enough. If my work turned out half as good as your night pics...........
Did I mention to click on the picture to make it larger?
Nice job. I am in the process of putting up my backdrop which is also 1/8" masonite. I am waiting on getting a counter-sink bit when I discovered I couldnt sink my drywall screws into the masonite the same way I could into pine. Should have them today if the wife lets me out of baby duty long enough!
Did you apply a layer of primer first? I am debating whether I should prime before I start in with the blue.
I am going to try to do some hazey hills.. greyish green.. and then try to stipple for a "distant tree" look. If that doesnt work out I will revert back to sky.
Chris
ChrisNH wrote:Nice job. I am in the process of putting up my backdrop which is also 1/8" masonite. I am waiting on getting a counter-sink bit when I discovered I couldnt sink my drywall screws into the masonite the same way I could into pine. Should have them today if the wife lets me out of baby duty long enough! Did you apply a layer of primer first? I am debating whether I should prime before I start in with the blue.I am going to try to do some hazey hills.. greyish green.. and then try to stipple for a "distant tree" look. If that doesnt work out I will revert back to sky.Chris
spectratone wrote:Prime first. have a squirt bottle handy like a windex sprayer .
Prime first. have a squirt bottle handy like a windex sprayer .
I wouldn't have thought of the squirt bottle, thanks for the advice!
Yes, breathe, very important Daniel-son.
Yes, I did get the new camera. I'm still figuring things out with it. Those were taken with the old camera, a Canon Powershot S40.
What part is backdrop? I have a hard time telling where it begins! O'course, I guess thats the point, huh? It looks great! The color blend is excellent! Thats what kills the effect of a lot of backgrounds. The background looks great, and the layout looks great, but the two don't blend well. Thats not an issue for you though!
Now if only I can get results half as good!
Really nice work! I only hope my first try can be as good.
Hal
I have been using "Scenicking" banner photos. The sky color on all of their backdrop photo banners are identical, on their hundreds of inches of available continuous backdrop photos. What I do is to take a sample photo to a paint dealer and get an electronic color match for the flat blue can of Latex paint. Note the sky color match on the following photo. Incidentally, the N scale railroad is raised on a 2"x2" , just two inches behind the HO guage in the foreground.
ROBTAhahn.d
Super job on your background, Glen.... it looks like a photograph !!!
Bob/Ten Wheeler
Jason
Modeling the Fort Worth & Denver of the early 1970's in N scale
jktrains wrote:How are you with farmland?
don,t know, never tried that yet. got a photograph?
Just picked up my January issue of MR. Good article about backdrop painting. Wish I had it before I started. I would suggest a good basic beginner art book that shows you what kind of brush to use for differant effects. And a color wheel for blending your colors. Michaels or walmart should have both.But I found a better selection at michaels. I also searched the net for art lessons. I did a lot of practice on a test board then set it in back of the layout. Just keep practicing till your happy with the results or sick of painting. which ever comes first.
Great work on the backdrop painting.
I agree, Michael's has a great artist supply section and can't be beat when you get a hold of one of those 40% off coupons too!
One quick question if you don't mind! I noticed that you mentioned the use of gesso, what method or procedure do you use this for on your background?
Thanks,
Ryan
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
SilverSpike wrote:Glenn, Great work on the backdrop painting.I agree, Michael's has a great artist supply section and can't be beat when you get a hold of one of those 40% off coupons too!One quick question if you don't mind! I noticed that you mentioned the use of gesso, what method or procedure do you use this for on your background?Thanks,RyanRyan, Gesso helps blend in the colors. If one color is to dark I brush in some gesso or white. It's something your just going to have to experiment with. Like i said, I,m no artist, never painted anything like this before. But it came out better than I expected.Glenn
Ryan, Gesso helps blend in the colors. If one color is to dark I brush in some gesso or white. It's something your just going to have to experiment with. Like i said, I,m no artist, never painted anything like this before. But it came out better than I expected.
Perfect, tremendeous! I looked at the photo and wasn't sure if the mountains were part of the backdrop or not. Outstanding blending in with you layour. I did read where you said to click on the photo and when I did it showed a professional painting. Like how you shaded.
GlennS wrote:Hi Glenn!Glenn here, too. It's difficult to make an objective comment as the picture seems underexposed and thecolor seems to have shifted. When you paint a background from the beginning of your layout construction,it's always a good idea to paint your "atmospherics" in after you've rolled in your sky color and before youpaint your landscape. Why? Because it's difficult to paint in clouds across a sky with any continuity whenyou have to paint around the landscape.If you're interested, I can turn you on to a couple of Yahoo groups where I've posted a file of my work.A picture's worth a thousand words.Good luck, Glenn!Glenn
Here,s some closeups. Like I said before, I,m not an artist. This is a result of trial and error.But I'll take all the help i can get. Send me the links.
And as far as clouds being difficult, Difficult is my middle name. Ask anybody that knows me, they'll tell you how difficult I am. Not sure if I even want clouds. less is more. but you never know.
Click on the picture for a better peek.
thanks