Backdrop Experiment - 3rd Trial, 31 March

[nbrodar]

I'm finally getting around to doing something with my plain blue backdrops.  Here's my first trial run with a scrap piece of backdrop and some simple hill shapes.

I'm still working on the cloud technique.  I think I need to thin the paint some, to get the light streaky appearance I'm looking for.

Nick

[selector]

Nick, this is very tough to do, and I have never managed to get it right.  I "know" what it should look like, but actually generating it seems to be beyond me.  FWIW, I would take a very fine brush, and about 20 minutes (?) and paint in 200 little tree top tips all along that middle ridgeline, the light green one.  Even from 10 km away, even 15, you can still make out silhouetted treetops atop a ridgeline.  So, it might add a more realistic element to the completed product to add at least some of that aspect to please the eye.

Also, my impression, and Joe Fugate says the same thing, is that there is a washing, or what he calls a bluing, effect in the distant hills, and to me that tends to make them darker.  Yet, your closest is the darkest green.  You can leave it as it is, but perhaps break it up with tree-like splotches of at least two other lighter colours, tree tops poking up among others so-to-seem.  That effect would be muted in the middle ground, and the far ridge would have more like areas that are darker, indicating stands of a given tree.

I take it you were looking for ideas or feedback.  If I am wrong, please accept my apology and ignore the foregoing.

-Crandell

[larak]

Paint blue sky

Mist the lower part with white spray paint

Paint grey blended with light green for far away hill

Mist more lightly with white

Paint medium green midground hills

Mist even more lightly with white

This makes the hills "fade" into the distance. 

Paint dark green in foreground. Use a stencil or fan brush to stipple in trees along the ridges. Smaller trees in back, larger (1/2" or so) in front.

Also search the forum for clouds. Lots of good posts about them. I like a stencil held 1" from backdrop and a spray can. Of course I didn't learn this until 3/4 of my backdrop was already done.

Good luck,

Karl 

[loathar]

The varying paint shades for the mountains looks pretty good. You need to work on the mountain shapes more though. You can cut a sponge into triangle shapes and dip them into green craft paint to sponge paint pine trees. Take a paint brush and some brown/grayish paint and add trunks if you want.
For clouds, I found cloud pictures on the internet. Printed them out on some card stock and cut the clouds out to make stencils. Use cheap $1/can flat grey and white spray paint. Spray some grey for the cloud bottom, and then use the white for the cloud top. Be random and splotchy when you do this.

Hope that helps. It takes practice, but if I can do it, anybody can. Jacon12 has some excellent pics of his backdrops as he did them. You should do a search for his threads.

[Courage8]

Regarding clouds, I had good luck with using a sponge applicator to swirl white into the gray I used for the sky, but the key was that the white and the background color (blue in your case) have to be wet at the same time (I'm sure there are other techniques that don't depend on this.)  I made the clouds fairly flat at the base, but billowy on the tops, mixing white into lighter and darker shades of gray.  As a last step I ran a dray brush diagonally down from the flat bottoms of the clouds, creating a streaked rain effect.  I'll see if I can post a photo of the results.  (I was modeling Western Washington State - so a rainy sky was almost required!)

[wjstix]

I've had good luck with clouds just using a spray can of white paint. I don't use stencils or anything. Just stay back maybe 18-24" from the sky backdrop and spray in short bursts. Don't try to spray like you're spraypainting a boxcar. Just little "puffs" misted onto the backdrop will add up to nice clouds.

[nbrodar]

Thanks for the tips.  I should have said this up front...the layout is in a finished part of the house, so no spray paint.

Nick

[loathar]

I did my back drops in 2'x4' sections that are removable so I can take them outside for the spray paint part. Here's a non spray method of doing clouds.
http://www.woolie.com/fauxclub_tips_clouds.htm

 

[nbrodar]

Here's try number 2:

Although the clouds caught the light, the effect is much closer to what I'm looking for.  Particularly on the left.

I like the addition of the tree shapes to the middle and close hills.  I experimented with stippling on some different shades of green to the close hills for more variety.  The middle left has no stippling.  Middle right dark green.  Left light green.  Right light and dark green.

Nick

[loathar]

WAAAAAY better!

[mikelhh]

 Nice one, Nick!

 It'll look even better with something in front of it - looking forward to seeing that The treetops that Selector suggested work very well too.

 

 Mike 

[selector]

Nick, big improvement.  Yer actually getting there!!!  And much closer.

Suggestion: you now have four more distant ridge lines: dark green, lighter green, grey, and a washed out grey.  What you did for the second ridge (the light green behind the dark clear green), with the tree tops, do that for the first, the clearest and darkest green one.  For the second, make them very tiny, just like hairs or thin saw teeth.  Vary their heights, in both cases, since not all trees grow to the same height.  That will help give the impression of considerable distance between the two and a more natural look. 

You're doing just great.

-Crandell 

[Tom Bryant_MR]

Nick, excellent progress .  Look online (google painting clouds) for some ideas/techniques. Here's one.

http://www.davidadamsonline.com/clouds_demo.htm

 

Regards,

[nbrodar]

I think I've got it.  Here's my third attempt.

Nick