Backdrops - What You Favorite "Sky Blue" paint color?

[harryb3]

I used flat latex 'Ultra Blue' from Wal-Mart over a flat white base on my 1/8th" tempered hardboard backdrop. This color gives the right intensity of blue under fluorescent lights to represent the big western skies out here. All corners are coved and seams taped and feathered with drywall compound. I experimented with the aforementioned cloud stencil technique and was very pleased with the results. I used some old hanging folders and cut cloud shapes "free-hand" using an x-acto knife. By reversing, overlapping, tilting, etc. these stencils and hitting lightly just along the cut edges with Krylon flat white, the results are quite good. This method allows a three dimensional effect to occur. Also, the lower parts of the cloud mass or group looks very natural with the blue showing through the overspray. The horizon line became lighter just from the overspray as well and all I had to do to even things there was hit those horizon areas from random distances where I did not have clouds above. Be usre to use drop cloths/plastic and ensure proper ventilation when doing any painting.

[pennsyj1fan]

Thanks for bringing this question up, I had not thought of it before. I am in the process of desinging my layout and have thought of a lot of things I need to include but didn't think of the color of blue and blending it as 'ndbprr' suggested. Thank you 'johnhaas' for the question, I'm glad someone is always thinking of the extras for layouts.

Steamguy

[WmRBerg]

There are three good references for backdrop painting as well as the colors used. Ironically, they come from the very host of this website, imagine that. Mike Danneman published a book with Model Railroader, the tiltle is; Scenery for Your Model Railroad. It contains great information on everyting from paint brushes, to paints, to techniques, clouds, horizon lines, etc. The second reference would be the August 2003 issue of Model Railroader. See the article by Pelle Soeborg title; "Foolproof sky painting", which again talks about technique, albeit very different from Mike Danneman, along with color suggestions. It's on page 84 of that issue. The third and last reference would be the October 2004 issue of Model Railroader. See the article by Mike Danneman titled; "Painting a scenic backdrop". This seems to be a brief recap of the before mentioned book but is still worth having as a reference. The article starts on page 70 of that issue. These references have helped me in painting my backdrop, I hope they will do the same for you John.

[Anonymous]

I model West Virginia so my horizon line is very high due to the ridges, but when more sky is exposed, I have found that it is easiest to paint clouds as an approching front, keeping them as a billowing mass creeping up over the far ridge line. This eliminates the need for worrying about perspective, distances between individual clouds, and many of the other complications that arise from trying to replicate puffy individual clouds. It also eliminates the need for banding the colors, since only the high sky is visible.

I also want to reiterate that clouds are not really white. To give then some 3-dimensional quality you need subtle amounts of very light gray, pink or even yellow, but these colors need to be "almost white". Catching the Bob Ross shows on Public Television is the best way to learn about painting clouds, and to some extant, backdrops in general.

CJ Riley

[Anonymous]

The "four band" technique for creating skies was developed by Danish master modeler Pelle Soeeborg. His technique was featured in Model Railroader several months ago. He uses oil paints rather than latex, but there is no reason latex won't work. He just likes the ability to come back and re-work an area for a longer time than latex paints permit.

Rather than having to purchase four different colors of paint, consider purchasing your "deepest" blue for the crown of the sky, and then an "ultrapure" white. Then, mix them in different ratios. Your closest to the ground color should not be pure white, but rather mostly white with a portion of your deep sky blue - perhaps nine parts white to one part blue. Your next level up could be perhaps six parts white to four parts blue. Your third layer works out nicely at three parts white to seven parts blue. Your final layer should be one part white to nine parts blue. Note that I did not have any pure white or pure blue color. All should be blended.

When blending your paints, it is o.k. to simply use the same bucket and re-mix your ratios. The idea is that the sky is not a rigid four part color stack, but rather a continuous change in shading from light at the horizon to dark at your zenith. Use a roller or even an airless spray rig for large surfaces, and use a large, soft brush for the blending. I have found that almost vertical strokes that cross several color bands gives the best blending effect.

As for clouds, the stencil technique is very good, but the idea is not to place the stencil directly against your sky, but to space it out a bit - several inches - and then spray through it from afar, too. Build up your white in several passes, and don't try to really cover the sky color. Rather, you want to have a translucent effect. Use some pewter gray or neutral (18%) gray and spray LIGHTLY the bottoms of the clouds for a thicker,***ulous cloud effect.

Note that on a hot summer day, where the***ulus clouds are constantly building, that the clouds will seem to be fairly well defined and spaced out near by, but as you look into the horizon, the clouds seem to almost clump together. This is caused by perspective, and is easy to reproduce. As your clouds get further away, however, add more blue/gray to the cloud color, and make them less detailed.

Have Fun! Even the worst painted backdrop with the worst color imaginable looks better than none at all!

Tom

[Jdepot]

I reviewed the best photos I had taken in the area I model, took the one that I liked to True Value and had them color match it. Looks great under the RR room lights. I'll lighten the lower portions as we work on different sections.

[nobullchitbids]

Artist artists (as in Vincent Van Gogh) commonly use an oil named cerulean blue for skies, perhaps because it is one of the only blues in oil which is opaque. You would have to get this at an art store, and it probably would be expensive if your objective were a 20' x 20' room. Still, that and lead or zinc white is what the professionals use.

As for the color of sky in L.A., I once or twice lived in that area and recall once when the atmosphere literally was turquoise (there had been a big fire to add to the smog).

Or, Y'all could come to Florida and wait for the "green flash."

[selector]

Thanks for your contribution, foamer 13. Have you, in fact, used this technique to good effect, and would you be willing to provide us with a digital sample?

I'll do anthing that works.

[Anonymous]

I never tried this with clouds per se, but I suspect that if you used white chalk with gray for shadowing and applied it with cottonballs (like a powderpuff technique), then hit it with some cheap dollar-store hairspray as a fixative, it would be very realistic. I used to teach art...

[selector]

Thanks, donhalshanks. I'll try this approach myself.

[donhalshanks]

I just finished the backdrop in a 20' x 20' train room I had covered with styrene and and curved the corners. I used a method published in MRR where working in about 4' widths I painted four horizontal bands from top to bottom of backdrop, going from a darker blue on top to two lighter blues and ending with a white. The top band is Dutchboy "Hometown Blues", the next one "Spacious Skies", the next one "Sapphire Valley, and the last white. I had a brush for each color. As I finished a band, I used its bru***o feather it into the band above it. I made the feathering irregular. It turned out so good, I've decided not to follow up with cloud stencils.

If doing it again, I would paint the top band one shade lighter. It was a little too dark and took a lot of feathering with the 2nd band to blend well. While the color stiips I had were Dutchboy, I took them to a Sherwin Williams store and they recreated the same colors in their paint. I did prep all of the styrene with a flat white latex first. The colors needed only one coat of paint.

I found it important to turn on the recessed lights in the drop ceiling I installed, and view color chips in the light I would use for the RR, and in the band positions. That eliminated a lot of blue colors almost immediately, which seemed to look fine in a store.
Hal

[PistolPete]

The paint I used is Glidden's flat latex, Wild Blue Yonder, from Home Depot. It looks pretty good without any clouds which will be stenciled on later. I do intend to tone down the lower level blue with some white overspray before I add the clouds.

[trollw]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005


If you are doing Philadelphia, don't you want to start with gray, and then add white. Sorry I couldn't resist. Actually that's L.A.

No, I think you were probably right that Philadelphia is gray (at least the last time I was there) because LA would be dirty brown.[:D]

[snowey]

well, I haven't put up my backdrop yet, but when I do, I plan on taking the lazy way to do it. I'll simply buy a printed paper one, and glue it to the surface!!!

I'm not building a museum display, for gods sake!!!!

[rayhippard]

We are trying something a little different. I bought sky with clouds wallpaper at Home
Depot. Our backdrop walls of 1/8 inch thick hardboard is coved in the corners. We
just painted it today with oil based white high gloss paint. We will next apply the
wallpaper for our finished background. We are hoping for a professional look.
We are taking pictures as we work on finishing the room completely before we start
any benchwork. Hope to find out soon how to post them in a reply. So far, we have
ceiling done, overhead around the room " G " scale deck and valance done, " HO "
valance done ( this is under the " G " decking ) and the " HO " backdrop as mentioned
above close to being done. The background color for " G " is only sky blue paint as
you won't see much behind the large trains at that height. Also we have painted
both valances flat black as well as the ceiling over the aisles so your eyes will be
attracted to the " HO " layout like a shadow box effect. After the wallpaper we will do
the main " HO " lighting with white, red, and blue lights on separate dimmers to be
able to control morning, day, evening, and night lighting effects. Then on to the floor
covering and finally the benchwork. My son made the comment today that this is the
most finished layout room we have ever had. We think it will be worth the wait.
Ray

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ndbprr

No I don't want to use a template for a couple of reasons:
1. It will look like stenciling
2. You want the edges to blend in not be distinct to give the cloud a depth. Look at real clouds and you will see they blend in to the backdrop unless you are modeling desert where there isn't enough moisture and then the background is blue.

I model Philadelphia where the summers are 90 degrees and 90%+ humidty. The sky is loaded with moisture and visbility is usually five to eight miles at most before the haze obscures everything so I want to give that impression. My clouds are very soft and almost blend in becasue of the humidity.

If you are doing Philadelphia, don't you want to start with gray, and then add white. Sorry I couldn't resist. Actually that's L.A.

Some people like stencils and get good results, others don't. There have been a lot of articles over the years on backdrops and sky. There was a very good one recently in MR, that I was thinking of trying.

[selector]

csxmu, yer darn right it looks great. In fact, everything I see looks great about that layout.

I asked about the stencil because someone described the technique elsewhere, and achieved very impressive results.

Thanks for the confirmation!

[logging]

I have used a painted sky blue covering the whole surface than painted in mountains and then sprayed a mist of white until I got the look of far away mountains and feathered the darker blue to a lite blue
this was done with a air brush. For larger aera's a real good airless
should do a good job. Have fun
Russ Hayes

[Anonymous]

My buddys layout used stencils for clouds it looks great!

[selector]

Okee doke. Thanks for the reponse.

[ndbprr]

No I don't want to use a template for a couple of reasons:
1. It will look like stenciling
2. You want the edges to blend in not be distinct to give the cloud a depth. Look at real clouds and you will see they blend in to the backdrop unless you are modeling desert where there isn't enough moisture and then the background is blue.

I model Philadelphia where the summers are 90 degrees and 90%+ humidty. The sky is loaded with moisture and visbility is usually five to eight miles at most before the haze obscures everything so I want to give that impression. My clouds are very soft and almost blend in becasue of the humidity.

[selector]

Hee Hee! But, shouldn't that be "Probation" Blues?

Thanks for the hints, ndbprr. It makes sense. Did you ever try the cloud 'template' technic that others have described? (Cut out a rough cloud-shaped hole from a sheet of cardboard, hold the cardboard a few inches away from the backdrop, already painted blue, and then lightly spray with white paint.)

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ndbprr

Here is what I did and it worked for me. Get a can of flat latex wall paint in blue that looks good to you for the sky. Also get a can of white. Work from 100% blue at the top to 100% white at the bottom then blend them. If you look at the horizon you will see that in real life it is always bluer right overhead for a variety of reasons. Then take a drybursh of white and work in***ulous clouds while still wet and then a touch of gray on the bottoms scrubbed in. Don't do more than three feet at a time because it will dry to quickly. I f it starts to dry to fast dip the brush in water. I was always in awe of those who could do sky backdrops but like everything else the hardest part is starting. I practiced on old cardboard boxes until I perfected my technique. The trash man was confused for awhile but that is a another story.

This is exactly what I did with my backdrops, and it works great. No need for 3-5 different blues and some strange, fancy art technique. Just standardize on one blue, and add more or less white as necessary. My wife now wants me to do this sky treatment in our daughter's bedroom! (with fluffy clouds, of course)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Javern

Martha Stewart Probation Blue

HA HA HA!
I use a WalMart Carolina Blue 9.99 a gallon!!

[Javern]

Martha Stewart Probation Blue

[ndbprr]

Here is what I did and it worked for me. Get a can of flat latex wall paint in blue that looks good to you for the sky. Also get a can of white. Work from 100% blue at the top to 100% white at the bottom then blend them. If you look at the horizon you will see that in real life it is always bluer right overhead for a variety of reasons. Then take a drybursh of white and work in***ulous clouds while still wet and then a touch of gray on the bottoms scrubbed in. Don't do more than three feet at a time because it will dry to quickly. I f it starts to dry to fast dip the brush in water. I was always in awe of those who could do sky backdrops but like everything else the hardest part is starting. I practiced on old cardboard boxes until I perfected my technique. The trash man was confused for awhile but that is a another story.

[selector]

Thanks for the question, John, as it is very timely for me. I am soon going to be doing my own backdrop, and would like to know the answer.

[Anonymous]

Time to paint my backdrop and I'm curious what specific paint colors people are using for their "Sky Blue" color, that would be readily available at places like Home Depot or Sears.

Thanks,

John
Underhill, VT