Painting Background

[Anonymous]

I plan to use the existing white latex primed drywalls in my new HO layout as a background rather than use hardboard supported by the layout. It is currently my plan to paint a sky on this background using three colors of latex paint to simulate a clear ,cloudless sky.

Has anyone tried this? Any ideas as to how I might blend these three colors so that they go from lighter to darker, much like nature's sky, as you look up from the layout? Thankyou for the help!

[AntonioFP45]

Hello ***,

[:)]Good going! I'm planning on doing this also for my future layout. Make sure that your wall is clean with no smears, finger prints, etc. Use a "decent" brand like Glidden or a comparable product.

Before trying the following suggestion; practice on one or two scrap pieces of primered drywall. You'll see where you can make changes and correct techniques before "hitting the waves". Many of us have a tendency to apply paint "too wet" which is unnecessary[:0].

This is pretty easy but you can't rush! [;)]

[1] Paint the entire "sky area" with your lightest color FIRST! This will be your foundation or "base" color. Minimum of two coats. A roller or sprayer would give you very smooth results.

[2] A power sprayer would be best but a quality brush will work. Don't use a roller! Estimate where the horizontal area is that you want your sky to begin "fading" into a darker color. Proceed to wet, but don't "flood" your brush. Use long, light, uneven strokes and alternate slightly above and slightly below that imaginary horizontal line. As it dries it will blend in if your brush wasn't too wet. Do not paint in a perfectly straight line across the wall when you start at the designated point or you won't have a fade. After painting the fade line area, proceed to paint all the way up to the top of your wall. If you are satisfied with your fade, don't re-wet your brush and go over the fade area with the brush dry.

[3] Go further up your wall and find your next horizontal fade area for you darkest color. Repeat step two with your 3rd color.

There are numerous alternatives for the above. Again a power sprayer would be faster, and less messy but brushing can achieve just as good a result.

With a sprayer, when you fade, use a medium sized fan and 30psi (or higher). Back away from the wall 3 to 4 feet. Spray straight across your fade point. The overspray from the gun will give you a near flawless fade! Paint upward from this point with the sprayer standing at the normal required distance. Hope this helps! God Bless!

[ndbprr]

Well I use a different technique after having watched probably enough art shows to finish my railroad! I have a gallon of sky blue and a gallon of white ceiling paint. If you look at the sky the higher up you look the bluer it is and the lower you look the whiter it is so I paint about a 2' wide area half way down with the blue and half way up with the white and put it on heavy. The using horizontal brush strokes the full width blend the colors together. keep trying to spread the two colors from top to bottom. Then take a four inch brush with white paint almost dry and just poke it at the backdrop to make cumulus clouds scurbbing them in and a lttle gray (much less) to show the bottoms of the clouds and scrub it in. It took me twenty years to get up the courage to try a backdrop and I am amazed at how well my technique developed. I practiced on the sides of cardboard boxes first to improve before tackling the backdrop. The neighbors never did figure out all those strange boxes in the trash.

[PistolPete]

Thank you antonioFP45 and ndbprr, I am starting the same type of project and your comments are very helpful.[tup]

[pbjwilson]

***,
There is a product called FLOTROL, found at paint stores or Home Depot. It is made by the Flood Corp. Add this to your paint liberally and your paint will flow better for easier color blending. It increases the "open time", or dry time of latex paints.
I'm a painter by trade and do alot of decorative techniques - This product works great.

Paul the Painter

[Anonymous]

I did this last year after reading a short article in MR by Tony Koester. I actually took the article into a local paint shop and said "I need these colours". Walked out 30 minutes later and within a week had three walls painted. I rolled the walls in sections and blended the interface with a sponge and brush. once the walls were done I used white and blended in clouds (cirrus, cirro stratus, alto stratus and cumulus). Several different sponges, perferably with small holes, were definatelty the ticket for this job. Read up on stipling and stencilling techniques.

[Anonymous]

Another thing to consider is lighting; one could get away with doing the walls/backdrop in a single shade of blue, then vary the light intensity to get a perceptual variation. By placing tube flourescent fixtures just below the "horizon", you can make your sky glow enough to appear white in photos even though the paint color is blue, while up above where there is less direct light it will appear its natural blue color. I am using this approach myself, although I have my lights mounted at the top, and my backdrop curves forward at the top so that the light fixture is very close to the backdrop at the top. This cross-section ends up bouncing the flourescent light down, as a blue reflection of the painted sky, which give a very convincing noontime fill lighting effect, and as I mentioned before, causes the backdrop color to appear varied from top to bottom.

Usually the darker blue is at the top of the sky, with white or pale blue near the horizon, but this is not always true. In my case, I want it to feel as if the sun is right overhead, so my sky is brighter there (It actually feels as though the sun is just over your shoulder- next sunny day, go out and stand with the sun just behind you, and look at how the sky looks). If you mix-and-match, you might even be able to simulate different sun positions well enough to suggest compass locations around your layout, so that you can tell that this backdrop is looking north, while that one represents the view to the west, etc.