Layouts and layout building

Thanks Ryan.

I've tried to keep the process as simple as possible, and if I had more experience I think I could do better.

Basically all I do is chalk out the out line of where the horizon is to be, being careful to keep it level.  Then chalk the outline of the hills and begin painting them.  The fartherest hills are done in a very muted light green, lots of white used.  There's almost no attempt at any detail in those hills.  I'd like to blend them in with the sky color even more and may try that latter.  Some people do the far hills then use a spray can of white paint to lightly overspray those, then they'll paint the next closer hills in a bit deeper green, do some detail on those and again overspray those hills which oversprays the far hill again also.  The results are usually great.

On the hills I've done I simply take a color green that is a little lighter than the hill (ground color) and start doing 'tree' shapes.  I've found that one thing that helps a lot is try and put a light tree shape over a dark area and a darker tree shape over a lighter area so that the shapes stand out better.  Otherwise they just blend into the background they're painted on.  As you come forward with the hills, the colors you use for your trees get a little more intense (vibrant), not being as grey as the trees further back.  But, be careful with getting more vibrant, you want them to be background trees and not the center of interest.  Your 'real' trees on your layout will get that attention.  I usually had a little yellow to the sunlit areas of the nearer green trees and that warm color helps to bring them forward.  Remember, cool colors (in general) tend to make things appear to recede (blue hills in the distance) and warmer colors tend to make things appear to come forward.  Also, in general, contrast is greater between colors in the foreground and colors in the background, so use that to your advantage.  If you look at a real tree outside in sunlight that is 50 feet from you there is a good bit of contrast between the sections of the tree in shade or shadow than sections in sunlight.  Now look at a distant tree covered hill and you'll notice that the contrast isn't as great.  The sunlit parts are more muted and so is the shadow part.  The range of contrast is flatter.  Not so, in general, for close trees, and anything else for that matter.

Keep the tree shapes general and vague.  I have a real hard time with this one and just takes practice.  I tend to want to detail things tooooo much.  Wanna paint all the leaves in the close trees.  That's a big mistake.  In the first place you'd better be good and secondly you'll spend half a day doing a few trees.  And third, if you do  a real good job, everybody will be looking at your painting instead of at the trains... :)

On getting those green a bit more intense in the closer trees, don't be afraid to mix up a couple of colors of green, a kind of bland one and a more vibrant one.  If it's too intense put just a tiny touch of red in it to tone it down.  Red is powerful so be careful here.  Better to had more if you need it.  All you want to do is take the 'edge' off the intense colors.  You can mix up varied greens by mixing a little blue and yellow together in different amounts, in case you get sick of looking at just a couple colors of green

By the way, I'm using the cheap craft paints found at Michaels.

Maybe some of our resident artists will chime in and give even more techniques and/or correct something I've mispoken about.  Won't hurt my feelin's one bit.

Jarrell

SilverSpike wrote:

I like the technique Jarrell! Your foreground hills and trees painting is great as well, care to shed some light on the format and technique you use for these areas too? Thanks,  Ryan

Jarrell,

Great explanation on your painting technique!

I dabbled in watercolors years ago, and would like to incorporate what I know from that art form with the techniques you described.

Thanks for the extensive description, and I too have a supply of craft paints from Michaels and such.

Cheers and thanks again,

Ryan

I really, really like your work on the back drop.  Thanks so much for sharing the process with us.  It is particularly helpful to see pictures of each stage of your work.  I'm just at the point of starting my backdrop, and this has got me excited to start.

Being a novice, curious as to what size brushes seemed to work best?  When mixing the colors, how much paint did you mix at a time? Was it on a palette or in a container?  How easy is it to change if results in an area don't turn out the first time?  (My backdrop is on styrene with the sky painted with latex already.  I would think your process would work the same on my material). 

Thanks again for sharing.  Hal 

Hal, I mix the paint directly on a small sheet of common household wax paper instead of in a cup etc.  This is easy to do and you'll soon learn about how much to put on your 'palette'.  Since for backdrops we're trying to keep it simple, i.e. don't get too detailed, say for the most distant hills I'll squirt out some light green and some white and stir them together on the paper.  For those hills you'll use a lot of white in them with a little green.  I sometimes had just a touch of blue in this mix also.  Not much, just a little.  For the next closer line of hills you might try using the light green without any white and if you have another line of even closer hills use a darker green etc. etc (some people take that same light green and add a little black to it).  If your greens are a little too... hmmmm... guady.. too intense.. add a small touch of red to take some of that intensness out (believe me when I say small, like less than the size of a BB).  It's really not hard at all and if you do make a mistake you just can't live with.. (I did!) wait til the area dries, and since we're working in acrylics that won't take long, then paint over the area.  If we were working with oil based paints it would take a long time to dry.

As far as brush size, I use the largest brush that'll do the job.  My biggest is about 1 inch and smallest that I regularly use is about 1/4 inch.  Keep two or three jars of water on hand to wash out the brushes and some old rags to wipe off excess paint.  Just remember to try and keep the color muted, no garrish flourescent color.  The effect you're after is simply one of a scene that recedes into the distance without competing with your locomotives.  :)

I don't see why this type paint won't work on the styrene, but you might want to try a small area just to test it and see.

I hope this is some help to you.

Jarrell

donhalshanks wrote:

I really, really like your work on the back drop.  Thanks so much for sharing the process with us.  It is particularly helpful to see pictures of each stage of your work.  I'm just at the point of starting my backdrop, and this has got me excited to start. Being a novice, curious as to what size brushes seemed to work best?  When mixing the colors, how much paint did you mix at a time? Was it on a palette or in a container?  How easy is it to change if results in an area don't turn out the first time?  (My backdrop is on styrene with the sky painted with latex already.  I would think your process would work the same on my material).  Thanks again for sharing.  Hal

that's a magnificent backdrop.

Thank you for sharing.

 Jarrell, you're doing great - just great!

   Mike

  As jacon12 stated, there are at least ten different ways to paint backdrops.  I personally, preferred to use a paint roller for applying the blue sky to my 24'x24' continuous wall layout. I gradually added white to the blue as I approached the horizon. The more distant mountains should be painted first.  They are a less distinct color with a slight blueish tinge.  The side of hills toward the sun are lighter in color than the side away from the sun's rays. Actually, I paint the general shape of the mountains an overall light color. Then gradually add shadow lines with a nearly dry brush technique. The non-sunny side and tops of mountains are usually darker. By using sweeping strokes diagonally down mountainside with different shades of brown and green, one can simulate the ridges. Finally, one can stipple in connifer and deciduous trees. I usually stipple in the darker colors first, and then stipple in various lighter colors, on ther sunny side of the visible parts of each tree. I try to include 1" deep 3-D hills in the foreground. Applying small scale tree models along the top and front of the hill adds to the realistic effect, especially on long stretches of scenery. Use twigs and dry weeds for dead trees. One can obtain strips of paper scenery, trees and buildings, to glue to the backdrop. To hide the transition in blue between my painted sky and the sky on the top edge of the glued paper scenery, I usually stipple in a series of clouds. Instead of using a stencil and spray cans of paint, I prefer to use a nearly dry brush, and dab paint from the pallet to stipple in grey color over the entire cloud area. I then stipple in ligher and lighter grey to pure white at the top of the clouds, in each overlapping layer of clouds.  Clouds are irregular in shape, and often have blue sky visible through the cloud, in  certain areas.  One can paint wispy "Cirrus" clouds by applying very light horizontal strokes, with a nearly dry brush.

Good lookin' backdrop!  I like the puffiness of your clouds, really adds a lot to a layout, doesn't it.

Jarrell

HHPATH56 wrote:

As jacon12 stated, there are at least ten different ways to paint backdrops.  I personally, preferred to use a paint roller for applying the blue sky to my 24'x24' continuous wall layout. I gradually added white to the blue as I approached the horizon. The more distant mountains should be painted first.  They are a less distinct color with a slight blueish tinge.  The side of hills toward the sun are lighter in color than the side away from the sun's rays. Actually, I paint the general shape of the mountains an overall light color. Then gradually add shadow lines with a nearly dry brush technique. The non-sunny side and tops of mountains are usually darker. By using sweeping strokes diagonally down mountainside with different shades of brown and green, one can simulate the ridges. Finally, one can stipple in connifer and deciduous trees. I usually stipple in the darker colors first, and then stipple in various lighter colors, on ther sunny side of the visible parts of each tree. I try to include 1" deep 3-D hills in the foreground. Applying small scale tree models along the top and front of the hill adds to the realistic effect, especially on long stretches of scenery. Use twigs and dry weeds for dead trees. One can obtain strips of paper scenery, trees and buildings, to glue to the backdrop. To hide the transition in blue between my painted sky and the sky on the top edge of the glued paper scenery, I usually stipple in a series of clouds. Instead of using a stencil and spray cans of paint, I prefer to use a nearly dry brush, and dab paint from the pallet to stipple in grey color over the entire cloud area. I then stipple in ligher and lighter grey to pure white at the top of the clouds, in each overlapping layer of clouds.  Clouds are irregular in shape, and often have blue sky visible through the cloud, in  certain areas.  One can paint wispy "Cirrus" clouds by applying very light horizontal strokes, with a nearly dry brush.

Wow that looks great.  any updates?  how did it turn out?

Grampys Trains wrote:

Hi Jarrell: Normally I'm not a big fan of clouds on a backdrop, but you've really nailed yours. And the hills look very real. They almost look like a photo. Your artistic talent is showing!

Ditto! This looks fantastic and thanks for bumping this thread--it is very timely for me since I am about to start backdrop painting in the next few weeks. Jamie

That is great and you are giving me a reason to do some more work on my layout room. I still need clouds on the walls and I haven't even thought about scenery. Take alook at the picture below and you'll see what I mean.

How did you make your clouds?

Irv

Hi Jarrel:

It's been a while since i've posted anything on the forums. Just had to say that your backdrops are fantastic!!! How's the layout been coming along? If it's anything like you've posted here, it should be great!

Take care....

Bob.

Jarrel,

Great looking.  I'm jealous.   Mine are more...umm...simplistic.

Nick