Test Painting/Backdrop Trees

[C&O Fan]

I picked an area that i knew i could hide I used 2 shades of green Brunswick and Pullman

and just dabbed the brush to the skyboard then used a very small brush and made upward swiping

motions with mud brown

Maybe from far away in a fog these would look like trees.

I think i need to Practice more

[ARTHILL]

Good start. I have not yet decided to try a start.

My reaction, if the scene is winter, it looks pretty good. May be a little dense for my part of the country. If it is a summer scene, there are not enough greens and yellows for my area. I will follow this post because I do need to start pretty soon. so I can finish my canyon.

[selector]

I agree.  It looks good, but the colour needs some work.  Try to add at least two shades of green in different applications...let one dry, then splotch on the other, and you will get various leaves showing.

[CascadeBob]

I agree with Art.  The trees in your photos appear to be too gray in color, at least for a summer scene.  I think you need more greens in the background trees so they are closer to the greens in the foreground vegetation.  You might want to add some larger bushes or trees behind the bushes you now have in the foreground to create a more gradual transition into the painted portion of the background and add more depth to the scene.  Since what you've painted seems to be in the near background, you shouldn't have to add a bluish cast to create the illusion of the trees being in the distance.  I think your painting technique looks good, i.e., dabbing with the brush.  Remember you're trying to create the illusion of trees and vegetation, not detailed trees.

Bob

[jfugate]

You can get the best background trees if you put a few real trees in front of them.

The other trick is to blend the colors in the foreground trees into the background trees. I use cheap green spray paint to mist the ground foam on my trees and control the color of green on the trees. I take a bit of the same green color (spray it liberally in the middle of a big piece of tin foil) and dab it on the backdrop lightly using a fan brush.

If you have some of the same color on your backdrop as is on your foreground trees, the backdrop will seem to blend in with the foreground trees and it will be hard to tell just where the real trees stop and the background starts unless you look *really* close!

[CNJ831]

The trick in painting background trees is to use at least two distinctly different hues of green. Three is better.

The base, or first, application should be a fairly deep green and fairly heavily applied but I'd say Brunswick (which borders on black) is really too dark a shade to represent tree leaves in any form. When this is dry, one applies a not so heavily stippled application of lighter green over the first one, allowing a fair amount of the darker color to show through. Once the second application is dry, to represent the effects of sunlight you can lightly stipple on an additional application of somewhat yellowish-green to the top and one side of each tree. In doing so, you want around 70% of the first two green applications to remain visible.

The overall procedure is the same for producing autumn colors on background trees, starting with the darkest greens and reds and moving toward lighter oranges and yellows. I've used this technique for years on my layout and module backgrounds but can't find a nice representative image at the moment to include here (i.e. none are included on either my Photobucket or Railimages albums).

CNJ831

 

[BillyDee53]

After painting the foliage on, I would try gluing some of the same foliage material on the layout, onto the backdrop.  Then plant some modeled trees in front.  You are on the right track.

[Anonymous]

The only thing I would add to the advice above is dont worry about adding tree trunks.  The foreground trees would hide the trunks of the close background trees and the more distant ones would be lost in the haze.  If you feel you must put trunks in; make a few thin lines first then put the leaves over top of the trunks.  Try to practice on paper first to learn the technique, then try it on your backdrop.  If you don't like the results just paint over it and try again.

Also keep in mind that the further away a tree is, the lighter the color should be.

[C&O Fan]

Good Tips from everyone Actually the colors are brighter in person than the photo shows

Which all depends on lighting, Camera< mine's not great and your monitor.

That said i do want to add a lighter shade of green about the color of the clump folage in the

foreground

Thanks for the help