My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JR7582 My Flickr Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcfan/
What I do for clouds is to cut out shapes from regular 8 1/2 x 11" paper in cloud looking patterns and then hand paint them using watercolors or water-based paints of the appropriate colors.
Here's a couple of examples of what I've done.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/465810/ShowPost.aspx
I'm going to try this when I get around to it. Wish I could hire Bob Ross to do mine. (happy little trees and bunnies )
My back ground looks a lot like jeffrey-wimberly's, only it's firsted painted sky blue, then I use cloud and mountain stenciles to finish it off.
Tracklayer
Jeff,
You're so humble about this. Your clouds, imho, look incredible.
What technique are you utilizing to get the dark shadowing effect on the sides and bottom of your clouds?
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
AntonioFP45 wrote: Jeff,You're so humble about this. Your clouds, imho, look incredible. What technique are you utilizing to get the dark shadowing effect on the sides and bottom of your clouds?
That's an interesting method Jeff. How do you attach ?
jeffrey-wimberly wrote: What I do for clouds is to cut out shapes from regular 8 1/2 x 11" paper in cloud looking patterns and then hand paint them using watercolors or water-based paints of the appropriate colors.Here's a couple of examples of what I've done.
Tom
Those clouds do look really amazing, much better than sky and cloud backdrops I've seen. Maybe it's because you cut them out and it adds depth. Nice job painting them too.
Hi WCfan,
I'm at the same stage in l;ayout building as you. Painting clouds really disturbes me so I decided I'd go outside take a picture and paint what I saw. My cloud painting is over!!! It's just tath simple. See picture. LOL Seriously I plan on trying water based spray paint and in difference to my wife I'm going to do it outside but it's too windy. Lots of luck and post some pics.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
Here's my method:
Tom Bryant_MR wrote: That's an interesting method Jeff. How do you attach ?
Chuck Geiger wrote:Here's my method:
I like those a lot, Chuck. They look like - what is that stuff? - water vapour!
Layout looks good too, even though it's the dreaded N scale Any more pics of it?
Mike
Modelling the UK in 00, and New England - MEC, B&M, D&H and Guilford - in H0
loathar wrote: http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/465810/ShowPost.aspxI'm going to try this when I get around to it. Wish I could hire Bob Ross to do mine. (happy little trees and bunnies )
If you use this method indoors, wear a good mask, goggles and put a shower cap over your hair.
Simply stippleing white paint on with a cheap 2" or 3" paint brush and then lightly brushing horizonally with a dry brush to soften the edges can yield good results also. It's best to experiment with a variety of methods on scrap poster board of masonite and then choose the one that you are most comfortable with. The good thing about painting clouds, if you make a mistake, just paint over them with blue paint and try again.
My husband Larry used The Bob Ross technique to paint trees and the hill side over the light blue.
It has been fun matching trees with the trees on the back drop.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Hi,
While there certainly are some artists in the MR community, most of us are probably of lesser talent. However, painting a basic trees/hills/sky/clouds backdrop is really not a problem. As Loathar says, if you mess it up, just paint over it.
Before doing mine (15x11 all around the room with curved corners), I picked up a couple of books and looked at some articles in the mags for ideas. The basic concept went like this:
- Outline the horizon (where hills meet the sky), and work the sky first.
- "Sky" is typically dark blue at the top and a very light hazy (we talk"hazy" last) blue on the bottom. Start the top layer and use about 3 or 4 lighter tints of the same base color and paint them in horizontal stripes. Do a small 2-3 foot area at a time, because you want to blend in the layers so there is no noticable color change line. A 2" or 3" brush works fine.
- Clouds are white to shades of grey, and outline a few and then horizontal brush to blend in.
- The "hills" are the opposite of the sky, in that the darker greens are on the bottom and they blend into lighter greens on top - ususally with some grey blended in. Vertical slashes of brown/black make tree trunks, and blotching on various greens on the top make distant trees. Rememer, the higher on the backdrop, the smaller the trees.
- Lastly, and don't laugh cause this really makes a difference - get a good large spray can of flat white, and do a white overspray over the entire backdrop, especially the hills. This builds in that natural haze, and somehow puts distance into the picture.
Check out some MR articles before you start, and you will get some even better ideas!
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
John
Yes, using the grey or brown spray FROM A DISTANCE is certainly feasable. But I don't know if you would like the result. By that I mean that for some of us old guys, we want the railroad to represent a good day with clear or partly cloudy skies. Said another way, there are even some of us that either won't weather their rolling stock or lightly weather at best - simply because they don't want to see the "dirty" part of the real world.
But of course the good news is, we can do whatever we want to our railroads!
Just remember distance when you are painting the sky. Take a few pictures of the sky outside and try to duplicate the colors. The horizon is the most important spot. clouds will become smaller and more together. The sky turns from a true blue to a white. Though you can't see my horizon line because of the mountains that I painted, I still airbushed white over my blue just above the mountains to give the feel of distance.
--Zak Gardner
My Layout Blog: http://mrl369dude.blogspot.com
http://zgardner18.rrpicturearchives.net
VIEW SLIDE SHOW: CLICK ON PHOTO BELOW
Another thing to keep in mind is that all clouds of a given layer will have their bases at the same altituted (and those bases should be flat and darker than the rest of the cloud). This becomes important in helping to keep your visual perspective correct.
George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
Don't forget my scenery clinic on my personal web site ... I describe how to paint your own sky backdrop so it looks like your layout is "outdoors", like you see in the photo below.
Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
Beaver14 wrote:WC,You are getting good advice from a lot of these posts. Zak Gardner has done some really good work with his Montana scenery and backdrop. I'd add a couple of references to this:1. Scenery for Your Model Railroad, By Mike Danneman, from Kalmbach (Model Railroader). Easily the first half of this book is on backdrops, written by someone who really knows his stuff.2. Snippets from a couple of videos.a. The first Dream-Plan-Build had a basic segment on backdrop painting. It's a fair start.b. Joe Fugate's series includes his Volume 4 on scenery. Joe shows the use of color photos to help get the colors right plus a lot of other good stuff.Perhaps the best advice is keep it simple and just do it! The basics are a horizon line, a sky with blending of haze down toward that horizon line, and the use of muted blues and grays to represent distance. All of the above references touch on this.Good Luck!
Oh, I am so not worthy, but thanks!
I have to agree since what has helped me was Joe's video and books from Mike Danneman, Pelle Soeborg, and others that Kalmbach has put out on scenery.
Great thing about painting is that if you don't like it just paint over it again. It is true when said that you just have to jump in and give it a try. You just might be better than you think at it.
zgardner18 wrote: Great thing about painting is that if you don't like it just paint over it again. It is true when said that you just have to jump in and give it a try. You just might be better than you think at it.
Have to agree with that! One thing to add...When you mix up your "sky" color paint, make sure you have enough to paint your backdrop 2-3 times to cover up any less than stellar results.
jfugate wrote: Don't forget my scenery clinic on my personal web site ... I describe how to paint your own sky backdrop so it looks like your layout is "outdoors", like you see in the photo below.
Thanks for sharing ths great scenery clinic Joe. Very informative!
Ed
Chuck Geiger wrote:Zak - You remember when we were talking AT&SF from Oceanside to Escondido last year? - I might built that layout. How's the module coming along? - New pics please.
Chuck,
I'll tell you what, I might be moving back down in that area and if that being the case I could get you any photos that you might need. The bummer is that now with the Sprinter is coming things are changing a lot, and I'm sure that you are going to model something in the past years. I only wish that I would have been more into railroad photography back in my younger years.
Well, I haven't been able to do much with Montana scene since over the summer I was working mostly in Hawaii only to come back and have number 2 child enter our lives (10/9/07). I have applied a plaster/Vermiculite shell and painted it much like what Joe teaches but haven't progressed since. I'm hoping to get a good ground cover and start applying some vegetation here real soon. Keep a look out on WPF, maybe something will show up.
Oh, and this guy took up some of my time too: