I can't deny it any longer. Sure I've got plenty of chores with spring and a new garden and the war of the roses and a 5 hour lawn that has to be mowed every week.
But I have to face it. It's been over a month since I worked on the layout. The next step is an easy one. It is airbrushing white paint from the track base over the existing sky blue walls. Shouldn't take more than an hour. Two hours with set-up and clean-up.
But I figure it's not the airbrush that has me spooked. It's the backdrop painting. I figure it will take a couple months.
In my vision, the three-wall room is painted in a great scenic vista of which the railroad passes through. The town of Train City is 5% on the layout and 95% on the backdrop. Train City on the layout sits in the corner, but on the backdrop extends to the horizon on two walls. My wife, the artist, says she'll help, but she wants pictures as reference.
Like I have pictures of a fictional town that exists only in my head.
Nope, it's something I've gotta do. And I don't have a clue how to start.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Chip,
Not that I'm an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but why not sketch on paper what you "see" in your head....that might be all your artist wife needs as a starting point...then show her pictures of buildings from your era and turn her loose!
Don Z.
Research; it's not just for geeks.
Don Z wrote: Chip,Not that I'm an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but why not sketch on paper what you "see" in your head....that might be all your artist wife needs as a starting point...then show her pictures of buildings from your era and turn her loose!Don Z.
Not a bad idea. But just to be clear, she didn't say she would do it. She said she would help. She thinks I good enough of an artist to do it myself. She's going to coach me and show me how to fix my screw-ups.
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
Just remember the easiest way to fix any screw ups is to keep the airbrush with white paint handy....a little bit of spraying and you have a clean canvas to start anew...
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MidlandPacific wrote:Hey, sounds like a great family opportunity to me!
You'd think. She paints for a living. It would be like the carpenter working on his own house--doing a special project for his wife on his day off.
MB & Stix,
I don't think I'll be able to find a color photo of a fictitious 1885 town. At least not an 8MP digital one. No, I think I'll have to paint it.
ARTHILL wrote:I have been painting mine, 2 feet at a time, when the spirit moves. I have it about 1/3 done, and though I am not an artist either, I am enjoying the project. At the current pace, I will have it done about the same time, the scenery and the track work are done. I hope that is before I get enough money to start the roundhouse scene.
My scenery is going to be very tree intensive. I'm worried about reaching over them to paint. I'm also worried about sore back leaning over 30".
I'm just going to have to buck-up and do it.
And I will...one of these days.
Chip, you can do this in layered stages. I did the basic blue around the three walls in about 30 minutes with a hand brush and acrylic. Later, I used that same brush, a three incher, to feather in a lower brighter layer after adding some white to the original. Later still, another lower band with more white added. This took about one hour total over two days. Several weeks later, I grabbed the Walmart acrylics, mixed a bunch of green and yellow with some water to make it go longer, and then started dabbing at the place where I had stopped adding ground goop. Tilt the brush, this time a half-incher, angled this way, then 90 opposite, to create low-sweeping pine branches. You can add short vertical dabs of greyish brown paint later to give the glimpses of trunks now and there.
Chip, you know how to do this; grab a slab of cardboard and develop a quick and effective technique that makes it look like a forest. If She says you can do it, you can do it...who'd know better?
It is the way I went. I had to experiment with brush dabs and swipes until my mind said to me that it was actually looking like trees. Don't forget to use different greens, even some quite dark stuff here and there.
Can you feel the pressure building?
No, SpaceMouse, you do not have Model Railroader's Block. I cannot diagnose you, only you can diagnose yourself, but....
I have a similar situation of intending to work on the layout, or even a little structure project, and not finding the time or will to go ahead and do it very often. Not that I don't care. But I have forum-aholism. I am a forum-aholic. I can't stop reading messages and posting replies. I am powerless over my forum addicition. They have made my life unmanageable.
I cannot tell you that you are a forum-aholic. But go to a forum and try suddenly to stop foruming. The attempt may give you the shakes if you are true forum-aholic. But it may be worth the shock to discover the truth, if you are actually one of these forum addicted souls.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/949-723
Don't know if you've seen these?
Certainly no posting block: Posts 7,276!
Bob Boudreau
CANADA
Visit my model railroad photography website: http://sites.google.com/site/railphotog/
Trees? Well if there conifiers(sp?) do the bob nye way or whatever his name is.
there yah go quick easy and good looking conifiers.
NOT AN ARTIST!!?!? Yeah, right. Art, your backdrops look fantastic. When I figure out how to master this stick.. oh, yeah, it's called a ruler.. Looks like I'm stuck with photobackdrops. But then, that's not entirely a bad thing.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Crandell,
This is why my wife thinks I can do it. I did this painting last fall when I joined my wife's plein aire group for a session. I only got the clouds and the upper left of the hillside done before we lost light.
leighant wrote: I cannot tell you that you are a forum-aholic. But go to a forum and try suddenly to stop foruming. The attempt may give you the shakes if you are true forum-aholic. But it may be worth the shock to discover the truth, if you are actually one of these forum addicted souls.
Oh, I've know that for about 2 years (and before that, the Cowboy sites) But up until about a month ago, I got about 20 hours/week done on the layout.
loathar wrote: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/949-723Don't know if you've seen these?
No, they are pretty cool. But, I need to do what's in my head.
Railphotog wrote: Certainly no posting block: Posts 7,276!
Bob, your point is?
Cheese,
I can do stuff one at a time, It's the combination of the multiple perspectives of a three-sided artwork that has me buffaloed.
SpaceMouse wrote: Crandell,This is why my wife thinks I can do it. I did this painting last fall when I joined my wife's plein aire group for a session. I only got the clouds and the upper left of the hillside done before we lost light.
I don't wanna hear it. Despite my massive Basement Empire, I haven't been able to do anything but sneak down to the basement and run a train back & forth for a few minutes in three months. Of course, this is because I was writing another book (not about streetcars, but I did sneak in quite a few pictures of the SP shops, various electric locomotives, etc) and officially forbidding myself from playing with the trains.
This summer my plans are to play with trains and play a lot of computer games. Of course, within a week of my book's deadline I get a call from my publisher and they want to know if I want to work on a *third* book....arrrgh!
Jetrock wrote: I don't wanna hear it. Despite my massive Basement Empire, I haven't been able to do anything but sneak down to the basement and run a train back & forth for a few minutes in three months. Of course, this is because I was writing another book (not about streetcars, but I did sneak in quite a few pictures of the SP shops, various electric locomotives, etc) and officially forbidding myself from playing with the trains. This summer my plans are to play with trains and play a lot of computer games. Of course, within a week of my book's deadline I get a call from my publisher and they want to know if I want to work on a *third* book....arrrgh!
Well, I can actually relate to that better than you think. I have two eBooks nearing completion (neither mR) and an article I have to complete (is MR) but they are cutting more into my work time than my modeling time--like getting my practice off the ground and writing for my newsletter.
But I say if you enjoy it and it is worth your while in whatever currency, go for it. But if you want to play with trains, forbidding is harsh.
SpaceMouse wrote:
I agree with your wife and Crandell, Chip. If you did this well in one class, I don't think you have any worries. But even if the backdrop stinks, you can always paint over it!
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
Okay, so maybe you can relate...well, writing isn't particularly profitable, it's more like a little added income. At least I'll be able to keep the profits from this book: the last book's profits are being donated to a railroad museum! Not that I mind that at all...I can't cut so much into my day job so hobby stuff that doesn't pay gets sidelined.
I didn't quite forbid myself from playing with 'em, I just de-prioritized actually working on the layout in favor of writing. As I mentioned, I'd go down and run trains for a little while to cool down from all the brain-overheating research stuff.
I suppose that one thing that makes it easier is that a lot of my side projects are so railroad-related: I re-released an album of Sacramento Northern electric locomotives in Marysville/Yuba City, originally released on vinyl in 1964--digitally remastered it and on CD (with the permission of the original person who did the recording, of course)!
I know what you mean completely. :-)
You know, there is one thing I do love about this forum. Even though most of the time I spend here could have been spent working on the railroad, this forum recently became the driving force I needed to get crackin'. Why? Well, over in the commuter modelers thread, someone who I thank very much had the courage to stand up and demand pictures. And now as a result, i'm working feverishly (actually, i do have a fever right now, which stinks, but i digress), to complete one of my station platforms so that I can have something to show for my plans expressed in that thread. Speaking of which, I better get down there and keep at it. We both should.
It took us a year to paint the interior walls of our home.
We still have two rooms to go. We have reached our Alamo with these two rather bad rooms despite a total determination to complete the painting mission.
SteamFreak wrote: SpaceMouse wrote: I agree with your wife and Crandell, Chip. If you did this well in one class, I don't think you have any worries. But even if the backdrop stinks, you can always paint over it!
Same here. There are different thoughts and preferences on backdrops. Some want almost photo quality and some want a vague interpretation and leave it up to the beholder's eye to fill in detail. All of us are somewhere in-between.
It depends what your end goal is but your talent is pretty good in my opinion. I finally took the brush to mine after many months...and four trys! We are our own worst critics
Regards,
Tom