Thanks Richard....... I have continued on today doing a little more work on the scenery. I have been attempting to blend the grass to the back scene and I think it`s come along reasonably well. If you consider this image below, we have newly laid grass, the glue is still wet, and if you guide your eye to the back scene you will notice there is a distinct difference between the colour of the grass in the background, and Gormo`s little patch of new grass. If you now train your eye on the back scene to the left of the wind mill, it`s becoming harder to distinguish where the grass ends and the back scene starts. If we take a much closer look, the illusion is still fairly convincing. The only thing giving it away is the join in the back scene. To make it easier to tell the difference between the two, I inserted a sheet of white paper between the scenery and the back scene......sorry the pic is a bit fuzzy. So how do you do it I hear you say......well it`s done with artist`s acrylics dry brushed onto the grass. I am reasonably confident that you could take most shades of commercially available static grass and modify them to your own taste, given that there`s not a huge colour difference between the grass and the back scene. In the past I`ve tried to have various colours of grass to suit the back scenes I`ve created, however it`s not always successful and I must admit I`ve been lucky to get some reasonable results. Strategically placed trees and bushes help a lot to blur the lines. The dry brushing method on the other hand, starts to shift the artistic control part of the process in your favor. I am at the point now where I think to myself, that the grass colour does not matter too much because I can change it or blend it to suit what I want. I have used three basic colours to get the variations in the grass. Burnt Umber, Forest Green and Beige. I use two methods of applying it. If I want stubbly bits and pieces, I use the brush in a stippling fashion, and if I want a more flowing effect, I brush light strokes across the top of the grass. It`s important that the brush is very dry with a minimum of paint carried in it.....wipe it off on some card or whatever before going to the grass. Do a small area at a time and then stand back and check it out from above and also down at eye level. Apply the paint under the lighting that you intend to use to light the area, because it will look different under different lighting. The other thing that is quite effective, however I don`t think so much in my pics, is darkening the grass near the back scene if there is a tree in the picture. In the pic below I have darkened the grass near the back scene with forest green and I`ve worked back away from the tree to create almost a shadow type effect. Again this blurs the line between grass and back scene and to the naked eye almost has a 3D effect. The colour you use should be as close as you can get to the colour in the back scene. This is not a difficult thing to do folks, and I would encourage anyone to have a crack at it, but the most important thing is to study real grass, even pictures of real grass, and start looking at the variations in colours and tones. That will give you an idea of what colours you want to use to achieve an individual result. Mixing commercial grasses of different lengths and colours will certainly give you variation, but dry brushing with artist acrylics will further enhance that variation and give you artistic control. Gormo
Congratulations on PotW Gormo. Some beautiful work happening here. I must admit that I do like this photo of the road ducking down into the scenery, as if it is disappearing down a hill. It really tricks the eye nicely, giving the scene a greater field of depth. I personally think you could do away with the road back scene and leave this as is. The work you have achieved on the grass is stunning, a great blending of foreground and back scene. Well done. Cheers, Gary.
G`day Gary and thanks for your comments. I`m taking on board your suggestion and will re-assess that area where the road drops away....... The way it is at the moment, suggests that the road heads off to Little Bardfield, which is located some distance from the railway, above left of the exit hole from the room shown in the pic below. So yes, I`ll look seriously at it again and toss it around in my head and see what comes up.? Gormo
Well Gary, I tossed it around and decided not to use the picture I had of the road going off into the distance. I did however, experiment with some wet & dry paper stuck behind the lift out section at an angle sloping down on the left from the horizontal. Once colour matched to the road with some grey pastel, I think it gives a good representation of the road continuing off into the background. The point where the hedge meets the road on the left is where the join is. It was a matter of getting the perspective right so that it looks right from any angle........a lot of fiddling and adjusting required. I even tried a curved road but it looked totally wrong. The little white sign post was already in the backscene, so I lined the road up with that.......really a lucky break or happy accident. The Land Rover on it`s way to Little Bardfield And from above And the convoy off on it`s way Anyway, I think that has worked out pretty well, so on we go with more to do. Gormo
Thanks Gary, Yes I`m quite happy with it. I don`t think it would work in all situations, but all the stars seemed to be aligned for this one...... Meanwhile a little video to go on with. Gormo
Lovely video. May I make a suggestion. I like to have my stationary vehicles looking as if they should be stationary. Stopped at roadworks or perhaps in the case of your convoy being checked by a MP. Your scenery is stunning.
G`day Brian, Thanks for your suggestion and your comments. Yes I agree about vehicles, although it`s not always possible. In this case the vehicles are just plonked on there temporarily to give the scene some scale as I have not really considered yet how they should be used. Anyway.......lots of these little artistic decisions are still to be made......but that`s the fun of model railways. Gormo