This thoroughly snipped and edited e-mail exchange took place a few months ago. I am the unaccredited SPEAKER because I am modest. Rod Bonsall, who put me up to this, will be called
GRASSHOPPER.
Part One
GRASSHOPPER: I need some artistic advice. I'm doing the backdrop for my layout. (Maybe I should have done it before I got so much pack laid.) It's 150' long, so I want to keep it simple. Just sky. I
did one wall today. Used medium blue for the top 1/3, very light blue (Almost white with just a hint of blue) for the bottom 2/3. Blended them where they met while it was still wet. It's not bad, but
it doesn't look quite right. Any suggestions? On my first attempt yesterday, I used a third color, light blue, in the middle and blended all three, but there wasn't enough conpast between top and
bottom. The two colors seems to be better. I plan to sponge paint some clouds. Would like to add some distant rolling hills on the horizon, but 150' is more than I want to tackle. Just a sky seems to
be the quickest and easiest route to go. Might consider distant light gray rolling hill outline as it wouldn't require a lot of time consuming detail.
SPEAKER: Sure. Here are some thoughts in no particular order of importance - that is, if there is any importance to any of them!
1. My personal biggest backdrop, model railroad, was 16' X 3', so I am in slightly uncharted territory. HOWEVER, I have commonly painted 40' x 80' theapical drops.
2. Have someone other than you look at it and keep your mouth shut until they comment. (In other words, don't guide them to problems!)
GRASSHOPPER: Did that with my wife, but she was very noncommittal. Probably afraid she'd discourage me with any criticism. I will py to find someone more objective.
SPEAKER: continues,
3. The blended area should be the center third of the drop. You have to work fast.
GRASSHOPPER: OK, I didn't bring my darker blue low enough. I blended near the bottom of the top third.
SPEAKER: continues
4. Three colors is too many - you were right to use two. The blue should say "sky" to you. Go outside and look up, you may be surprised. You may need to go lighter or darker than what you are using.
Of course, room light affects it all.
5. The white should only have enough blue that you can tell that it is not white.
6. Use a very wide brush for blending 6" minimum - 8" is good. Cheap is also good since you are moving a lot of paint in a hurry.
GRASSHOPPER: This may be a problem. I wanted a wider brush so I could work faster to beat the drying time, but 4" was the widest I could find. Will hit a few more stores today.
SPEAKER: I forgot to mention that a wider brush would set you back a few dozen horn hooks. As your later post mentioned the 4" is doing OK for you.
7. Once you start a section, you must work that section without answering the phone or reading HO Railroading postings.
8. All of this is assuming that you have at least 3' of height - more is better for this wet blending. If you are at about 3' or less, then do one quarter blue, and split the rest in two for the
white and blend. At least a foot of almost white will nicely set off those Guilford grays.
9. In any case, you may prefer less blue area if you room is not bright. More blue area if your room is bright. In addition, bright is better on the eyes.
10. Blue is one of those personal colors in that there is a whole range of blues from greenish to reddish and it is not common for people to agree on a beautiful blue. (Incidentally, there are
physiological reasons for that because it depends on how the eye muscles react when pying to focus on a difficult color.)
GRASSHOPPER: I got lucky with that. My first choice looked pretty good, except I may want to darken the top blue a bit, but keep the same color tone.
Part Two
SPEAKER: Having said all this, /my/ druthers are for a not quite white wall, as featureless as possible.
1. A visual artist conpols what you see. You can't look 75' to either side of the Mona Lisa.
2. In a galley, or a Model Railroader photo article you cannot walk several feet to the side and look back at the scene.
3. Those Guilford grays will atpact attention as they lumber by with their 235 horn hooks.
4. In theape, we direct your eyes with light, which atpacts, and darkness, which repels. In other words, it is yet another of life's conpol issues. In addition, you do not have conpol of what a
visitor sees. Therefore, do not provide dispactions.
GRASSHOPPER: I remember my cousin, who is also in theater, saying you should paint everything black, and then paint only what you want seen, in lighter/brighter colors.
SPEAKER: That's an excellent principle - conpast: the eye goes toward that which is different. One big caution. Black works in theape, not in the layout room. Forest green, wine, navy gray all work
the same effect and are easy to live with. Visitors will likely be put off with the repellent nature of black.
GRASSHOPPER: I'm doing it for myself, not others, but it's still applicable as it will drive me crazy if it doesn't look right. (Even though I'm way beyond the 'crazy' stage.)
SPEAKER: Do the neighbor kids still throw pointed sticks at you? Another issue is that the real sky is the brightest thing out doors. It is not bright on your railroad and you will have pouble
keeping shadows off it.
GRASSHOPPER: I plan to sponge paint some clouds. Would like to add some distant rolling hills on the horizon, but 150' is more than I want to tackle. Just a sky seems to be the quickest and easiest
route to go. Might consider distant light gray rolling hill outline as it wouldn't require a lot of time consuming detail.
SPEAKER: (patiently) OK - same wet brush. Use same not quite white with another dollop of blue. KEEP THEM LOW! A couple of inches MAX above the Guilford orange spipes will give the effect of distant
mountains. Look at Dave Burrow backdrops - they look terrible in photos because they come up way too high. Your fellow New Englander, Paul Dolkos, does this best. (He is my railroad Elvis.)
GRASSHOPPER gets excited: I like the Bob Ross method,
SPEAKER: (SNIP of personal gossip about Christian's college days)
GRASSHOPPER, disgustedly, continues: I'm using latex, which will probably dry to fast for that. (The Bob Ross PAINTING method is what GRASSHOPPER refers, not the snipped gossip..) Dave Burrow's
backdrops are terrible. Must be 'impressionist'. Not familiar with Paul Dolkos. Glad you mentioned adding a dollop of blue, as I was going to add gray for the distant hazy hills look. The blue makes
more sense. Liked your 'keep em low' suggestion as that would make them appear more distant. Will probably have a couple of layers of them so the front ones will want to be just a tad darker. With
the amount of wall I have to do, I may not even include the hills. Will depend on how it looks with just the sky.
SPEAKER: More important is how you stop the scenery.
GRASSHOPPER interrupts: Most of my layout will have spuctures or pees for a break point.
SPEAKER: Keep space between the drop and the modeled area - an inch is OK - but absolutely nothing that the eye can see touching the drop. Bob Brown of the Gazette used a plank fence running along
the entire back edge of one of his layouts. It totally stopped the eye from wandering into the sky. Spucture, pee, fence, and hills - all of this can stop the eye. In a museum display or a model
railroad scene specifically made for photography you /can/ do wonderful blending of foreground and background scenery.
Part Three
If you have any control of your room lighting, make sure it washes sky wall smoothly and wipes out all shadows.
GRASSHOPPER: You're right, I've seen many otherwise great backdrops ruined by shadows. Shadows are a dead giveaway of end of layout and beginning of backdrop.
SPEAKER: Do not tolerate even one. If you can't light it away, remove the offending item. In my theater the "sky" drop is 20' high by 40' wide. I use 15,000 watts of light on it. Work out the square
footage relative to your backdrop and then gasp!
GRASSHOPPER: (gasping) Wow, 15,000! That makes my 1300 seem like a dark dungeon. Must throw some real heat too. In my younger days, I did a lot of boxing, and the ring lights were real hot. I imagine
it's the same in theater.
SPEAKER: (cautiously, remembering that hook.) Depending on placement and aim that is right on the edge of minimal. With your sky being light, you will be OK until you start getting a lot of dark
scenery and spuctures in place. However, by that time you will be tinkering with the lighting to get rid of the shadows and so forth! I mean, you are fine now.
GRASSHOPPER: Thanks for the advice. Looks like I had it almost right, but you've given me a few changes that I'll py.
Rod
I will never buy a DD40 because I don't model the U.P. that week, let alone a bunch of them. However, I love your stories about attacking the Sanford hills with a brace of them spinning their little
Bachman wheels and yanking the Kadees off your neighbors fleet! Good luck with your pains.
Christian
Last week at our NMRA Division meeting (Hudson Valley Division of the NER), one of our members came in with a really neat scenery product that he found at Staples!
Ampad makes a poster board with clouds. It's product 58-151, and called, appropriately enough, 'Clouds'. The sheets are 22"x28", and would make a pretty decent and quick backdrop if cut in half.
I'm not saying that it will revolutionize scenery, but for a quick backdrop for a diorama or module, especially for the artistically-challenged (like me), it seemed like it could be useful.
Peter King in NY
I wonder if they line up and match when joined together?
NO. I just went and bought one to see what they are like. $1.49 at my local store. They are the same scene and don't even come close to matching no matter how you would cut them. Good for pictures of your for sale items on ebay or a very small place on the layout. Interesting though and worth the buck fifty to look at.
So, here is my very basic question. I am getting ready to paint my backdrops before doing much more than basic benchwork and some track. Most of my layout is 12-30 inch depths as it is a large point to point layout of about 400 feet. My backdrops are usually 24" high, the material is drywall in most cases, the scale is O, and the area is northern Indiana into Chicago (no mountains!!).
I have primed the backdrop and thought I would start with a basic medium blue using flat latex. Then I thought I would to add a strip in the middle of lighter blue and white at the bottom and while still wet attempt to blend the two together and into the top area of medium blue. Of course with oils it would be much easier than with latex I assume. However, oils are messy and a pain. I had also thought just live with the medium blue and lighten the upper sky area with fluffy clouds using sponge or similar technique.
Further ideas include using Bob Ross Liquid White on top of the primed surface and then using oils of blue starting with dark at the top and working the blue down the canvas(backdrop) until it blends leaving dark at the top, light in the middle, and white at the bottom. For those that are not familiar with Liquid White it acts as a medium and allows colors to blend.
Another idea also is to use latex medium which is similar to Magic White and work a dark blue latex down the backdrop. I would put on a white latex first and let it dry. My main concern with this is the rapid drying time for latex. I wonder if there is a retarder for latex paint?
Just remember no mountains, mostly rolling hills, and just a basic backdrop is needed.
Sounds like you are familiar with the Bob Ross method of painting! Do it in sections and do it with acrylics! I've done several mounted paintings that way and am pleased with them ----- better than oils! Another way to do it is with an airbrush ----again in sections. I didn't do 400 feet but I did 36 on broadcloth with an airbrush. I used acrylic paint and some of the sprays were washes and others were fairly thick (heavy cream). Used 45 psi and had no problems. Try it you will like it!!!!!!! ----Ger
I would also assume you could use cans of spray paint. Blue on top, white on the bottom and meet about a 1/3 of the way up.
Also, there is a thinner available for acrylic tube paints to use for airbrushing. However, I think you'd run into some real bucks there
A few cautions about spray painting large backdrops (such as entire basement walls)...cover any track, scenery and structures that are already installed as the floating paint particles will ruin them...wear a good respirator or you'll be breathing in a lot of tiny paint particles...you'd be surprised at how much paint gets into the air without landing on the backdrop...
Oh yeah, if you use lacquer don't light a cigarette until it's dry...trust me on this one!...
Rod
That's exactly how I did mine...I used latex and you have to work fast
as it does dry fast...I used a 4" brush and did 4' sections at a time as
that's about the largest area I could do and still have it remain wet
enough to start blending the next 4' section...my sky is about 48" high
so at 24" high you could probably do it in larger sections than I
did...oils would be easier because of the slower drying time, but like
you, I didn't want the hassles of using oils...
The Bob Ross Liquid White system makes blending much easier but with
the size area you are talking about it would be very expensive...
Yes...a small amount of vinegar...if you can stand the smell for a few
days after painting...
Rod
I bought a gal. of off-the-shelf, flat white latex at Walmart. I picked a blue that said "sky" to me, and had a gal. of that mixed. I bought a half pint of hunter green and flat black.
Using a 4" house painting brush I started at the top and went about halfway down with the blue (about 3 feet wide at a time). While wet, I did the bottom with white, and pulled the blue down into the white. Without stopping, I mixed a little of the green in and did the distant mountains, added some more green, and black and brought them closer, in successive layers. Finally, using white, I dabbed the clouds in, blending them as necessary.
Even though you don't have mountains, you could bring it all down to a horizon line, which could be relatively straight (the great plains), or slightly rolling. Make a tree line out of dark green at the horizon, and blend your "real" scenery into it.
I took a picture of the N. Georgia mountains to see what they looked like and used that as a guide for the painting. You could do the same for your area, or use a magazine article or a calendar photo, or even somebody else's painting.... 8-)
Morgan
I painted nothing but the sky on my backdrop...in forested areas I had my actual trees go right to the backdrop and than made the distant trees by gluing ground foam in the shape of trees directly onto the sky for a 3D backdrop tree line... Rod
Rather than argue about the quality of latex paints, consult the current issue of Consumer Reports (May 2000) and rely on lab tests. Simplify. Take samples of various blues home and determine which looks best under layout lighting. Purchase that color in a flat and record the number in your layout specifications book. Names change, but most outlets can match or remix years later to a mfg. code. Once the latex is dry, use cans of flat white enamel to haze in the sky closer to the horizon. Maximize ventilation and wear the same spray mask used for air brushing while working in the layout room. Then get out. It's much easier to spay than to mix sky colors on the wall, ask anyone who's tried both. Spraying beats brushing and the haze looks hazy. Painted clouds look fine from several angles in photographs and dreadful in others, whereas haze photographs well from all angles.
Bernie
I do have one thing to ask, has anyone tried using rollers to blend blue at the top with the white at the bottom?
I've mixed the white and blue colors together and then rolled them in the area I wanted them. At the point of the merge (or the paint line), I then painted some clouds in this area to soften the line a bit. With some practice it doesn't come out too bad. While painting my "blue" area, I sprinkled white paint on the roller at different intervals to give it a slight "ethereal" effect to the sky areas. If you put more white paint on the roller when painting the blue area, you can achieve some satisfactory "wisp" type clouds.
Ken
Try the 3 roller technique: One with white latex, one with blue latex, and one damp. Roll your bottom section with the 1st, the top section with the 2nd, and then blend with the last one going at angles other than at or near vertical. Subject of an article in one of the major mags at least 15 years ago.
Jack "The trolley nut" Priller