Thanks for your contribution, foamer 13. Have you, in fact, used this technique to good effect, and would you be willing to provide us with a digital sample?
I’ll do anthing that works.
Artist artists (as in Vincent Van Gogh) commonly use an oil named cerulean blue for skies, perhaps because it is one of the only blues in oil which is opaque. You would have to get this at an art store, and it probably would be expensive if your objective were a 20’ x 20’ room. Still, that and lead or zinc white is what the professionals use.
As for the color of sky in L.A., I once or twice lived in that area and recall once when the atmosphere literally was turquoise (there had been a big fire to add to the smog).
Or, Y’all could come to Florida and wait for the “green flash.”
I reviewed the best photos I had taken in the area I model, took the one that I liked to True Value and had them color match it. Looks great under the RR room lights. I’ll lighten the lower portions as we work on different sections.
The “four band” technique for creating skies was developed by Danish master modeler Pelle Soeeborg. His technique was featured in Model Railroader several months ago. He uses oil paints rather than latex, but there is no reason latex won’t work. He just likes the ability to come back and re-work an area for a longer time than latex paints permit.
Rather than having to purchase four different colors of paint, consider purchasing your “deepest” blue for the crown of the sky, and then an “ultrapure” white. Then, mix them in different ratios. Your closest to the ground color should not be pure white, but rather mostly white with a portion of your deep sky blue - perhaps nine parts white to one part blue. Your next level up could be perhaps six parts white to four parts blue. Your third layer works out nicely at three parts white to seven parts blue. Your final layer should be one part white to nine parts blue. Note that I did not have any pure white or pure blue color. All should be blended.
When blending your paints, it is o.k. to simply use the same bucket and re-mix your ratios. The idea is that the sky is not a rigid four part color stack, but rather a continuous change in shading from light at the horizon to dark at your zenith. Use a roller or even an airless spray rig for large surfaces, and use a large, soft brush for the blending. I have found that almost vertical strokes that cross several color bands gives the best blending effect.
As for clouds, the stencil technique is very good, but the idea is not to place the stencil directly against your sky, but to space it out a bit - several inches - and then spray through it from afar, too. Build up your white in several passes, and don’t try to really cover the sky color. Rather, you want to have a translucent effect. Use some pewter gray or neutral (18%) gray and spray LIGHTLY the bottoms of the clouds for a thicker,***ulous cloud effect.
Note that on a hot summer day, where the***ulus clouds are constantl
I model West Virginia so my horizon line is very high due to the ridges, but when more sky is exposed, I have found that it is easiest to paint clouds as an approching front, keeping them as a billowing mass creeping up over the far ridge line. This eliminates the need for worrying about perspective, distances between individual clouds, and many of the other complications that arise from trying to replicate puffy individual clouds. It also eliminates the need for banding the colors, since only the high sky is visible.
I also want to reiterate that clouds are not really white. To give then some 3-dimensional quality you need subtle amounts of very light gray, pink or even yellow, but these colors need to be “almost white”. Catching the Bob Ross shows on Public Television is the best way to learn about painting clouds, and to some extant, backdrops in general.
CJ Riley
There are three good references for backdrop painting as well as the colors used. Ironically, they come from the very host of this website, imagine that. Mike Danneman published a book with Model Railroader, the tiltle is; Scenery for Your Model Railroad. It contains great information on everyting from paint brushes, to paints, to techniques, clouds, horizon lines, etc. The second reference would be the August 2003 issue of Model Railroader. See the article by Pelle Soeborg title; “Foolproof sky painting”, which again talks about technique, albeit very different from Mike Danneman, along with color suggestions. It’s on page 84 of that issue. The third and last reference would be the October 2004 issue of Model Railroader. See the article by Mike Danneman titled; “Painting a scenic backdrop”. This seems to be a brief recap of the before mentioned book but is still worth having as a reference. The article starts on page 70 of that issue. These references have helped me in painting my backdrop, I hope they will do the same for you John.
Thanks for bringing this question up, I had not thought of it before. I am in the process of desinging my layout and have thought of a lot of things I need to include but didn’t think of the color of blue and blending it as ‘ndbprr’ suggested. Thank you ‘johnhaas’ for the question, I’m glad someone is always thinking of the extras for layouts.
Steamguy
I used flat latex ‘Ultra Blue’ from Wal-Mart over a flat white base on my 1/8th" tempered hardboard backdrop. This color gives the right intensity of blue under fluorescent lights to represent the big western skies out here. All corners are coved and seams taped and feathered with drywall compound. I experimented with the aforementioned cloud stencil technique and was very pleased with the results. I used some old hanging folders and cut cloud shapes “free-hand” using an x-acto knife. By reversing, overlapping, tilting, etc. these stencils and hitting lightly just along the cut edges with Krylon flat white, the results are quite good. This method allows a three dimensional effect to occur. Also, the lower parts of the cloud mass or group looks very natural with the blue showing through the overspray. The horizon line became lighter just from the overspray as well and all I had to do to even things there was hit those horizon areas from random distances where I did not have clouds above. Be usre to use drop cloths/plastic and ensure proper ventilation when doing any painting.