Heres a picture of my current backdrop. It looks fine now, but I intend to add some white fluffy clouds utilizing “the clouds” stencils from New London Industries purchased through Walthers. I’m concerned that my backdrop may be too light a blue. So how dark do you go?
You can actually go pretty blue towards the top. If you look up in clear sky you will notice how dark the sky is. The key is to feather the color from the top to the bottom. You will have to test the cloud color against the light backdrop color to make sure the clouds don’t wash out against the light sky. You can also add grey or purple shading to the clouds to add depth to them.
Dave H.
I think it’s one of those personal taste things
I did at least 6 paint tests before i found what i liked
The one on the right is what I choose
The one on the right is about my color don’t you think? Did you end up using GRAY instead of White for the clouds?
There is no such thing as “Sky Blue”.
On a clear day, the sky is a deep blue overhead to almost white at the horizon. If you paint your sky all one colour blue and paint little white fluffy clouds all over the sky, as sadly advocated by magazine articles, what you end up with is an unrealistic sky that looks like it’s from a TV cartoon. A “Simpson’s Sky”.
The most realistic sky will start at the top with a fairly pronouced blue and feather out to whitish at the horizon. To do this reasonable well, you probably need at least a two foot high backdrop as a minimum.
Painting clouds needs a little artistic tallent as clouds are not all white and require blue shading to make them realistic. Clouds painted or sprayed using a stencil, as advocated in some magazine articles, once again goves you a “Simpson’s Sky” unless you have the skill to shadow them in a realistic manner.
For the majority of us who lack artistic tallent in the painting department, I’d suggest the streaky cloud sky achieved by blending still wet blue and white latex paint using horizontal brush strokes and wet paint brushes to achieve the blending but streaky sky look. Blue paint at the top and white at the bottom. Work the blue down into the white and change brushes and work the white up into the blue and use a clean wet brush to do the final blending and streaking.
People could do less than watch the reruns of the late Bob Ross’ PBS TV show, “Joy of Painting” and see how he does skies. Just copy what he does but in latex paint and on a three to four foot section at a time.
Oh, one last thing. Don’t ask “What blue should I use?”
Go to the paint store, get some blue paint swatches, stand outside the door on a clear day and hold the paint swatches up to the sky almost overhead. Pick the one YOU think looks best because, really, it doesn’t matter.&nb
There is no such thing as “Sky Blue”.
On a clear day, the sky is a deep blue overhead to almost white at the horizon. If you paint your sky all one colour blue and paint little white fluffy clouds all over the sky, as sadly advocated by magazine articles, what you end up with is an unrealistic sky that looks like it’s from a TV cartoon. A “Simpson’s Sky”.
The most realistic sky will start at the top with a fairly pronouced blue and feather out to whitish at the horizon. To do this reasonable well, you probably need at least a two foot high backdrop as a minimum.
Painting clouds needs a little artistic tallent as clouds are not all white and require blue shading to make them realistic. Clouds painted or sprayed using a stencil, as advocated in some magazine articles, once again gives you a “Simpson’s Sky” unless you have the skill to shadow them in a realistic manner.
For the majority of us who lack artistic tallent in the painting department, I’d suggest the streaky cloud sky achieved by blending still wet blue and white latex paint using horizontal brush strokes using 4" brushes, one for white, one for blue and one clean wet paint brush to achieve the blending but streaky sky look. Blue paint at the top and white at the bottom. Work the blue down into the white and change brushes and work the white up into the blue and use the clean wet brush to do the final blending and streaking.
People could do less than watch the reruns of the late Bob Ross’ PBS TV show, “Joy of Painting” and see how he does skies. You can see them on You-Tube. Just copy what he does but in flat latex paint and on a three to four foot sectionof your backdrop at a time.
Oh, one last thing. Don’t ask “What blue should I use?”
Go to the paint store, get some blue paint swatches, stand outside the door on a clear day and hold the
Yes
Driline,
There was a good article in MR a while back about painting a sky using the sort of technique described above of using 3 or 4 progressive, slightly darker saheds of blue and blending them in while still wet. Contact me and I’ll see if I can find the article for you. I’ll disagree though about using the New Horizons stencils for clouds. I’ve seen it done to very good effect with nothing other than cheapwhite spray paint. Painting clouds is like most other things, study, observe, take a few photos as reference before you begin and use them as guides. One thing I’ll point out is to notice how they get closer together and softer as you get closer to the horizon. It helps add a dimension of distance. Practice on some scrap cardboard from boxes first.
Your in Iowa any way, land of blue skies and few clouds. To quote a well known movie - “Is this heaven?” Response - “No, this is Iowa”
Hi,
I’ve done some painting of backdrops (came out nice) and a lot of reading on the subject. May I put in my thoughts…
Start at the top with a darker shade of blue and blend it lighter as you go down. Typical “sky” is always darker up as you are viewing it thru less haze and pollution etc.
Get some white, grey, black (and maybe a bit of yellow) latex paint and an old brush and just play with “making clouds”. Its amazing how realistic one can be by just splotching and blending in the colors (heavy on the grey/white, light on the black/yellow). I have never painted a “sun”, and doubt if I ever will.
One of the best things I read about and did on my layout was to overspray the backdrop with flat white paint. Yes, LIGHTLY and at a distance and the result is a gentle haze that kind of works the trees/brush/landforms/sky together. The first time I did this I was very apprehensive, but the results were truly nice. Again, do it LIGHTLY!
Hope some of the above helps,
Mobilman44
On my last layout I actually did paint the backdrop as you describe. And yes it did turn out quite well. I’d like to experiment however with the “stencils” and see what kind of trouble I can get myself into. I was just wondering how blue to go…time will tell.
Unfortunatley this being a shelf layout in a smaller confined room, I was only able to achieve a 12" height backdrop as the other posted eluded to.
As soon as our temperatures get warm enough here in Iowa so that I can paint in the garage, I’m going to have to wait a bit to start [:)]
I too feel the need to up in with my 2 cents (Ok, $20) worth.
I’m from the school that the backdrop should “blend” and not stand out, taking the focus away from the railroading and dioramas. With that thought, my backdrops are pretty simple without a lot of detail and are pretty much just blue in a few places.
Although I’m pretty happy with the way everything has been turning out, my rolling hills look more like mountains to me. Even though they are not exactly what I was trying for and may benefit from some artistic “brushwork” adding some distant foreground trees just behind the “real” trees, I’m pretty happy with what I already have in place. They are very much along the lines of what I had envisioned and do accent the scenes nicely, so, I have one VERY hilly area.
Regarding artistic ability: I’m not sure that a lot is needed with this method of doing backdrops, as they are all done with spray paint (I used cans, but an airbrush could be used) and stencils! The blending of everything takes some “getting used to”, but isn’t a major learning curve.
The whole idea started with a three part series, in the 2001 Feb. Mar. and Apr. issues of Railroad Model Craftsman, by Fran & Miles Hale and John Lowrence titled “Stenciling”. Not only did I read those articles! I was also able to take in a clinic they hosted while down in St. Louis at the 2001 NMRA National Convention! The articles really peaked my interest and after attending their clinic, I was convinced that this method was worth a try, so I bought two of their stencil sets, clouds and hills, and have used them though out my painting of the backdrops.
The clinic, along with the articles really gave me all the information needed and I started “practicing” on my West upper backdrop. It takes a little time to get comfortable with the technique, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy and relat
A backdrop has to be “there” in two possible circumstances for the typical modeller. It has to be just there visually when operating trains. It adds greatly to the illusion of distance and weather, so it really can use some attention and time, even to the extent of starting over if it isn’t turning out well. The other way a backdrop serves a useful purpose is in imagery. In so many photos published here and in magazines, the sky is essentially white, perhaps a single shade bluer, and you would expect that in close-up shots of engines with the near-horizon sky just behind it through the trees…camera angle and all that stuff.
If the backdrop is going to be fairly high above the main tracks or surface, more blue will have to be added to the mix as the backdrop heights are painted, but the technique of blending it all takes some experimentation and work. I’m not very good at it.[:I]
Forget the clouds. It isn’t cloudy every day is it? Long ago, I built a layout in our apartment basement. I got a roll of butcher paper and taped it to the wall. I started at the top and using a brush worked my way down adding more and more white paint until it was a very pale blueish white at the bottom. Even though it was streaky my visitors said it was the most realistic sky that they had ever seen.
I took a photo off my porch on a clear day last august(since I figured I’d suck at painting clouds!),took it to the local big box and had them match it .They suggested I go a shade lighter than the pic. I used two rollers and a brush to blend the two colors together.It took some messin’ around but I think it lo
oks OK. Besides, you’re supposed look at the trains, right?
Terry
I spent 10 years trying to paint the prairie sky in Saskatchewan ( and there is plenty of sky there!) mixing blues on small pieces of paper and holding them up to the sky, then I had to learn how to paint those flat bottom-puffy top clouds, THEN I moved to the ocean(whole new scene) -----sky is light bluish at the bottom (horizon) and darker as you go up. Do any of you know someone who paints??(artistically) ask them to do you a scene, they would probably take it as a great challenge.
I use a color I get from Wal-Mart. It’s in the Color-Place line. It’s called Nimble Blue. It’s the same blue that’s on my backdrop in my layout photos.
I used the previously described technique, using three shades of lates blue and a latex white. Started at top with strip of darker blue, then while paint still wet, different brush with a strip of next lighter blue blending the two together where they met… then a different brush and the lightest blue strip next blended into the prior strip,… and finally a white strip with a different brush blended into the light blue strip. I’m no artist, but it turned out perfect and was easy. Good depth perception with the darker blue at the top.
Have fun. Hal
Your layout lighting will also play a big part in the final color. Since my modeling is highly urban, I preferred a grayer tint, with just a hint of blue (welcome to smoggy LA/Springfield/wherever…[8D]) I found what I wanted in Wal-Mart’s “Clear Blue”.
I also had to do some guesswork, as I was installing my lighting at the same time as painting (well, the previous day, really…) I had been planning on using CFL’s, so I expected a sightly green tinge (that’s fine: blue + green = gray, kind of sort of.) This worked out really well. But my future plans were to switch to dimmed incandescent lamps once the railroad was running. About ten seconds with an incandescent showed me that that wouldn’t work at all: blue + yellow = GREEN! [sigh]
So just remember that you’ve got to see the paint chip in the room first…
My $0.0165 (after taxes)
Peter
Thank you for all the replies. This was a very informative thread I intend to save.