I’ve been googling this morning about painting skies and backdrops and such and I can’t find a good answer to a simple question… I know what a ‘horizon’ is, but I’m not sure how to render it when different heights are involved. What I mean is this-- suppose I have a background which has mountains with occasional valleys-- ups and downs. This means there will be portions where the sky, if even visible, will be way up at the top, and other places where the sky will be very visible, as much as nearly to the bottom. (I think I’m answering my own question even as I write it If I want to paint a gradient, from deep blue sky to hazier sky at toward the bottom, should I just pick a horizon line at some constant height from the bottom, and that’s my horizon all the way around? (Me answering my own question…) I think the answer is “yes” unless I am also wanting to represent a shift in perspective… (which I am not wanting to do)… is that correct?
Does anybody know of any good links to painting skies? Obviously there do appear to be a zillion or so links to skies, but most of them seem focused on painting clouds and sunsets, whereas I’m interested in learning more about painting the blue parts. Is there a good site (visual or written) that discusses the blues in painting skies? How to get the colors correct? Tips for painting large (long) areas and such?
The “horizon” is a general description and not a specific zone. The DVD from MR (building your dream layout) Shows a simple yet effective method of painting the sky.
You pick the darkest blue that will be used and paint the entire backstop. The top most portion stays blue. Using thinned white paint begin to blend things down towards the bottom. The closer to the ground the more white (less thinned) you apply. Apply the paint horizontal to the ground.
As far as how much blue vs lighter blue then more white that depends on the height of your backdrop. But using 1/3 for each section seems reasonable, blending them together of course.
Eventually you end up with a nondescript sky that looks just fine. No clouds etc. but thats ok! You paint the landscape over the sky and every thing fall into place.
New York City Transit uses a surveyors chain rather than miles to number its locations along the track. The IRT and the BMT have well defined “ZERO” points for each numbering system. Not so the IND. Point “Zero” for the IND is out in the middle of the bay somewhere.
Thus also it is for your horizon. It is somewhat fungible, whatever you decide it to be. But the horizon and the “vanishing point” are not the same thing. The vanishing point is on the horizon about 8 or 12 miles out if you are standing on level ground. From our dining room window it is easy to see for 40 miles. So the horizon is variable depending on where you want people to view your layout from. But once you have decided on the horizon it is in the same place regardless of what hills or buildings may be between the viewer and the horizon.
Adding to the problem of the horizon is the vanishing point. If you are looking down a road, the vanishing point is the place where the two parallel edges of the road come together. But if you turn 90°, you are looking down a different road with a different vanishing point. And a model railroad has many sight lines.
Bottom Line? Makes some sketches on the backdrop to see what it will look like from various vantage points in your room, then choose the ones that look the best to you. If a salient fe
The method I used and liked very much (as long as you don’t count my clouds) is similar to BobH13 description.
Paint a section top to bottom (don’t do too long a section at a time or your paint will get too dry) with your basic blue color. While it is still wet, start with your white at the bottom going full length of your section. As you work your way up the two colors will blend together nicely.
When you get ready to do the next section, repeat the process and paint over a little of what you did before.
If you don’t like how it looks the first time, you can easily paint over what is there and do it over a little differently.
If you choose to paint some background scenes on the backdrop wait until the sky is dry. Some folks do beautiful clouds on the wet sky, I’m not one of them (yet).
Bye the way, when I look out at the sky the color variation is approximately level. It is not effected by the mountains and valleys in front of it.
The answer is yes…what you are calling the horizon doesn’t change heights; you might see a change if your layout covered enough geographical distance for the curvature of the earth to be noticeable, but I doubt that’s what you are doing. Paint your sky as if nothing were between you and the horizon (no hills, no mountains, no nothing!).
I don’t know how adventurous you want to get, but the sky on a simple clear sunny day is a darker reddish blue way up high (ultramarine blue), a lighter truer blue (cobalt blue) in the middle, and a lighter grayer greener blue on the horizon (cerulean blue).
Go outside at noon on a clear day and look closely and you will see this for yourself.
If you have any questions, feel free to call me…considering the number and quality of your contributions to this forum and to my own modelling, I feel it is the least I can do to share knowledge in one area where I have life-long experience!
I was just looking at a scenery book at my LHS and the author, if I remember right, uses only two colors, blue and white. Starting at the top he paints five horizontal lines (if you will) starting with all blue at the top and all white at the bottom. For the middle lines he mixes white and blue together gradually to create a color gradient from top to bottom. As you look at the back drop the colors go from dark at the top to light at the bottom. If you mix the colors together correctly and wash them over each other correctly, it should look like the real thing. Sorry I don’t remember which magazine I was looking at but I hope this gives you more ideas.
John, I answered over in your sky colour thread, but failed to mention horizon. If your layout is to be a single level and without topographic features, you can put your horizon anywhere you wish. I’d suggest viewing it from the eye-level of one of your scale citizens, at least to establish a starting point, then keep it the same for the entire layout. Perhaps surprisingly to some, this advice also applies if you’re planning on a mountainous layout, but when you paint your “sky” the light colours suggested for the lower sky simply won’t be visible in all areas. This is one of the reasons that it’s best to install the lighting and backdrop before the trackwork - nothing wrong with having the benchwork in place, though, if it helps to establish light fixture placement.
One thing to keep in mind is that most layouts are seldom viewed or shown in their entirety - if the horizon and sky colours are correct for the scene being photographed or for the area where you’re operating the trains, your results will likely be acceptable.
If I want to paint a gradient, from deep blue sky to hazier sky at toward the bottom, should I just pick a horizon line at some constant height from the bottom, and that’s my horizon all the way around? (Me answering my own question…) I think the answer is “yes” unless I am also wanting to represent a shift in perspective… (which I am not wanting to do)… is that correct?