C’mon fellas, show me your hills and trees that you’ve painted on your backdrop. Maybe I can get a good idea or two, Lord knows I need it. I think maybe my problem is I tend to get to detailed. Can’t do that, I’ve got about 45 feet of backdrop to do, and I ain’t that Italian feller that painted the ceiling on that Church! I’d like to one day get back to running trains again!
Photos below show what I’ve done so far and it’s not much.
My practice board
Jarrell
Yeap! Them dar hills be alright!
As far as Im concerned you are the king of backdrops now.
I gotta break the habit of getting too detailed though. And I’ve gotta be consistent. Right now I’m not either one. I’d sure like to see others backdrops and maybe I’d see more about what I’m doing wrong.
Thanks for the kind words! 
Jarrell
Ok, The picture shows a gigantic white cloud behind your locomotive between the distance peaks and the ground level. Is it possible to lose one’s concentration while up in the clouds?
Hows that for a start?
OK, you asked for it… You’re gonna get it! Here are a few shots of my backdrops.
And one of an area I’m working on now:
Jarrell,
I like the second shot quite a bit. Nice work
Guy
That test boards nothing to be ashamed of at all! Excuse me while I go spit on mine…
Advice? The biggest mountain in the very back kind of looks more Mt Fuji volcano. But hey! You could be modeling Japan for all I know![:D]
Take pics while your doing it and do a “how to” (PLEASE!)
Here’s one I kinda like:
It was done by a professional artist, I believe. No, it’s not mine!
Ray, I love the backdrop trees in those first two shots. They recede real nice into the distance. Any tips and suggestions on how you got the effect?
Jarrell
After I did it and got to looking at it close it reminded me of an Egyption pyramid or something…
Gotta watch doing those, keep’em more leveled off and not quite that high.
Jarrell
Good grief Mark, you scared me there. Man, if I could paint like that!
Jarrell
Nice job Mark. Holy Cheeses. (mouse expression)
Here’s a few shots of the background on my kid’s Lionel layout. My 3 kids, ages 7 and 4 (twins) helped me paint it.
Jim
The trees are stippled (using the end of the brush straight into the backdrop) onto the backdrop using several different sized brushes. I think I used a 1" or 1.5" brush as the largest in that area. I also bought two different shades on green one a darker “Forest Green” and a light green. I can then mix the two to get several different shades of green. One problem I see with a lot of work is that trees tend to all be the same color… In the real world almost nothing is a single color (even concrete). I started with the top of the mountain and stippled on 3 different colors of green letting them dry before adding the next color. Then after they are dry, I used a flat white (Krylon I think) spary can and from about 18" back lightly sprayed the area.
Repeat with the next lower group of trees and again spray with a very light coat of flat white. Do a third layer of “Forest” the same way. (You can choose to use the spray or not for the last layer you add.) As you do each layer the other layers get another light coat of the white spray making them look farther away. Do as many layers of hillside as you like.
Glad you like it!
