As promised, not long, not exciting and pretty simple really
First the foam, I have both blue and pink foam in the store cupboard ........ both are Styrofoam types. You also may find offcuts of the yellow type with a foil backing around building sites
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For this job the pink was a bit better as it had a slightly coarser grain structure.
I then cut a number of slabs of the foam block , I used a band saw, the widths of these varied from 1 mm to about 5 mm
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Note, I deliberately made no attempt to cut these slabs with parallel edges, if anything I was looking to try and vary the width across the length of the slab.
These slabs were then cut into strip all about the general width/depth of the wall
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These strips were then cut into the various lengths I had calculated for a scale 1/35 wall, mixing the lengths with the various thicknesses.
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I then "textured" the part of the foam that would show on the external side of the wall ... now you could knives, toothpicks, etc , as I don't bite my nails I found that pinching bits off with my thumb nail worked fine by me.
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Now to build, on a base of thick card I laid down a strip of double sided tape .... I used d/s tape as I did not want any glue seepage to spoil the look of the wall
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The base stones were laid down on the d/s tape. Follow the real thing here and use your thicker strips in general at the bottom of the wall, working to medium and then the thinnest ( and real life the heaviest blocks at the bottom lightest blocks towards the top ) This is not a strict rule and you need to use thinner strips to level out the wall as you build. I find it useful to insert a large block in odd places to ensure variety ( in the real walls I believe these heavier blocks are inserted to span the wall front to back to build its strength and stability)
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As you can strips of D/sided tape is used between each layer of blocks, and the wall built up.
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When the wall had reached a height I was happy with, in this case a scale 4 feet in 1/35 a layer of very thin blocks were added at the top to provide a reasonably level surface for the coping stones to be then added. I also added a strengthening strip of card on to the rear of the wall.
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Style size and shape of these copping/cap stones appears to be one of the identifiers of the locality.
The finished wall , with gate post added.
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That's it, as I said fairly simple, cheap material and very few tools needed.
Painting details may or may not follow ;)
Smashing little SBS Gordon ............ succinct and easily readable, very good.
Ps .... Local store didn't carry the "pink" space board, but got a lump of the "yellow" foil covered stuff for a fiver. "Ray" the assistant didn't seem to think there was much by way of difference between the two??
Pps ........ will be trying this in the very near future ........... thanks for the time and inspiration.
Wow, this looks really good. I hope that you will show us some painted results???
Chris
Hi Gordon,
thanks, exactly what you have now shown, I've searched the help to me.
Your painting technique would naturally be interested in me.
Great little SBS Gordon. Thanks
Gordon, Thanks for the how-to :) Like you said very cheap and simple....waiting for your next post....on how your going to paint the wall's ;D
When you finish everything, maybe we should publish your tutorial. -- Russ
Could we all stop using words such as "paint" & "finish" please but thanks for the positive feedback
Great little sbs Gordon thanks. Can't wait to see some color on this.
Thanks Gordon, so how does the finish compare to the blue you did for the bridge over troubled waters?
In my ignorance, personnally I would have gone for the blue, but maybe the yellow "pics away" more realistically?
is this 1/35?
Elegant in its simplicity ... excellent results ... clear info with some very useful/practical bits ... many thanks! -- Dallas
Well since Chester hogged all the plaudits for his post, I'll just say I agree. Thanks, I know I will put this to good use at some point.
M
Thank you for explaining Gordon!
I have saved, printed and placed it in the archives.
soul like to try it in 1/16 some day.
Marty
Next installment ................ this one is most definitley NOT an SBS as to how to paint a stone wall but may assist in some things not to do as well as some ideas which if refined may work.
At this stage as i reach for my paint brushes I am always reminded of a quote , I think from a Clint Eastwood film
"son, your brain is writing cheques your body can't cash"
My brain knows what it wants to achieve with paint but my abilities don't match.
Anyway , first stage was to spay the foam with mix made up of Vallejo Black Grey & German Green Brown surface primer......... I wanted/needed a water based paint as the foam does react/dissolve with some chemical thinners.
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This successfully covered & sealed the foam although as noted further on ended up much too dark a undercoat.
As I had used oils on the plaster wall previously and I liked the effect/colour went down this route ..... sponging on a blend of Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna & some plain white
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Now you can see the issue I had with the too dark undercoat, think I thought I was working with a piece where the undercuts were shallow and therefore I would need to emphasise the shadow areas .... this is not the case with a piece built of individual bits.
At least because I was stopping to take photos as I went along, I had time to think about the issue .... normally when it all goes wrong with paint I just keep slapping some more paint on hoping it will fix the problem. Forced dried the oil paint with a h/dryer and then misted on a coat of Dullcoat to seal what I had done so far.
Mixed up a very diluted wash of Light grey oil colour and brushed all over wall making sure that I got it into all the cracks/crevices,. Again forced dried and then using a clean brush lightly dampened with thinner lifted of some of the grey from the rock surfaces so that some of the tonal variation showed through.
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When I was reasonably happy with the effect, again sealed with mist coat of Dullcoat.
I then mixed a variety of thin washes/glazes based again on Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna and also some Sap Green. These glazes were applied to individual stones with some variety added by combining one coloured glaze over another.
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Finally after further drying and sealing I switched to Gouache using a Cool Grey Oxide of Chromium and Cadmium Yellow Deep to try and recreate some of the grey & yellow lichens you see growing on these sort of walls.
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I have tried to blend out the lichens to soften the effect but looking at the last picture still need to soften some more of the areas where it looks a bit too spotty.
The plan is to place wall in a pretty damp location with grasses, rushes & ferns along with some moss, etc hence the strong greenish tinge to lower areas of the wall(really would like to get close to what Per Olav Lund has achieved with his vegetation)
When the vegetation & base is sorted I can do some fine tuning to the colours ......... an advantage in using the Gouache colours is that with a damp brush you can lift /soften the colours very easily.
This has turned out great Gordon. I love the look of the whole wall and in particular the gate post.
Perhaps not an SBS but you can certainly see how your thinking was evolving, and it works very well too. I think this is the sort of task that really does evolve "in the hand" and you can never be really prescriptive about what or how you're going to achieve. Of course you have a direction and an aim but I'm sure it will remain in flux until you call it done?
A small tip if you're of a mind; - Be very careful about using "tube" greens, they are certainly not natural - and wildly overvalued chromatically.
The biggest secret of a landscape painter is that when you have a "bad" green, in order to make it more "natural" you stick a lick of red* in it ......... [*in fine art terms brown qualifies as an "Earth Red"] - so a little of that "Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber" will do very nicely. Do not be tempted to use a pure red like Cadmium or Vermilion as these are opaque and will turn your resulting mix to mud -ironically.
Quote from: Andi Little on April 22, 2012, 10:36:59 AM
A small tip if you're of a mind; - Be very careful about using "tube" greens, they are certainly not natural - and wildly overvalued chromatically.
The biggest secret of a landscape painter is that when you have a "bad" green, in order to make it more "natural" you stick a lick of red* in it ......... [*in fine art terms brown qualifies as an "Earth Red"] - so a little of that "Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber" will do very nicely. Do not be tempted to use a pure red like Cadmium or Vermilion as these are opaque and will turn your resulting mix to mud -ironically.
Thanks Andi, just followed your advice and thats has helped to remove the slightly radioactive green I had before !
Do I take it from your advice that most greens should be mixed from primary colours ?
Very nice Gordon, I now anticipate some outdoor shots with what looks like great coloring.
Quote from: gfadvance on April 22, 2012, 12:57:55 PM
Thanks Andi, just followed your advice and thats has helped to remove the slightly radioactive green I had before !
Do I take it from your advice that most greens should be mixed from primary colours ?
It's a big subject Gordon, and one that you couldn't do justice to in a few short words. But there are some guidlines worth mentioning.
Use "tube" greens only as a tinting medium and try and create your Greens from Blues and Yellows.
For instance if you want a sunny day you would pick a bright yellow such as Cad' [high chroma] Yellow - using only this and mixing it with a selection of blues [Cerulean,Cobalt, Ultra',Indigo,Prussian] would give you a range of "summer" sunlit greens taking in brightly lit through to a deep shadow green - If you were to start with a dull Ochre - [low chroma] Yellow this will give you a selection of "winter" greens within the same sort of light range.
Conversely starting with a bright blue and using all your Yellows [Lemon,Cad',Gamboge,Ochre,Cad'Orange] will give you a similar range of light effects but on a rainy or overcast day..................... etc etc!
It is even possible to represent quite accurately the time of year [season] and even the time of day!!!!!
Whilst "giving it large" during lectures I'd pick on a student and identify their birthday with colour using these theories, but the really "twilight" factor was once they were shown it; 90% of them would exclaim that that was their favourite colour on the chart?? - Never really worked out the science behind that but I deeply suspect we were well into the realms of Synaesthesia [of which I'm a strong synaesthesiat].
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Here's a poor shot of me I managed to find at the chalkface explaining this exact phenomena to a bunch of disinterested pre-grads', you should be able to see what's going on from the pic' as it's fairly obvious that we're working at a retro engineered level of colour identification, it's when you overlay it with a bit of theory, psychology and philosophy that it gets proper interesting.
Gordon it's a massive subject [just this single portion alone would run into several double period lectures] but I hope it's wet your appetite or at least give you cause to think on?
Ps - in true terms a tint is a hue[colour] plus white. Where as a shade is a hue plus black - but of course you NEVER put black into a painting!! .................... I could go on! ::)
Interesting description of your process, Gordon, and a good "save" from the overly dark base. I think it's often helpful to see where something went wrong and how it was corrected.
Andi, your discussion of greens is also quite interesting and I actually learned something new (including how little I know about art considering I spent most of my working life as an illustrator).
Quote from: Ray Dunakin on April 22, 2012, 09:59:26 PM
Andi, your discussion of greens is also quite interesting and I actually learned something new (including how little I know about art considering I spent most of my working life as an illustrator).
Ray ..................... yes I know! Checked out your work [old habits and all that - seriously most excellent-btw]. I was for too many years to remember a "Professore a contratto" or "lowest of the low" reading Fine Art, Psychology and Philosophy, sounds grander than it is.... main task was just to stop students from marauding through the local town for a couple of hours ................ had a bit of a bump that put paid to all that [and a lot of my modelling] so now I just scratch a crust teaching privately - and in a way happier and more content than I've ever been ........... but then again I'm also single now so that could have a lot to do with it??? :o
Thanks for all the very useful info Andi.
No outdoor shots Chester , woke this morning had a look at the wall decided it looked pretty awful & promptly reached for the can of primer......
Time to practice again and try and use some of Andi's advice
Quote from: gfadvance on April 22, 2012, 11:57:39 PM
No outdoor shots Chester , woke this morning had a look at the wall decided it looked pretty awful & promptly reached for the can of primer......
But before I got there Andi had sent an e-mail with some instructions and how to's so some corrections were made.
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I'm still struggling to follow Andi's advice on mixing /sorting out the greens ............. now I need to go and find some SBS on grass & moss making
The grass part is easy .
Frankly , the wall is fine as it is . You will no doubt vegetate the bottom , so much of the green will disappear and you will obviously have lots growing on the top and in the cracks so you need do no more painting . Let nature do the rest !
Gordon,
Excellent effort on the wall construction, with a very useful SBS, which like others, I will happily file the idea for potential future use. This has been one of those little projects where it simply highlights that doing things the hard way, yields a far better result (kind of like you get what you pay for philosophy). As Nick said too, there is a challenge to get the rock work looking as you want it, but consider what will be seen when done, and is the headache neccessary. It will be one of those niggling things, that you know whats hidden under the next layer, but I normally try to wipe those ideas by thinking more about the big picture. That said, I'd be more than happy with the result you have here now.
And Nick, nice island you have growing there!
Cheers,
Dan
Simply looooove it! :-*
M
Gordon, now as a watercolourist and a painter I have to add to the comments that Andi has proffered, "Blue and Yellow don't make green"! I suggest that you pick up a book by the title "Blue and Yellow Don"t Make Green" by Michael Wilcox ISBN 0-89134-622-8 It is very enlightening.
I have been painting now for over 40 years and with watercolour for over 10 I use 2 reds 2 blues 2 yellows and can mix any colour that I need from these 6 pigments.
["Cadmium Red" is biased toward orange Quinacridone Violet is a red that leans toward the violet. "Ultramarine Blue" leans or is biased towards violet. "Cerulean Blue" reflects green as well as blue and is shown pointing towards the green position. "Lemon Yellow" also reflects green. "Cadmium Yellow" is biased towards orange]
There are other schools of thought out there of course and I have had heated arguments with painters over the years. I do think that Michael Wilcox is clear and right regarding the issues of colour though.
http://www.schoolofcolor.com/ (http://www.schoolofcolor.com/)
and here is a great discussion of the issue
http://nitaleland.blogspot.ca/2005/10/urban-myth-blue-and-yellow-dont-make.html (http://nitaleland.blogspot.ca/2005/10/urban-myth-blue-and-yellow-dont-make.html)
so as you can see Gordon the jury is still not out on all this.
My own personal opinion of your drystone wall is that it is a bit too green, but that is just me and my recollections of traveling from Yorkshire to Lancashire as a kid.
and I do paint.
http://www.watercolor-online.com/Articles/Stretching/Stretcher.phtml (http://www.watercolor-online.com/Articles/Stretching/Stretcher.phtml)
they have my address wrong and I have pointed this out but it remains unchanged.
Michael
OH NO! ...................... Wilcox!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
I've had more arguments with my students because they've skipped through or read his bliddy book. You either want to paint - or you want to talk about it!!!!!
Sorry Michael - greatest of respect and all that - but you kind of stepped on one there.
That´s a great looking wall Gordon :o! How about an outdoor picture? Would probably look even better.
Anders