Creating woodland or forest groundwork Part 4

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pgarri27

A Fixture
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
840
Location
Atlanta GA
Now its time to make the tree. Begin by giving the Bayardi tree trunk a coat of primer. When the primer is dry, paint the tree with an acrylic paint using a color that is close to the color of the type of tree you want to represent. Most trees are a brownish gray color. Look at real trees, or google pictures of them.

42 tree trunk drilled and pinned.jpg
Figure 42 base tree painted with primer and holes pinned for tree limbs
Now add limbs to the tree. I like to add 3 or 4 limbs to the trunk. Pick out some roots/twigs to use as tree branches to support the tree foliage. Some interesting shapes can be found in the roots. If your tree is going to have leaves, a piece of root that does not have pieces branching off of it will work best with Silfor leaves, as the limb will be pushed through the leaves. You can add limbs to the limbs to increase the amount of places where leaves can be added. Use a pair of cutters to trim the roots to the length you want.
43 roots to be used as tree limbs.jpg
Figure 43 roots to be used for limbs
Add the branches to the tree. For larger limbs, I will pin them to the trunk. For smaller limbs, I will just drill a hole in the trunk and insert the limb into the hole.
Glue the limbs onto the trunk using a mixture of the base acrylic paint used on the tree (brownish grey) and matte gel medium. For larger limbs where more gel is used, I will use a pointed tool to make indentions in the gel representing bark.
44 gel medium with acrylic paint.jpg
Figure 44 gel medium with acrylic paint for attaching limbs
45 tree with limbs attached.jpg
Figure 45 tree with limbs attached
When you have your tree in the general shape you like, finish painting the tree.Some roots will look natural enough as branches that they can be left as found, and others will need a coat of the base paint. Once the entire tree with limbs is glued together, and painted with the base color, and dry, then go over all of it with a thin wash of the Sepia oil paint, getting it down into the recesses of the bark. Let the wash dry, then dry brush the bark with yellow ochre paint. I prefer oil paint over acrylic for this step, but either will work just as well.
46 tree with sepia wash.jpg
Figure 46 tree with sepia wash
47 tree with yellow ochre dry brushing.jpg

Figure 47 tree dry brushed with yellow ochre

That's it for the tree for now. I'll add more to it after the Celluclay.
 


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