Yeah! Just what I was waiting for!

Like a little kid.

Rick, you'll have to post pictures of your new backdrop.

Dumb Question for Lynn or other artist.

What does an untrained, non artist do for an horizon line when the town (layout) elevation is 6000 feet with a 14000 foot mountain as your back ground?  I have a couple of photos where they portray the perspective I want with the foothills of the 14000 footer provides a raising combinations of the flood plain with meadow moving into the steeper slope of the foothills and the sky is never visible.  In real life the modeled location is about 2 miles from the foothills.

For what it is worth, yes, I am an engineer and this being the Rockies, there are very few trees on the slopes because of the steepness of the slopes.  While parts 1 and 2 were great, I was waiting for part 3 to get the "meat" I needed for my layout.  I am not even planning on showing the ridgelines of the mountains.  I have an 18 inch wide shelf layout with the backdrop being 24 inches high.

Thanks

Ken, you are correct! I like

Tom, I had previously posted

Like anything, break it down

The trick with backdrops, like anything we model, you break it down into simpler pieces. If you are going to build a structure, for instance, you don't try think of doing the whole thing all at once - you build the windows, the doors, the roof, the walls - you take it a piece at a time, and then you put the final result together to get the whole. That way you get something you can build.

Same with painting a backdrop - break it down a piece at a time. Do the sky first, then the clouds, then the hills, then the trees and details. With painting learn to think of things in terms of lights and darks - with the result being you can make something flat look 3 dimensional. Darks make the thing move away from you, while lights bring it toward you.

Take this desert mountain range image:

To paint this, simplify it down into lights and darks, and then paint what you see. Unless you are already experienced at painting from your minds eye, I recommend you paint from photos so you have a guide to work from, just like you work from a prototype when modeling.

I like to use Photoshop's pen drawing filters to turn a photo into a simplified B&W image so I can see the lights and darks in a more obvious way. Here's the above photo done this way in Photoshop:

Notice the "strokes" that are going at about a 60 degree angle, and also notice the dark patterns. Now you just paint the dark patterns you see, stroking the brush at a 60 degree angle. Then come back in and paint the lighter colors in the lighter areas, again at a 60 degree angle like shown.

Using this method simplifies the process down and keeps you following a real scene instead of just making it up out of your head. Unless you are already skilled at painting scenery, making stuff up generally results in a scene that looks just that - totally fake and unnaturally made up.

Hope this helps. The key with painting is to remember you're taking a flat surface and trying to make it look 3D using light and dark colors. Using Photoshop to simplify your guide photos into simple pen-and-ink type drawings, you get something simple where you just copy the lights and darks - and the end result should look pretty good. Ideally, practice a little first on some scrap board painted sky blue to get the hang of it.

The farther back you want something to look the more sky blue you need to mix into the color. Take your hill gray brown, for instance, and mix in some sky blue to tone it down and make it look more distant. As you paint from back to front in your scene, use less and less sky blue in the colors to make them look closer.

As for the horizon line, make the top of the highest peak no higher than the tip of your nose: it's just that easy. A little lower doesn't hurt if you plan to take a lot of track level photos of your layout.

Young at heart

"I like to think of myself as young at heart, but sometimes my wife says I'm childish ."

Growing old is mandatory.  Growing up is optional!

Sky blue paint

I have followed along through

I have followed along through Video #3, and am now at a section of my layout where I would except to see the tops of buildings showing through the treeline.  Any chance Chris or others could touch on how to represent distant buildings?

And, because I model late Fall, I would like hints on "bare trees", and not the Fleetwood Mac album.

Thanks!

Quick suggestion, Milt - use

Quick suggestion, Milt [trying to avoid a hijack here] - use a large brush to mass your trees, pick out only a few trunks and branches.  Sharp brushes for buildings, but 'lose' some of those hard edges.

Chapter 4 on painting backdrop trees has been posted!

Go to the TMTV site to see more ...

Remember - MRH subscribers save 20%, just check the Feb bonus downloads page for the coupon code (only good for month of Feb).