Thanks, Bill kay4pacific@aol.com
.com
Modeling water
- Thread starter K4Pacific
- Start date
Thanks, Bill kay4pacific@aol.com
.com
Hi Bill, Welcome to The Gauge.
First off, unless your harbour is next to a glacier or has most of it's river inflow being fed from a glacier, your water should not be blue. The blue that you see when you stand next to a body of water is due to the reflection of the sky color on a sunny day.
If you stand at the same spot on a cloudy day, the water will reflect the same color as the sky: Grey.
If you fly over a body of water, you will notice that it looks black at the deeper parts, and lightens to a brown color, becoming lighter as you get closer to the shore.
This is due to the fact that water tends to absorb light and the deeper the water is, the less light is reflected back to you.
BTW, glacier fed lakes and rivers are full of silt which shows as a blue color.
Clear acrylics will let the base color show through with no problem and rippled water is best achieved (in my experiance anyway), by applying a coat of acrylic gel medium, gloss medium (both available at art supply stores) or with Woodland Scenics Water Effects with a medium sized fan brush dabbed on at an angle to build up peaks and ripples.
they are white when they are applyed but dry clear.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!
Terry
First off, unless your harbour is next to a glacier or has most of it's river inflow being fed from a glacier, your water should not be blue. The blue that you see when you stand next to a body of water is due to the reflection of the sky color on a sunny day.
If you stand at the same spot on a cloudy day, the water will reflect the same color as the sky: Grey.
If you fly over a body of water, you will notice that it looks black at the deeper parts, and lightens to a brown color, becoming lighter as you get closer to the shore.
This is due to the fact that water tends to absorb light and the deeper the water is, the less light is reflected back to you.
BTW, glacier fed lakes and rivers are full of silt which shows as a blue color.
Clear acrylics will let the base color show through with no problem and rippled water is best achieved (in my experiance anyway), by applying a coat of acrylic gel medium, gloss medium (both available at art supply stores) or with Woodland Scenics Water Effects with a medium sized fan brush dabbed on at an angle to build up peaks and ripples.
they are white when they are applyed but dry clear.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!
Terry
I've been pleased with the effects of acrylic gloss medium. Color might be a personal choice. How about painting a scrap piece of wood that dark blue color and experimenting with gloss medium to see if you like the results?
Ralph
Ralph
N
nachoman
there was a kalmbach book called "scenery tips and techniques" that covered water pretty well. I am not sure if it is still in print. Coloration is personal choice and expect it to take experimentation, and plenty of mixing. Study real water objectiely. People have a tendancy to want to make water "blue" and grass "green" when in fact neither may be correct. If I were doing it, I would first put down something over the plywood to help smooth the grain. Maybe a thin piece of masonite or linoleum. Or you could try joint compound. Next, I would put down several coats of white, flat latex paint - maybe with a roller to hide brush marks. Artist's gesso could also be used for this. For painting the water, I would use artist tube acrylic paints. But then again, I paint as a hobby and this is natural to me. Small bottles of craft paint would also work well - they are cheap and come in many colors. I would buy many colors of blues, browns, tans, greens, and experiment. I think a 1" brush would probably work best - and take extra care to blend the colors well along the shore. natural waterways don't often have abrupt changes in color, except when the sediment load changes do to river input. For the gloss - I am sure someone at an art supply store could point you to a high-build gloss medium that you could kinda "stipple" on to represennt waves. For really choppy water, you could stipple the waves, drybrush the crests lightly with white, and then apply more gloss.
kevin
kevin
There was an article in RMC a couple of years ago where the fellow talked about using clear silicone for making waterfalls and rapids. He spread the silicone on a plastic sheet and kept brushing it until it dried. When he peeled the silicone and mounted it on his layout, he ended up with a realistic likeness of falling water.
Someone else posted some pics here a year or two ago using Christmas tree "Angel Hair" and it made a dandy water fall.
Here is a link to a thread in the Acadamy: http://www.the-gauge.com/thread5611-water-poured-its-a-river.html
