So. I decided to paint the cavern a brown base, lighter brown and then light beige highlights with some lighter dashes of a tan.
The pool will be the tricky part. I want to fill it with a Clear epoxy, and for it to be clear enough to see thru to the bottom of the pool of water.
I plan on basing the bottom with a Brown like the rest of the piece. and they layer a few shades of blue around the bottom and up the sides. The floor of the pool will have some dark green and lighter green shades brushed throughout.
I started with a base coat on the 2x2 tile.
I added a second coat of a lighter color brown but it’s almost imperceptible.
I dry brushed a tan beige next and then lined the edges of the cavern tops with a white line. The last step was a blackwash, which afterwards I decided muted the piece too much so I lightly dry brushed another off white.
My conclusion after this is the piece doesn't have enough color, doesn't need the layers of brown color and is over dry brushed With the off white.
I like the subdued white line on the edges on one wide, and the black wash. A fair start to deciding how these should be painted.
The 4x4 piece is in the next gallery.
The base coat is a dark brown.
I jumped right into a light wet brushing of a few of the tiles with an orangish pumpkin, and a brown oxide.
I lined most of the tiles with a white line for shading And then dry brushed it with an off white tannish light color again And then took a picture of the 2x2 piece that was black-washed next to it, and immediately decided to blackwash the 4x4 tile.
Conclusion, I like the piece better without the heavy dry brush. Oops. I LIKE the additional color and the bold look of the brown and light pumpkin without the dry brush. I like the blackwash, of course, too.
it adds a nice depth, it mutes the white line, and darkens the piece Nicely.
Ok the 6x6 pool.
The most challenging piece last. Not only will it use a similar brown base but it has a pool. I decided at the last moment to abandon my original plan to use green and brown and blue and just went with blue for the pool.
I test poured some of the envirotex into the cut bottom of a painted 6oz plastic cup to see how the colors would look and almost immediately decided it was the wrong medium for the water. It needs to be clearer In my opinion. This helped confirmed the decision on just to use the blue.
The first layer was the same dark brown. I then used the pumpkin orange, beige and added some spots with a nutmeg brown, which should stand out better than the brown oxide after its dry brushed.
The next step was highlighting the edges with a white line, and drybrushing and black wash.
In between those steps a royal blue went into the base of the pool, and an Agean Blue went around the top of the pool. Afterwards as the last touch a Blue Water went around the area between the bottom and top of the pool to blend the two shades.
So far my conclusion was the lighter drybrush wasn‘t enough to mute the white shaded highlights, or it was too poorly executed. Ugh. BUT the real reason I wanted to see this piece painted was to see how the 1” sides of the base painted and looked. This was the heart of the experiment.
I decided the sides needed another color other than the dark brown after looking closer. The 1/4” bases look FINE with just a dark brown and lighter drybrush, but not the face of the 1” base. So I added splotches of the nutmeg brown, and dry brushed it again.
The sides and pool received a dose of blackwash as well.
But the piece isn’t done until the pool is filled. And that is what’s next. I’ve set aside the envirotex test aside to cure over the next 4-6 hours and I’ll wait on that, but it presents a couple challenges. First is my workshop is a plaster workstop, and is impossibly filled with dust. I can see a couple specs of dust on top of the test already. Second mixing the envirotex and pouring it in one pour even to just the depth of 3/4 an inch leaves quite a lot of small tiny bubbles throughout the layer. So. This pool requires another solution, which will take more time than anticipated. *grumble*
I could pour it in smaller layers. I could use a different material, which I have. A polyeurethane gloss coating. Hmm And I could pour it downstairs in a less dust filled environment. More on this later. I am releasing this blog and reserving the right to post about how I solve filling the pool for a later post. The Goblin Tinker
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