Backdrop at Mason Park Bridge

[Steve]

Gary....I'm going to need you to come over to my house and help me do my backdrop. By "help me", I really mean that you are going to have to do it for me.

Awesome work on the entire scene.............All of it!

[Steamtrains]

Steve...you're fresh out of luck...

Gary is already "booked" to come do mine in a couple of weeks....

[Gary S]

Wow guys, those are some very nice comments! That my work is good enough to be desired by other folks is the best comment ever.

But seriously, if I could do it, I think anyone can.

edit: typo

[P5se Camelback]

That's the attitude, Gary!

... and he's right on with it, too!

All it took was a little thinking ...
... followed by a little doing ...
(with a little practice tucked
in there for good measure.)

Well, O.K. ... It took a bunch of thinking, a whole lot of observation, some more thinking about what was observed, several deep discussion sessions about color theory, perspective and creating the illusion of distance, followed by some reading on the Internet about color and distance and perspective, enough desire to pursue it far enough to make it happen, more observation followed by some concentrated practice, more observation, more practice and then the actual painting of the backdrop, followed by modifying what had been painted, more observation, more modifying, some more observation, a little more reading about color on the Internet, followed by some more experimentation on a separate board, then modifying the backdrop a bit more.

But ... that's all there was to it!

Is that about right, Gary?

[Gary S]

biL, you make that sound like alot of work! But really it has been very fun and satisfying.

All of the suggestions and extra eyes that Big Blue provided certainly played a big role, and I will admit that your input was the fire that made this happen. I very much enjoyed the gentle nudging you gave me, the subtle hints to point me in the right direction, the confidence boosters, and the thought-provoking comments you gave, not only in this thread, but also in the "Woohoo... Time to Build" thread and the "Adventures in Perspective" thread. Also I can't leave out the valuable dialogue in the PMs we shared. Every neophyte artist should be blessed with such a teacher! Not only did we end up with a respectable backdrop scene for those areas, but I also gained a tremendous amount of knowledge about shade and color and light and form and perspective. And backdrop aside, the newfound knowledge is worth the price of admission all by itself!