A wash of Raw Sienna gives the tan river bottoms a nice mottled appearance |
A 50/50 water-to-paint wash of Timberline Green has been added on the above piece. The lower piece shows what it looked like prior to this step. |
In the picture above, you can see what it looked like after I added the wash of Timberline Green. This color can best be described as a light olive drab. I watered down this one down to a 50/50 ratio because I wanted more coverage than the Raw Siena, but still wanted it to be transparent so you can see the shades of brown on the bottom through it. As expected, it covers up more of the Raw Sienna wash than the Bambi Brown base coat -- which sticks to the raised areas of the latex representing ripples. However, in person, you can still see portions of the darker brown showing through. So far, so good on my layering method! Remember, this was all seat-of-the-pants experimenting...I wasn't sure if this would give me the look I wanted. It seemed to make the most sense, though.
In the above photo, the final layer has been applied. I went back and put a Timberline Green (the first, lighter olive drab color) dry brush onto the raised portions of the latex river section. As you can see, it definitely lightens the surface back up. If you click on the image for the larger photo, you should be able to see all four colors in portions. Am I happy with this? I'd have to say yes. I said I wanted a muddy greenish-brown river, and this fits the bill, I think. This color of river can be found all over the world, so I'll be able to use it not only as a jungle river, but in North America, Europe -- you name it.
Stage Two -- painting the river surface -- was probably the most technically demanding. I had to think about the layers I was applying and analyze the effects of successive layers of washes. I had to project what effect each would have on the combined look, and was essentially doing a lot of guesswork. The biggest challenge was that I had to have the browns on the bottom, so to speak, with the greens on top. However, since all were washes, they would leave that original solid layer of tan on the wavelets. That was solved by topping it all off with a green dry brush.
Stage Three would probably involve the most drudgery -- and time. I wanted to flock the edges of the latex river sections and merge them with the felt base I glued each piece onto. I am definitely going to need more white glue for this! Felt is a "thirsty" material and will likely absorb a lot of it.
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