Thanks chaps
Right then... Next phase on the new 'Pictish Wilderness' board is painting in all the stone, rock, etc
So we were at this stage...
And now we're at this stage...
Probably most helpful to describe the process in steps:
1. Paint all rock and stone areas in a basecoat of mixed black and white emulsion to make a medium grey, cut with a splosh of khaki VMC - because rock is never really true grey.
2. Once dry, sponge over with a couple of lighter shades of the same mix (gradually adding small amounts of white), to pick up on the raised areas.
3. Drybrush features like the cliff stair, clapper bridge, standing stones, scree etc with a slightly paler mix still to pick up the edges
4. To then tone it all together and knock back the starkness of the drybrushing / sponge stippling, using a big soft brush, drench
the entire board in white spirit, and then drop in VERY thinned amounts of a mix of Payne's Grey / Burnt Umber oil paint, allowing it to pool around the scree and in crevices etc.
5. Once the white spirit has evaporated, leaving the shading behind, go over the whole thing with a small paintbrush and in a lighter stone grey colour, pick out all the little bits and pieces of stone / boulders etc. Sounds tedious, but actually you can do it really quickly. Just a quick dab on every one to make it pop out from the background and lend definition...
6. Finally, using a very thin wash of greeny-yellow-khaki, (like 95%water, 5% paint) just go over the areas of the rock where it should appear weathered - more so near where the rock joins the ground, and closer to water: so the rock near to the river has a distinctly greeny tinge, whereas the rocky areas furthest from the river are almost bone dry and have very little...
Next step - greening with grass and vegetation...