The Foreground.

I’m hesitant. A lot can and will go wrong with the foreground, primarily when it comes to the color and texture of the mountains and hill. I don’t and am unable to get the original model mountains here to make sure everything is right…and it scares me. I’ve got photographs of it, thanks to the gentleman who hired me to paint this…lighting can change so much between one place and another. So…again…I’m hesitant, but will push forward.

And it only goes to show the lack of confidence I have in myself. And in reading my sister’s blog, I can see there are times she feels the same way concerning everyday trials…raising a family for the most part. And yet, she has the awe inspiring ability to stand up in front of a large group of people to sing her heart out…something I can only manage to do as long as I’m hiding amongst a choir of other people. I’m deathly afraid of being singled out, the center of attention in front of a large audience. I remember peeing my pants on stage when I played a wizard in the Beauty and the Beast production for a small kids theater group we had; not to mention I had a hard time remembering my lines. From that point on, I’ve been convinced that I am incapable of memorizing anything. How I managed through a student written play during my senior year in high school is beyond me. I still don’t know how I agreed to perform it on stage, I would have been happier with a rinky-dink video recording of it.




But yes…I lack confidence in myself. The foreground terrifies me, and I’m scared to move forward. And there are other times I’m so confident in myself…I can’t figure out how to get back there. I suppose there’s just no forcing it on yourself…is there?

Experimenting is an important factor as well. Any good artist must be willing to experiment with their materials. Me…this is the second time I’ve used the aqua oil set I bought myself earlier to help explain to customers what it’s like. So much for that…I can honestly say it’s got the same consistency and feel for regular oils, but mixes well with watercolors and doesn’t require any of the solvents and mediums used to lengthen or hasten the drying process, nor to thin out the paint or clean your brushes. All you need is water. It’s refreshing in comparison to the company’s acryla-gauge, which is basically their solution to making acrylic paint less shiny/plasticy when it dries. Which is all fine and dandy until you realize that the glob of paint on your palette doesn’t remoisten after it has dried…SO not fun and a major waste of paint when you don’t know this.






I finally opted to go with a textured look…blending of colors to give it the right feel for the scheme, but not in any way attempting to try and match up the rockwork that will seem more detailed in the actual mountain model. Without the actual model here to compare and line up it’s the best I believe I can do. Besides, I would want more focus on the model layout itself than on the background, considering that’s the major work that got put into it by the man that built it! I even boldly went as far as to add whisks of grey into the background mountains…which I might add…helps to unify them with the foreground mountains.





But do you want to know what he said when I sent him these last couple of images above, to show him how I was doing…?

"The panels look wonderful. I wouldn't change a thing. I'm very pleased."

Commence ear splitting squealing!