Friday, May 29, 2020

Fun with Backdrops

So a short post this week, but this has been one I've been wanting to publish for awhile. For a proper Oldhammer photograph, you need a proper old school backdrop!

Ol' Joe Kennedy and his boys


I had a backdrop that I had made previous with my airbrush and some acrylic paints. But it wasn't quite the mood or the detail I wanted to look proper old-school. 

Thankfully, I got the chance to take a Bob Ross painting class with Robert Kingery (learn more at his website). He normally does classes for veterans, but he's a bog nerd too, so he offered to run the class for us. He's a great dude!


I even made sure to bring along some inspiration to give me ideas!


In the Bob Ross method, you have to paint wet oils on top of other wet oils so that they blend automatically. While not everyone's favorite look, it is ideal for Warhammer backdrops because it makes everything a little softer, as if it's out of focus, and doesn't distract from the models. As you can see, like all landscapes, you start with the horizon lines.


After the horizon, I added the mountains and the the background trees, as well as leaving space for a water feature.



And here I've added the happy little trees! Oh, and finished everything else off too. 


While I'm definitely a nerd, I'm not the only nerd who did this! I am very happy with mine, but some of the others did amazing work, as you can see. I am pretty sure I used too much magic white, which made mine even softer around the edges. But, for a backdrop, that's not a big deal. If you have a chance to take a class like this, it was a blast and I highly recommend it!

The undead attack an adventure's camp

13 comments:

  1. Oh man! I've been fantasizing about attacking this project for myself now, for years! It's finally on my short list (2 projects away). This is great inspiration. I wonder do you feel competent now to go ahead and make a dozen more? Great work!

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    1. I do, because most of the techniques are pretty simple. The only reason I've held off is because I was planning on moving this summer and I didn't want to buy all the supplies i'd need and risk damaging them in the move. With the way that 2020 has gone though, I probably should have!

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  2. Lovely painted background, the army rocks even more!

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  3. looks fantastic. i’m bummed that i missed it

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  4. Wow!! This is the bussiness! You took backdrops to another level. This is fantastic, I love it. :O

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    1. Thanks! I can't wait until I get to have a permanent set up so I can take tons of photos in front of it!

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  5. Little Happy Accidents haha... Love the banner 🤓

    Nice canvas BTW oils are a blessing... I took classes with nude people posing, you know, graphite sketching and such but never got to tackle oils outside the miniature world.

    Artsy stuff was fresh for the very 1st lessons then it was more like homework. Produce and get a rating so I flew away from that.

    You should paint a smaller grittier one (undead-wise).

    I'm still waiting for those other 5 half-written posts dude ;)

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    1. In my mind I've got at least three more I want to do, one more gothic and craggy, suitable for undead, a desert wasteland, and the other a 40k shit hole cityscape. I just have to get moved first.

      And I've now finished two of them but I can't flood the market, I have to post them slowly 😂

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