Painting a Realistic Mountain Diorama - Intermediate Tutorial |Don Suratos aka DC23

UPDATE 11-22-09: Painting the dio

Ello guys now it's time to paint the dio...First pic showing the unpainted dio, I let this dry under the sun for one whole afternoon...

Once dried I painted it with Bosny Flat Black ( industrial grade spraycan ) to seal the tissue mache and paint the black base at the same time...

Next, I gave it a base coat of cheap acrylic (reeves )...basically a mixture of yellow ochre and light gray. I also smudged browns while the base paint is still wet...

Then I drybrushed the same color with white...notice that I drybrushed a pure white acrylic on the edges...

Next up, detail painting of the small rocks with gundam markers ( lazy to use a small brush )...the detail painting deminishes the monotone look of the groundwork, this is a very important step, unless you want a very amateur looking dio....I think you guys know what I mean...

Now, giving it some enamel washes of flat earth then flat brown...notice that I gave the recessed areas more flat brown washes to further highlight the raised areas of the cliff...not amateur looking now don't you think?

Then I added grass effects with white glue...will need to let this dry overnight though, thus I cannot finish this tutorial...

I will update maybe tomorrow...once the grass has dried and repainted with drybrushing and a few final enamel washes....Anyways here are close up pics of the painting process...

Base color with smudges of a secondary base color...

drybrushing with a lighter tone and with white on the edges...

detail painting with gundam markers white and black...

enamel washes...

grass effects that has yet to dry...

The grass stuff I got from an art shop mixed with white glue...will paint the grass effects once dried so that it won't look like a crammed student project.hihihi

I will continue this post soon...however the dio is roughly 85% done....will paint it further with drybrushing and enamel washes and also do dust effects with my AB soon.

UPDATE 11-23-09: diorama is 99% done...

Hello again guys finished the diorama today...the grass + glue mixture has dried overnight so I gave it some enamel wash, blended it to the ground with green acrylic paint and drybrushed it with a lighter tone of green...the drybrushing brings out the texture of the grass, thus eliminating the neon green looking look if you just glue it to the ground. ;b

Here are some pics of the dio, notice how I blended the grass to the groundwork...

Before the grass was painted, it looks ok but rather bland...

Now here are pics after blending it to the groundwork and some enamel washes and drybrushing, notice the difference! ;)

Now, I added the battle damaged Guncannon to the scene, I just gave the GC some enamel washes and some pastel work...and also I gave it a semi-gloss finish so that it would have a more metallic feel to it in contrast to the flat groundwork...Now this is 99% done already, once I installed the Zaku, I will just have to AB some dust effects of the Zaku's feet and some areas of the Guncannon. Anyways, here are some pics...