Twilight Scenery XI

Still WIP, but a lot more progress on the additional building on the other end of the bridge. I am still putting off painting wood grain on all the exposed beam work... not looking forwards to that!

(Remember you can click the pics for a much closer view!)

I WILL FINISH THIS BY SALUTE!

EDIT : A few hours later....

I finally plucked up courage to begin the frankly ludicrous job of wood graining all the exposed beams...

The objective with the wood is to get away from the often seen "very brown" wood colour. that looks like the wood has been stained and varnished to within an inch of its life. I wanted to capture a hint of the dull greyness of bleached out wood, and a little greenness to try and emphasise the organic nature of the buildings. (I tried a test with various more pronounced greys and hated the contrast with the stucco colour.)

So I decided on this drab shade (Foundry triad 12). I also wanted to show the grain of the material (Mike and I discussed for a while whether the beam work would be wooden or stone, having chosen wood I wanted to show that unequivocally). Also I hoped that the highlight would also lend a hint of that weathered wood colour. My painting style errs towards being somewhat cartoon- and caricature-like, so I'm looking for the impression of wood at games table distances rather than detailed realistic wood. ( a little like the slates I showed in an earlier post.)

What do you think?

• Do the colours work?
• Is the grain over done?
• Does the grain add to or detract from the model?

Any of you expert wood painters out there - I'd love some pointers.

B