The cottage has been looking more and more realistic as parts have been finished (well, as realistic as a whimsical and architecturally-unrealistic house can), but it was still sitting on that fluffy cloud of aqua foam. Well, I’m here to tell you that while still humble, the house has the beginnings of an adorably overgrown yard in the English countryside. (I wrote the title then found out there’s a cute Minecraft-related song by the same name…My poor husband keeps trying to get me to play :-P.)
Well, at least it’s not all aqua anymore…
I started with paperclay to fill in the gaps and build up the landscape. Since paperclay doesn’t always stick well to other materials, I brushed Elmer’s glue onto the base to not give it much of a choice. I also added some paperclay stones and stucco mix for texture, sanded, and then it was time to paint.
At this point I realized I had very little idea of what I was doing, so I looked up some tutorials (here and here are a couple of good ones) on miniature scenery from wargamers, since they do some really amazing miniature landscapes. I found that people liked to start with a black base to add depth, followed by layers of dry brushing. Black gesso time again. (Though I chickened out and lightened it a good bit to gray, and I did go back and fill in all those white spots!)
House temporarily located at 1313 Mordor Lane. Ok wargaming people, I’m trusting you…
Next came layering paint to mimic the soil and grass. In three hours, I had this.
Et voila!
I added a couple of tufts of static grass as a preview of what’s to come.
I’m anticipating the static grass to brighten up the landscape, but it’s neat to have some depth with the darker base.
Next time I’ll be getting funky with some electrons!
