Night diorama

Hi all I hope you are well. I am in the process of constructing a diorama at night time that features a pier over water. This is what I have got so far, I have a miniature that I am going to be placing on the pier but I have not started that yet. What I am looking for is advice on how I can make the water look more realistic. Any other comments are most welcome!

WIP1.jpg
 

Shawn R. L.

New member
Before you get too far, you may want to curve the background/scrim.

As to water, that\'s a tricky beast. It\'s the kind of thing where there isn\'t much to work with other than the smoothness of transitions and the \'fluidity\' of curves. Try to literally copy some of the pictures below and darken/blue them for night......Good luck! Post wip\'s



85101272_769c61a841.jpg


Water-Wave-Painting4.jpg
 
Hi Shawn R. L. , thanks very much for the reply, I shall be revising my water as per your recommendations. Forgive me for asking but what do you mean curve the background - and what is scrim ? do you mean literally bend the card? thanks a lot!
 
Just a quick update, I have attempted the reflection on the water of the moon, let me know what you think and what could be done better, not sure if its good enough myself!

WIP2-1.jpg
 

freakinacage

Well-known member
i think the clouds look a little naff. try darkening them down and thinning them out, blend in the edges more to make them look fluffier. often you can only tell if it\'s cloudy by the lack of stars
 

demonherald

New member
pastels could help for the cloud effect at the back .. Onl having the outlines visible at the side nearest the moon..

also not sure if its a pic issu but the moon currentlylooks a uniform brighter colour in the reflection than the actual moon itself....
 
Hello again Freakinacage, thanks for your comment, on reflection I whole heartedly agree with you with regards to the clouds! I need to do something about them, demonherald - your idea sounds really good, I might try using some pastels with the clouds or I might just remove them entirely. In respect to the reflection, I wish I could say it was a photo issue but (lol) alas it is not and the reflection is in fact brighter than the actual moon! I will work on these things, thanks very much for your help I appreciate it! I will upload a new picture when I have rectified those issues! Cheers ! Any more comments are most welcome!
 

demonherald

New member
water reflections are desperately tricky to capture fully athey have a kind of 3d element to them as sub surface layers also pick up the light.. it may be an idea to try a darker \"light colour \" if that makes sense first , paint a layer of varnish or thinned paint depending what your using to get a watery effect. Then paint a lighter layer slightly offset from the previous one an top.... I think that makes sense if not just ignore me ...
 

Shawn R. L.

New member
A scrim is a backdrop (just an excuse to use a ten cent word!!) and curving it takes away the corner (obvioulsly) and thus the look that the sky has a huge crease running down it. Too, the night sky here on earth is never truely black. On a moonlit night a very deep blue would work much better. An airbrush would help this VERY MUCH.
 
ok, great. Thanks a lot for the advice all, I shall get to it! I will post some new pics when I have made progress. I know this diorama is far from perfect, but its my first attempt (perhaps I threw myself in at the deep end a bit) at a diorama. Thanks again!
 
Hi all, I have dulled the clouds and the reflection of the moon. I have also added my mini into these pictures so let me know (she is meant to be a ghost) if you can think of any ways I can improve on this:

WIP31.jpg


WIP32.jpg


Many thanks!
 

NGArtStudios

New member
This is coming along very well in my opinion. I love the ghost idea. Only thing I am not too big on is the tree in the background there. It looks way too static, also it seems to be thicker on top as apposed to the bottom.
 
Great, thanks for the input all, I see what you mean about the tree (its a real twig BTW) NGArtStudios. I might go out into the garden and fetch another! Im thinking that her producing light would be great too, but I am not exaclty sure on how to go about it, any advice ?
 

NGArtStudios

New member
Hehe, I figured that\'s a real twig. Only thing really bugging me about it is that it seems thicker on top than at the bottom, something that is not really characteristic of tress.

The light production here can be very tricky and if not done properly it won\'t look right. I don\'t have much experience with it, but what I can recommend is make sure you start working it up with, very, very diluted paint so that it retains a translucency of sort to see the original color of the object that the glow is hitting. (In this case the dock.)

Also one last thing, and this is more a personal preference rather than anything being wrong with it. The ghost herself, maybe give her a couple of black washes. Then go ahead and go over with the white paint as if u were high lighting her, only in the most raised of areas. That way when you take the pic (which I am sure you will be trying to take in as dark an environment as you can), she will stand out so much more adding to that glow effect you are trying to achieve.

All in all, as I said before this is coming out great, really looking forward to see the end result, just get rid of that dang twig! :)
 
great, thanks a lot all of you, I shall repost some more pics when I am parted with that twig, its bugging me too now since NGArtStudios pointed out the flaw!
 

freakinacage

Well-known member
Originally posted by majestic0110
great, thanks a lot all of you, I shall repost some more pics when I am parted with that twig, its bugging me too now since NGArtStudios pointed out the flaw!
good! it\'s a good thing that you are seeking to improve so actively!
 
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