Figure Painting

Painted the swagman. Well, the first coat anyway. Took a photo with the iPhone and cropped it in close. There are a couple of bits that I need to fix up - not to mention paint some boots. 

He is attached by a tiny blob of blu-tac to a scrap piece of dowel.

 Until next time.

Planted It.

Twenty days between posts? Anyone would have thought that I was on holidays, or been slack, or been working on something else. Or all of the above. I've spent a bit of time on the extension of Billabong Marina. I'll need to write something up about that.

Here is where I left the tree.

The next step was to paint the bark a lighter colour. A look out the window showed that a beige would be suitable.

It was hand painted and left to dry. As it was a little bit shiny, I gave it a coat of matte varnish.

When that dried, I sprayed the ends of the branches with a spray on adhesive. I normally paint the ends with PVA glue and dip the tree into a container of ground foam for the leaves before spraying hair spray over the whole lot. 

However, I was recently told that spray on adhesive was better.

It is.

I built up with a couple of sprays and sprinkling on the ground foam. I did have to wipe of some foam which attached to branches and the trunk where I didn't want leaves. 

Next, I drilled a hole and glued it in. This was followed with some leaf litter from leaves and small sticks ground up in a blender. The leaf litter was placed around the base of the tree and glued in place with a 1:3 mix of matte Mod Podge and water, with a drop of dishwashing liquid.

I'm not sure that a gum tree would be this close to an oil depot but this is a compact layout. 

Now for the jolly swagman.