12-05-2009, 03:04 PM
Far, I am in complete agreement with your assessment of colors. The layouts you mentioned, including Kurt's, typically use lighter shades for coloring. Another layout that comes to mind is DocWayne's. My taste is for the lighter colors.
I think one of the reasons for my attraction to the lighter colors is that generally our layout rooms do not have enough light to mimic the amount or quality of natural sunlight. Therefore, the darker colors are just too dark and seem to give off a "down in the darkest recesses of the basement" kind of a feel. Your layout looks good. Please share more!
Even though I know that "lighter is better," it is often difficult to execute, especially when weathering because black washes are such an important part. It is incumbent upon us to start our base colors in lighter shades than we think. I was reading an article by an artist who also did various types of models, and his method was to use a cream colored paint that he mixed into every color that he used. This had the effect of making the colors "fit" together and the final black washes to bring out the details did not overly darken the final outcome.
Another thing we have to overcome is that much of our pre-decorated stuff is really dark. For example, I am looking at an Accurail Chessie System boxcar sitting on my workbench and the factory blue paint, while perhaps matching the prototype, is way too dark for modeling.
While I am certainly no expert in any of this, neither the theory or the execution, I believe that it is better to start out too light than to start out too dark. It is easier to take something that is too light and make it darker than to take something that is too dark, and make it lighter.
I think one of the reasons for my attraction to the lighter colors is that generally our layout rooms do not have enough light to mimic the amount or quality of natural sunlight. Therefore, the darker colors are just too dark and seem to give off a "down in the darkest recesses of the basement" kind of a feel. Your layout looks good. Please share more!
Even though I know that "lighter is better," it is often difficult to execute, especially when weathering because black washes are such an important part. It is incumbent upon us to start our base colors in lighter shades than we think. I was reading an article by an artist who also did various types of models, and his method was to use a cream colored paint that he mixed into every color that he used. This had the effect of making the colors "fit" together and the final black washes to bring out the details did not overly darken the final outcome.
Another thing we have to overcome is that much of our pre-decorated stuff is really dark. For example, I am looking at an Accurail Chessie System boxcar sitting on my workbench and the factory blue paint, while perhaps matching the prototype, is way too dark for modeling.
While I am certainly no expert in any of this, neither the theory or the execution, I believe that it is better to start out too light than to start out too dark. It is easier to take something that is too light and make it darker than to take something that is too dark, and make it lighter.
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