Kevin, the paints are the big bottles from Hobby Lobby and walmart. Hobby Lobby has "Anita's All Purpose Acrylic" paint and Walmart has Apple Barrel. The colors in the big bottles are pretty limited, so I bought a bunch of colors and then mixed my own shades, most notably olive greens which I made by mixing greens and browns. Of ocurse, light green with light brown yields a light olive, dark with dark makes dark. Also involved some yellow for making a "highlight" green, white added makes a muted pastel color, dark gray or black added makes dark colors, go sparingly on black because it goes a long way. I am also using regular latex wall paint left over from the sky, the dark shade from the top and the lightest shade from the bottom. The blues can be mixed with the olive greens to make a "far away" color for distant trees.
I spent several hours on mixing the colors I felt appropriate, pouring them into "lunch meat containers" to mix the paints, and used a funnel to put them back in the bottles. Now, when using these colors, I still mix them together on the pallet to get what I want, plus I am using probably 50% as washes, like if they were water colors, but undiluted, the paint is thick enough to use an "oil" technique.
Really, for me to get the most out of this as possible, I should by the acrylic tube paints, and mix the colors as I am painting. I did buy some tube acrylics just to play around with, and it was fun making greens by mixing yellows and blues.
The brushes shown are the main ones I am using. Fine point, round stippling, flat, these came from Hobby Lobby and come in a pack of four for 4 bucks. I really like these brushes, they hold their shape well, and the proice is right. They are "Crafter's Choice" by Royal Brush Company. This week, the brushes were on sale for half price, so I bought probably 25 packages of various types and sizes. Actually, I use these brushes and the craft paints for painting everything on my railroad... well, the occasional primer job from a Home Depot spray can.
The mechanical pencils and straight edges and level are used to draw straight lines were needed, on the bridge and the buildings. I do use the pencils to add tree trunks and limbs after the paint is done. They can even be used to add additional shading if needed. Now, the graphite does reflect if the light is at the right angle, but it isn't a problem with my layout. Check it out from all angles before using the pencils.
I gotta say again that biL has been a tremendous help and inspiration. He got me on the right track by making me think about what I was doing. And through him I discovered that painting is as much about rendering proper shadow and light as it is about color.
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