Thursday, November 1, 2012

FUN WITH PAPER - Part 9

I've finished all the brick paper work on my free-lanced backdrop structure and have started messing around with the windows.  I thought things looked pretty good, but viewing the photos I'm going to post here I'm not so sure.
Brick arches applied on top of brick sheet
But, first, before I begin with the windows, the Scale Scene window textures comes with brick arches to match the cut outs.  I printed these on regular paper, cut them out, and then glued them on top of the brick sheet over the windows using a glue stick.
Windows printed out on clear acetate
The Scale Scenes windows are designed to be printed on clear overhead projector plastic.  This stuff isn't cheap so it was an expensive risk to see if it would work.  My wife used a laser printer to print the window mullions.  The problem is that for a background flat something needs to be done to obscure the glass.  Usually I will just paint the backdrop black where the structure is going, but this only looks right for a 3-dimensional window frame.  Using the printed frames it will just look all black.  I tried some printed photos of factory interiors first, but then settled on whitewashing the windows from being.  This was common in factories to prevent workers from looking out and to improve diffused lighting inside.   I dusted the backs of the windows with a flat white spray paint and then put a piece of tannish grey pastel paper over that.  It looked good on the layout, but in the photos the whitewash looks to bright and uniform so I might have to adjust that.
Windows attached and then pastel paper over
Too bright?



1 comment:

FMB said...

in the past I've used photoshop to grab the windows and then recolour them. Cost a little more for a colour lazer but you get to choose a more contract colour. On the scalescenes site their is also a a file called grime.pdf it can be printed on transparency and give you the effect your'e looking for