Background Gums

This morning I have been working on some background trees to help merge from the 2-d background to the 3-d realm of scenery. A while a go I found in Spotlight these bunches of brushy plants used for bouquets  and home decoration. They were a beautiful pinky purple colour, but the dried flower heads formed a nice shape like a gum trees canopy and there was enough overlay to stems to create and illusion of depth. So with a bit of spray paint, and fine ground foam, this is the result. See notes below.

I sprayed the pieces of bunch with some manor red to tone down the pinky colour.

There are some dried sedum heads pn the bench as well. Design Master colours available from florist supplies give some good Australian greens.

The finished trees after spraying the trunks with an off white tannish spray. I created a simple paper mask to spray through so the green wasn't overly effected.

 

The trees added in behind clumped ground foam and the foreground cliff and the backdrop. They give a good illusion of depth and are simple and airy enough to indicate dense foliage on a mountainside.

Moving back with the camera and adding some other props allows me to get an idea of how forced perspective is going.

And it doesn't take very long at all and you can cover territory quickly.