ocean surface photo tutorial paper and oats

[sargentx]

Regardless of how you make your initial sea sculpt, the wave surface is its own issue. In the past I've used oat and CA to make an ocean sculpt, but prefer styrofoam these days. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=155661
Either way, I'm left with a rough surface that needs to be dealt with. If I want thousands of wavelets, this is one way that I might go about doing it. The look is distinctly different than something you can do with a brush and some kind of textural medium.

The principle is simple: You use paper or paper towel bits to cover a lumpy surface (such as oats, coarsely carved foam etc.). The paper bridges the texture and after a few layers of acrylic medium and some light sanding, the final surface appears smooth, undulating and naturalistic.

Here I am using paper towel. For a different look, I've also been using torn up regular copy paper as it hides the oat texture even more. My Huron diorama as well as the Titanic diorama both use the method below. My Z-30 build is done with paper over carved foam. Here is a link: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=157503&p=637865#p637865.
It wouldn't be a stretch to simply carve styrofoam as I did with the Z-30, glue down a texture such as oats, and apply the technique below directly on top of the styrofoam sculpt. You could also just texture the styrofoam with some kind of tool and cover it with paper towel.
Regardless of how you make your initial ocean sculpt, the process below can be applied on top for a light, ripply sea.

[MareNostrum]

Once again, thank you for this. I never would have imagined such a technique, now I've got to give it a try.

[Timmy C]

Looks like something I'll have to try for my 350th Calgary FFH later! I've added a link to this in the Compendium sticky.


Do you separate the paper towel ply/layers first? And it seems the quilting pattern on the towel does not show through afterwards - is that because of the method, or because the towels you have are relatively patternless?

[sargentx]

I don't separate the towels by layer. And it doesn't seem to matter what pattern the quilting has. I choose a basic grid pattern, but it just doesn't survive the clear medium and paint layers. If it does, it's very irregular and just looks like micro ripples. The key with this is making sure that your oats stick well. Top coating them with a sealer coat of clear medium and letting it dry before doing your towel collaging makes it effortless. It's very easy to do.

[el Cid]

Chris,

Love the look of your seascapes, so I'm trying your oat bran method on styrofoam. Unfortunately, I've run into a couple of glitches and hope you might be able to set me straight. So the oat bran went down nicely on a coating of heavy gel medium, then the paper towel collage also, but when dry, the texured pattern of the paper towel pieces was very distinct. So me thinks maybe I used crappy paper towels, so I'll just do another collage layer with a different brand. Crap, same problem, but with a new paper towel pattern. So next I smeared on a nice layer of regular gel medium to fill the texture; not too thick because I didn't want to completly obliterate what was left of the oat bran effect. Then after that's dry, I still detect the pattern so, having never used artist's acrylic paints (Liquitex Basics in the tube) before, I figure maybe it has some filling properties that will help mask the paper towell texture. No go, now I have a nicely colored seascape with paper towel texture. Any thoughts on what I did wrong in the first place? I wet the paper towel pieces well with the gel medium, but maybe not saturated enough? Also, any advice on painting with these thicker tube acrylics and avoiding/minimzing brush strokes?

Thanks for the tutorials and thanks for any further advice,

Cheers,

Keith

[sargentx]

Interesting that all that paper towel and gel wasn't able to hide the texture. Weird.
Well, consider yourself past all the hard stuff..now it's just a matter of hiding that paper towel texture. Couple of options:
-Collage another layer of some kind of paper over it.
-do a number of layers of acrylic gloss medium applied rather heavily to hide the texture
-Coat it with a thin layer of epoxy and repaint.

Can you post a picture?

[PetrolGator]

Chris/el Cid,

I've run into a similar issue with paper towels. One must put down sufficient gel medium, or conversely, utilize a "less flowery" patterned paper towel. If you use the bland, basic patterned towel that looks like hash marks, it actually HELPS the water look more real. I utilize that stuff exclusively in the even that the pattern shows through the gel medium.

[ChoinieRx]

Hey guys,
Not sure how well it would work for larger scales (1/700, 1/350), but at 1/1200, plain facial tissues (kleenex, etc) works pretty well. I've been playing around with seascapes and used Chris' foam method with plain kleenex to finish out the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen from the Airfix "Sink the Bismarck" set.

I'm currently working on a 1/700 a diorama of Hornet (CV-8) and Russell (DD-414) at Santa Cruz, so we'll see if it works something a bit larger.

I'm still pretty recently returned to the hobby after 15 or so years, so all of your tutorials have been very greatly appreciated Chris!

Thomas

[sargentx]

Wow that looks like real ocean!
Nicely done.
C

[el Cid]

Ok, good to know it's not just me. So I ended up smearing on a layer of heavy gel to fill the offending paper towel divit texture, then a generous layer of gloss medium to smooth out the more minor artifacts created by my finger in smearing the gel. Looks good, but I've lost much of the oat bran ripply effect...I'll say it went from being a very breezy day to a less breezy day. Next time I may try the tissue paper route, that's what I recall using in elementary school art class.

Cheers,

Keith

[sargentx]

Sometimes the sea becomes something else than intended. I personally think it looks bad if the viewer can detect a solid, lumpy surface 'pretending' to be water. Smooth and undulating trumps lumpy in my books. I'm sure that if you get down low, it looks great. Glad you sorted it out!
C

[biggles2]

Hi Sergentx, which name brand of tissue have you found to work best? Do you press in your water-lined ship while the 'water' is still wet, or place the model first on the base and work the oats and tissue around it?

[sargentx]

I don't know...just cheap Superstore paper towel. It has millions of little holes in it. Petrol Gator is correct in that some of the brands can actually help the illusion. I've honestly never had an issue with any brand I've used; but I can see how an aggressive flower pattern or something might persist. I do a dozen or more coats of artist's gesso before I do my sea color. I've found that the more layers you do, the better the sea gets over time. I just keep the sea out and put a coat on whenever I'm bored. Once in a while I'll do a light sand.

The key idea with all of this, regardless of how you go about doing it, is that a gritty texture, covered with some kind of paper produces an undulation. Carving Styrofoam in a very crude way, sanding it lightly and then covering that with paper always works well. It's identical to oats. It's the core concept that matters here; just finding a way of doing it that works for you is the key. I'm constantly tweaking my seas to make them better; it's really an open exploration!

[biggles2]

Thanks. How about the 2nd part of my question? When do you place your model - before or after the water effects?

[sargentx]

I used to build the ocean around my ship. But now, I'm big on cutting a perfect hole first, making the sea, then putting my ship in. Often, any cracks can be simply stuffed with cotton to hide them. A larger gap could be resolved by bridging that are with a bit of paper and painting it. Or you could just cut a new hole and sea.
I like the idea of painting the sea without the hassle of having a ship in it.
these pictures show my seas before a ship is in. None have received any cotton. I do the cotton work before the ship goes in.

[biggles2]

Thanks!

[gawrycht]

Chris,
You mention sanding lightly several times ... after the paper towel has hardened if I am reading right. Is it safe to assume you use a very fine grit and the 'light sanding' is only done to know down any high points? Seems as though it would be easy to sand all the way through the paper and into the oats. Do you tend to sand parallel to the wakes you have sculpted or does the direction not really matter?

Really interested in trying this technique for a PBY Catalina that I am building now, and setting it on a base taking off from the water, so I want to make sure I have all the 'tricks' down before I attempt it. Thanks much!

[sargentx]

You're correct...the sanding is very light and selective with the sole purpose of removing tiny grits or projections. Mind you, I do literally a dozen or more coats of artist's gesso onto my paper surface before I do my overall color. The sea surface is literally like a sheet of rubber come painting time. It sands beautifully. When you think you've done enough coats of gesso, do 10 more. I use a medium-fine grade of black wet-dry paper to do my sanding.
If you opt to cover a rough surface with paper or paper towel, it's crucial to ensure that all the lumps and bumps are logical and of the same type and elevation. You don't want one or two weird lumps that stick up. Also, weird holes or pits that are different than the rest of the sea look bad in the end. When I make a sea, I make it for the close up photos I'll be taking later. I really nit-pick the hell out of it with an optivisor at all stages to ensure that it's perfect. The littlest errors ruin the effect for me.

[biggles2]

Ever try the crappy coarse, sort of buff colored industrial paper towel, that comes in a continuous roll? Usually used in washroom paper towel dispensers.

[sargentx]

No...but I wouldn't. It's too paper-like and might wrinkle and pulp up. What you want is real paper towel like Bounty or shop towel. Something that can take a fair amount of moisture.