chalk on my mountains

I have used weathering powders on small areas of rock as accent.  For doing what you want use paint then use powders.  Get a color wheel, and mix primary colors for best results

Using powder sounds like a great idea.  I will pick some up today.  Thanks for the tip, Bob

Powders work best on relatively smooth surfaces, which would include rock faces, as Wsdimenna said. On rough and porous surfaces, it tends to get lost in the depressions.  

The trick to successful painting of mountains is drybrushing and the use of thin washes.  Both techniques permit you to apply pigment in small steps, so you can see the effect of what you are doing and adjust accordingly before ruining anything. 

And, of course, if you do screw up, just apply another coat of base color and try again.

I've been through that already.....screwing up and starting over.

Thanks very much for your response.

Bob

birdthunder,

I used a tan undercoat of flat latex house paint followed by washes of craft store acrylics in honey brown and red oxide. While the paint was wet, I "cheated" and sprinkled on some red sand gathered from just outside Canyonlands National Park.

Jim

That looks fantastic!  I like the rock on the left side that is being balanced on another one.  I don't know what it is called, but have seen a photo of it.  I have to make one myself.  BTW:  I wonder what happened to all the sand out there and now I know.

Regards, Bob

Thanks, Bob.

I think you are referring to the Balanced Rock souvenir stand just outside the entrance to my national park.

It was carved from pink Styrofoam and covered with plaster.

It does a great business being so close to the park.

Other balanced rocks on the upper level.

The one thing I found out from visiting the canyonlands country of Utah is that you can never make your model rocks too outlandish in shape or position. Mother Nature can always show you a stranger looking one.

By the way, I left you plenty of sand for now, but get there before my next trip out there - hopefully next spring. 

Good luck with your red rock modeling. It's a lot of fun.

Jim

Excellent work, Jim. The Three Gossips look like a picture of the real thing!

Thanks again, Bob.

I think you are the first one to recognize the Gossips in that scene. Did you notice too that the smaller companion to the right of Balanced Rock in that scene is still in place. The real companion fell sometime in the 1970s I believe.

Arches and Canyonlands are really magical places.

Jim