Creating A "Forced Perspective" Scene

Did you check out the wiki article on forced perspective.

I see 2 out of three that you could use.

The first is tilting the front of the table lower than the rear. That makes the table appear larger and helps with the backdrop.

The second would be the size of the mountains. Study some photographs with mountains off in the distance. Observe the relationship to the objects nearer the camera(view) in the shot. I run an Alaska RR train. You can't even get close. A fake out is larger than the house. There are no small mountains and they are all close.

The painter can do some mountains in front of mountains as seen if your example.

The most effective technique would most likely be lighting. More light on the backdrop would make it appear larger to the eye.

So, scale the mountains to your liking, add some depth in the painting with the position on the mountains and point some spots on it.

An artist friend of mine laughed when I was talking about some of these visual tricks. It like Art 102. I think if you show the family member some photographs and let them know how high you want the piece, they'll know what to do. Then throw some small spots on it.

Notice they placed that example on a black background with the two photos on either side smaller to create depth and focus your eye to the layout.

What's interesting is that this is really the background before it was cut to size...

Forced perspective is used a lot because it is easy to do (just use Ho or N gauge size in the background) and it works.  I use it on my layout and I imagine most others use it too.  

Our local railroad assoc., has a Dunham model layout that was built in 1991 for a gentleman in Omaha. It is called The Nebraska Central. Approx 15' x 80' in HO. All the scenery is built out of pink or blue high density construction styrofoam. Note: it is NOT white "beadboard". You can see photos at www.milwaukeerailroadshops.org.

Dick