Terrain... and a tree! (Patreon)

My friends, here's some progress from yesterday. Although I decided to compose this scene without a tree at the time of the last post, I ultimately found a good spot (and a good twig) for a small, broken trunk. Yes, it kinda looks like a Heptapod from the movie Arrival (lol), but you never learn unless you try! :D 

So, I was on a hike during the weekend, and I collected some nice, straight twigs from various conifer trees in the forest. Some of them are nicely broken, and one of those served as a base for the tree trunk. I fixed it in place during the "VMS Smart Mud Stage", and once the clay was hard, and the sides laminated with 0.6mm oak veneer, I added the exposed roots. These are made from various dried roots and twigs from thyme bushes, held in place with superglue. They had to be properly integrated into the trunk, so I used a fair amount of Magic Sculpt putty to blend them in, and also applied it in a thin layer over the entire thing to add more pronounced bark texture. The root system would've looked better if I had some thicker twigs, or if I sculpted some of them from putty, but it's a lesson for the future... and I'm sure it's gonna look pretty nice once everything is painted and flooded with epoxy water :) 

As far as ground texture goes, I added it in a slightly different way. When I applied the VMS clay, I also pressed some large pebbles into the creek bed. Then, once I was done with the tree, I covered the ground with AK Desert texture paste. It's much smoother than Dark Mud, and has a nice, sandy quality to it. While it was still wet, I sprinkled the creek bed with fine sand from Modeller's World, and added some large chunks of earth and gravel near the bank. Basically, as far as I can see in nature, creek beds tend to be rather smooth as a result of the flowing water. 

The bank was covered with my trademark Real Earth from My Garden (TM), and everything was soaked with alcohol and diluted PVA glue. I left it to dry overnight, and today I'm ready to add some vegetation. Once that's in place, the scene will be ready for painting :) Although I'll be adding more detailed plant life later down the road.