Shoofly free-moN module - 11
continuity between modules, but I wanted the Shoofly scene to
portray Sonoma in the spring, so I quickly graduated the grass
from browns at the edges to greens for most of the module.
Animal paths and hiking trails were created by dragging the
smooth top end of a pair of tweezers through the static grass
before it dried. (14)
Later I went back and added more fine-sifted gravel and
“churned mud” (craft paint and Durham’s Water Putty) to the
construction areas. The swaths of yellow blossoms on the
14
14: A late 1800s home-built wooden boxcab pulls
a reefer and a pair of ventilated boxcars past some
towering oak trees. The ground cover includes several
shades of fine-sifted real dirt, gravel, various colors
of ground foam and a blend of 2mm and 4mm static
grasses.
hillsides I created by brushing the grass tips with diluted white
glue and then sprinkling on fine yellow ground foam. The sprin-
kling lays the yellow foam (or green, for Miner’s Lettuce) down
a bit thick, but going back carefully with a vacuum thins the
“flowers” and “leaves” out into a more natural pattern.
Cow Pasture
Cows are nature’s lawn mowers, so I kept the static grass in this
area to a minimum. Given the heavy rains in spring and the few
15
15: Cows seek shelter from the warm California sun
under the shade of a solitary oak tree. More ground
foam and very little static grass created the effect
of shorn pastureland, and rubbing fingers around
the pond exposed the dirt and smoothed down the
granules for a baked-mud effect.
MRH-Nov 2013
