The Aerodrome Forum - View Single Post

JohnReid · 16 April 2006, 07:31 AM

You guys who have been following my thread for awhile have probably seen these pics before.
The reason that I am posting them is just to remind you who are hesitating on getting invovled and any newcomers just how easy it is to do a simple diorama.
If you can build a box you can do a diorama.This was my first attempt and there is nothing difficult here.The wood that I used is cheap and available anywhere.Ordinary pine from the lumber store and tongue depressors,popsicle stiks and coffee stir sticks.Cardboard over a foamboard core and a little plexiglass.The lighting is cheap RR stuff with a second hand transformer and brass xmas lights for fixtures.The signs are all off the internet.No power tools were used in its construction and the paint is readily available acrylics .Most of the furniture is roughly built shop type mostly with all 90 deg cuts.The subject matter is my personal choice but even some modern airplanes are housed in old hangars.The rest is up to your imagination.I only am using airplanes here as an example because that is what I am most familiar with but the whole world is open to diorama making.
Please make that first step.Get a piece of paper and write down some ideas.We all have interesting stories to tell from reality or our imagination and dioramas are a wonderful way to get it down.Remember if you dont,it will be lost forever.

The idea can be quite simple and is usually more powerful if it is.It was funny but when I went to that miniature show last weekend a funny thing happened.In amoung all the elaborate and expensive dollhouses which I am afraid all looked the same to me and quite frankly were a little boring, some one had done a simple shadow box probably no more than about 3-4 inches deep.
It was quite simply done but it struck me right away and I havent been able to get it out of my mind.It was 3 figures in an art gallery facing the art hung on a wall.Their backs were to the viewer looking at the art.The positioning of the figures and the lighting was just great and there was just something about it that drew you into the scene.I think that it was about 1/24 scale and I even recognized the figures used as commercially available.
A funny thing happened later as I was browsing around.I met a fellow artist who used to teach art with me years ago and while we were chatting she said to me out of the blue "Did you see that shadow box piece about the art gallery".Funny how good art just seems to cry out to the viewer.

16 April 2006, 07:31 AM	#1016 (permalink)
JohnReid Shot Down Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 9,910	You guys who have been following my thread for awhile have probably seen these pics before. The reason that I am posting them is just to remind you who are hesitating on getting invovled and any newcomers just how easy it is to do a simple diorama. If you can build a box you can do a diorama.This was my first attempt and there is nothing difficult here.The wood that I used is cheap and available anywhere.Ordinary pine from the lumber store and tongue depressors,popsicle stiks and coffee stir sticks.Cardboard over a foamboard core and a little plexiglass.The lighting is cheap RR stuff with a second hand transformer and brass xmas lights for fixtures.The signs are all off the internet.No power tools were used in its construction and the paint is readily available acrylics .Most of the furniture is roughly built shop type mostly with all 90 deg cuts.The subject matter is my personal choice but even some modern airplanes are housed in old hangars.The rest is up to your imagination.I only am using airplanes here as an example because that is what I am most familiar with but the whole world is open to diorama making. Please make that first step.Get a piece of paper and write down some ideas.We all have interesting stories to tell from reality or our imagination and dioramas are a wonderful way to get it down.Remember if you dont,it will be lost forever. The idea can be quite simple and is usually more powerful if it is.It was funny but when I went to that miniature show last weekend a funny thing happened.In amoung all the elaborate and expensive dollhouses which I am afraid all looked the same to me and quite frankly were a little boring, some one had done a simple shadow box probably no more than about 3-4 inches deep. It was quite simply done but it struck me right away and I havent been able to get it out of my mind.It was 3 figures in an art gallery facing the art hung on a wall.Their backs were to the viewer looking at the art.The positioning of the figures and the lighting was just great and there was just something about it that drew you into the scene.I think that it was about 1/24 scale and I even recognized the figures used as commercially available. A funny thing happened later as I was browsing around.I met a fellow artist who used to teach art with me years ago and while we were chatting she said to me out of the blue "Did you see that shadow box piece about the art gallery".Funny how good art just seems to cry out to the viewer.