Overall view of the 54-inch-long extension with mockups in place. Sometimes you need to thrash around for a while to find a path forward that motivates you. For me, answers come from “doing” and testing in 3D. Spending months (or years) drawing sketches isn’t particularly productive. Two-dimensional drawings tell you very little. Testing in 3D […]
A recent scene on my Los Angeles Junction layout. My current focus is on putting a lot more thought and attention into the background sky/horizon photos that I crop in. The laws of physics being what they are, it’s impossible to look at our models and have the same sensory experience as actually being at […]
(Note: What follows is a copy of my December newsletter) The above image (taken in 2024) showing a quiet back street in Mankato, MN is about as unremarkable as they come. And….therein lies the point. It’s ordinary, it’s typical, it’s everyday. It’s what the eye is used to seeing when we’re out and about. The […]
When this image was taken over a half century ago, it’s unlikely the photographer had any inkling that others would benefit. But…through a chain of lucky circumstances the photo ended up being scanned, posted online, and labeled effectively, creating a form of immortality for the photographer if you will. Give some thought to doing the […]
Decisions related to color strategy and composition make a far greater contribution to visual impact than manual dexterity, rivet counting, or “detail dumping”. The culture of our hobby would lead you to believe the opposite. There are two components of skill, manual execution and decision making. Decision making entails knowing “what to do” and, as […]