Finishing Your Planet

Sande Temmuz 18, 2022

Using the hemisphere created in the previous post, I'm going to show how to make an earth-like world. First, cut up some scraps of paper in the shape of your planet's continents. Use a small piece of scotch-tape on each paper and tape it to your little half-globe. Don't worry if the edges curl up a little, this will give you a nice diffuse outline to your continents.

Take a can of cheap blue spray paint (just over a dollar [US] at Walmart) and coat the planet as evenly as possible. After it drys remove the paper.

Now we'll make some surface detail. Mix up a tiny amount of Durham's water-putty. I'm talking like only half a teaspoon of powder. Also, make it a very thin mixture, a 1:1 ratio. Using your finger or a cotton swab, apply this thin mixture to one of your continent areas. Immediately take a small amount of Durham's powder on the tip of a spoon and gently sprinkle it on the wet area. Spray the powder with a fine mist of water from a spray-bottle. This part takes practice: too little water and the powder will not set, too much and you will simple blow it all away. Use a cotton swab to gently texture the mountains. Move on to the other continents and repeat.

At this point the planet looks pretty good; I should have just painted a bunch of clouds and called it good, but I had to go screw it up with lots of paint. I'm happy enough with the results below, but I know it can be better. In the future I will paint the continents totally brown and then use a green wash to reflect forested areas.