Making Roots and fungus
In real live, looking at ruined structures, you frequently see that nature is slowly taking control over the remains. Moss, grass, plants trees, they all
tend to settle down in the more fertile corners of the structure.
Moss, grass and tiny plants can easily be represented by using certain colours in your project so actually you do not have to model these. In this section
I will focus on the larger natural elements like trunks, roots and fungi.
Trunks:
For making trunks, roots and fungi I use self hardening clay, some water, a brush and sculpting tools.
I made this little display t demonstrate some of the techniques I use. I painted it black s you can see better what I am doing here.
I recommend modelling with clay upon plaster that is not painted yet. The clay sticks better to the plaster then it does on paint.
I start with this broken or rotten tree trunk:
I would like to make a tree trunk in front of this little display. Once there was this large tree that was growing along this structure. This tree did not
stand the test of time.
I first glue a supports piece of plaster on the spot where the tree remains will be. It is best that you work over some kind of support. It helps you to
model this part better without pushing it too much out of its desired form especially when the piece you work on is a bit larger, wider and/or higher.
Before I will model the clay over the support piece I make this part wet with a brush. The reason for this is that the clay will stick better to the
surface and in this way it is more easy to model the clay. I take some clay and model it over this support piece.
Now that I determined the tree trunks form I will start with applying the desired texture on it.. Before doing so I will make the clay a bit wet using the
brush. Beware not to use too much water because when the clay gets too soft it will be less easy to model. The tree trunk to be is now a column like piece
of clay with a diameter that is the same at the top and at the bottom.
With my sculpting tool I start modelling the tree trunk from top to bottom. In this way I will model the clay downwards so at the end the diameter of the
tree trunk at the bottom will be larger. I like to work with this metal hooked dental scraper that has many many uses. (you will see it appear in more tips
and & tricks) Pushing the hooked end into the clay and pulling it down will leave long carves in the clay. By repeating this while moving the tool bit by
bit you get a certain kind of pattern that looks like a
rough bark structure.
Working on details:
The top of the broken off trunk is somewhat hollow. I imagine that the trunk started to rot because of the water that is lying upon the top of the trunk
and slowly rots the wood away. I use the point of the tool to push, stir scrape the clay on the top of the trunk. If the clay does not do what I want it
to do I simply add a bit of water to it to soften the clay up.
If I decide to tear the bark open a bit at some point. I simply use the point of my tool again an scrape this deep crack in the clay, pushing the clay a bit
to the left and right to create a wider cavity.
Other possible details that you can add are branches, roots and fungi.
Roots:
I take some clay and roll it until it is a long round string and has about the desired thickness of a future root. This root will be modelled in a way that
it comes from out of the tree trunk. Before applying the future root I will make the surface of the display wet again with a brush so the applied clay will
keep in its modelled position better. The clay is also made a bit wet again.
First I form the string of clay in the desired direction an turns. If the root is to tiny to handle with your fingers then use the brush and the sculpting
tool to bend and shape the clay. With the brush you can gently push the clay on to the surface and with the tool you can direct the root in the desired
direction.
Once this is done I will first make sure that the clay will stick to the surface better by pushing the clay down on to the tiles. I sort of scrape a tiny
bit from the site of the string by pushing it down and working it slightly inwards at the bottom or underneath the root.
The same modelling technique when it comes to creating the texture up on the roots is applied as it is on the trunk. I start making carves that run in the
same direction as the root. The root splits up in to smaller root sections. In this case I repeat the whole routine using slimmer strings of clay.
When adding new pieces to the existing roots (or trunks) you simply lay the new piece against the modelled part, be sure it is wet, and push this piece on
to the existing root. While adding carves in the clay. This technique can also be used for making little bumps (knots) on to trees.
Alternative Roots:
I tried to make some other forms of roots. In this case I used pieces of card board to determine the form of the roots. I modelled a tree trunk in which I
pushed these pieces of card board gluing the bottom of this pieces on to the floor. I let the clay dry over night so now the cardboard sits firmly in its
place.
In this case I use another sculpting tool to model the clay against the card board pieces. This is again a kind of dentist tool with a blade kind of end
to it. With this tool I can grease the clay on. Now I take the hooked dentist tool and start applying the texture on the roots in the same way I do on the
tree trunk. I work from top to bottom an create a root that gets thicker at the bottom. I like making these roots as a variation on the roots theme because
it looks nice and it can also be used for game play meaning that this is impossible terrain, great for cover or even some sort of treasure hiding place.
(just let you imagination do the work)
Fungi:
As far as fungi is concerned there are numerous forms of fungi that grows on walls and or trees. In this case I use both sculpting tools as described
earlier in this topic, some card board (optional), clay water and brush.
Traditional wall fungus:
For me, a regular horizontal fungi like kind of form looks like a half round semi flat disk. Underneath this disk there is this sort of cone shaped form
starting wide at the top and grows narrow on its way down. Depending on the size of the fungi form you can choose to add a card board piece on to a wall
or trunk and add clay over it. The advantage is that you have some kind of support while modelling and besides that it can help you to maintain the form
you are going for when creating fungi.
I like to compose a set of horizontal fungi together as a group in a planned at random manner.
Fungi of this kind can be placed on straight walls but also can grow around things and can for instance help breaking up hard straight lines within a
structure. In other words you can use them to cover up things. (Actually you can use all sculpted objects within this topic for this purpose)
“Lump” Fungus:
The “Lump” fungus is actually a lump of clay modelled against a wall or tree. I simply push some deep horizontal carves in to the clay to get a rough form.
From there I curl the clay from within the crack outwards so the horizontal surfaces will get bigger and the cracks will become deeper. I push the edges of
the horizontal fungi at random to give them a more irregular form. If you use enough water (not too much), the clay is easy to form in any direction.
“Cluster Cups” Fungus:
I accidentally made these type of fungus while I was experimenting with clay. I simply roll little balls of clay. With my broken sculpting tool (even
broken it still come in handy) I sting the ball of clay onto the sculpting tool. I dip it in water and push it on the wall or ground. If the clay does
not come off the tool then first dip the tool in water before stinging the clay with it. When the ball sets on the surface (I like doing a whole set first),
then make them all slightly wet with a brush and start enlarging the opening with the tool. You just do this to your liking making large and small cups,
irregular once and broken once.
These examples are made just to explain how I make these features.
I must admit that I did not put all the effort in it that I could do.
It is just a brief tutorial on how you can do this. The dungeon that I am making right now (see top picture) has all these elements in them and I did put a lot
more attention in to that piece.
Fact is, the technique is the same as in this tips & tricks topic.
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