Dancing Dragon - Week Two

Dancing Dragon - Week Two
Originally uploaded by Alennka

This week started with a few days of doing nothing while I considered the problem of the cracked clay. In the end I decided to leave it as is and call it 'rustic'. I could have pulled it all off and tried again, but chances are the clay would have just cracked all over again anyway. So that decision made it was time to start painting the clay to look like bricks. I started with a coat of sealer and then added some sploggy coats of reddish-orange and brown and filled the cracks in with some dark brown. I then covered the whole lot with a coat of the main brick colour which is a sort of orangish-brownish red. The earlier coats of paint showed through this layer giving the bricks some variation in colour. Next can the 'mortar', some grey paint which was carefully rubbed off the bricks so it was visible only in the gaps between bricks. I then dry brushed some more brickish reds and oranges over the top until I was happy with the look of the bricks. All this was then covered with a matte sealer.

The upper walls of the shop were given a rough coat of pollyfilla to look like render and painted in a creamy yellow (who said tudor buildings alway have to be white?). The stream bed was painted a muddy brown and lined with fine gravel. A photo of a tudor-eske street somewhere in England has become the backdrop of the arch.

These things done it was time to start on the wooden skeleton that will support the upper floors. At the moment they look a little like a forest of pillars, but hopefully over the next couple of weeks it will all start to make sense. Directly outside the shop is the road, running from the arch to the front where it joins another road running the length of the front. Next to the road is a market space where a trader will have some kind of as yet undefined stall. Next is the stream which will be surrounded by plants. At the back of the market space are some steps that lead up to a bridge crossing the stream. At the moment the bridge leads nowhere, but in time there will be a staircase leading from it up to the next level where the tavern of the Inn will be. There will also be another lower bridge on the road at the front.

Aside from re-arranging the furniture (or small boxes the approximate size and shape the furniture will be) nothing much happened in the Regency Drawing Room again this week. I'm still waiting for the fireplace to arrive before I go any further. Hopefully it will come this week.