Diorama development

 Diorama Development

For my diorama, I have decided to make an underwater-themed castle for my 3D piece. I started by taking inspiration from the Thomas Doyle hills diorama which I noticed he uses a large rock as a base so I decided I would do the same. I started by using an mdf wood board as the base for my diorama which I painted dark blue as it was the sea bed of my piece. I then followed by using scrap cardboard as a structure holder. I then stuffed it with newspaper and papier mache, I then used modrock to cover it to smoothen out the base. After drying I painted a mix of grey which I used to coat it as well as the castle. 

Below are initial sketches:

Mdf wood and primer coating.

Cardboard sourced for base structure

Cut on the edge to be filled with newspaper mache for stabilizing the structure to be solid.  

Mixed a shade of blue paint to coat the wood after the primer dried. I wanted a dark shade of blue to represent the ocean sea bed. 

Papier mache.

Coated with modrock afterward and let dry overnight then did a 2nd coat to smoothen out and hide any holes that weren't filled in the modrock.

Fist castle building was painted a dark grey color with some moss grown on top to show how old it is which can also be interpreted as seaweed. The moss was made using sawdust and green paint as well as some glue and water. 

I added real-life sand on top of a sheet of PVA glue on the wood as well as a sprinkle of sand over the rock structure. I had also added the moss to the rock but lightly as I didn't want to oversaturate the use of it.

I then added two more structures to bring the castle together. an arc as well as another building to the mix which was inspired by the cylindrical shapes that can be seen in some medieval buildings. I also added a fall-down bridge which is hanging on by two long pieces of cardboard to represent the retracting and releasing mechanism of this bridge.