River city ruins work in progress

I have progressed a bit on my ruins project. Compared to the previous update, there are now bushes, long grass and some weathering on the ruins themselves.

I made the bushes by sticking cocktail sticks on the ground. Then I glued some lichen on them. Finally I covered the lichen with tacky glue and sprinkled some green scatters on it to represent leaves.

The weathering is done with home-made weathering powder. I found an old sanguine stick (a kind of red pastel) and scraped some pigment from it. I then brushed the powder onto the nooks and crannies of the ruins. Sanguine is a bit too bright red for this; it would look fabulous as rust on metal. I may buy some darker brown and green pastels to get some more pigment powders because using a powder makes blending the edges so much easier than with paint washes which I have used previously for weathering. I could of course buy real weathering powders, but since I also draw, having a couple of new pastels won’t hurt.