Wednesday 25 January 2017

Project Homework - A Japanese Garden Diorama

I dread it when the kids require help with their homework: "Research the Ancient Egyptians and present it in an interesting 3D way", or "Write a rap song to help you remember long division". These are actual real life examples, in case you think I'm kidding. But sometimes, it can be fun - we once shot a film about superheroes in the garden.

A week or so back, my eldest daughter (aged 10) was set homework which required her to "Make a 3D Japanese-themed diorama." That sounded more up my street!

I sat down with my daughter and asked her what she wanted to make a diorama of. She wanted to make a Japanese garden, with cherry blossom, a lake and a bridge. So we did some research and settled on two photographs for inspiration:



We agreed that the key elements would be:
1. A stream
2. A bridge
3. A shrine
4. Cherry blossom

Next step was to nail down the approach and base for the diorama. I scaled down her ambitions a little, and we agreed to use an old CD for the base. My daughter then drew out a rough plan for what she wanted:

Note the stream with a bridge. The larger blobs are the cherry trees.

Over the next couple of weeks, my daughter built and painted the entire diorama herself. I gave her free access to my modelling supplies, and helped by demonstrating the techniques and doing some minor holding / prep, but she did everything herself.

I forgot to take earlier WIP pics. At this point she has build up a shallow stream with plasticard, glued on a shrine from my bits box, glued the tree bases and sanded the base. She built the bridge from coffee stirrers and matches.

At this point she had undercoated the whole base, then sprayed it brown and drybrushed the ground. She had added some green paint to the stream bed and had poured the first of several layers of water effects.

The water effect is now dry, although we did get a bit of seepage and an unsightly meniscus membrane at the edges which I trimmed for my daughter.

At this stage the tree trunks have been drybrushed, and the bridge darkened with a wash. The shrine has been painted and drybrushed, and she's placed and glued some flower tufts.

Gluing for the static grass.

Static grass being applied.

Onto the cherry trees. We didn't have any suitably coloured flock to hand, so we made do by shredding a kitchen sponge into small pieces.

The sponge pieces were glued to the tree armatures.

And onto the finished diorama. The only final element was the addition of a few leaves to the ground.



I think she's done a fantastic job! She didn't want to add any figures to the scene, so I borrowed it for a couple of minutes and added one of my vaguely Japanese-styled Eldar.




I just hope that she gets a good mark for her homework. I may well be borrowing it for future photography too!

22 comments:

  1. This is really cool. Certainly something different and inspiring to add to the modelling table.

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  2. Brilliant project mate - deserves top marks in my book! What did you use for the fallen leaves on the base?

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    1. Cheers! The fallen leaves are from Antenotciti's Workshop Leaf Combi pack - I think they're actual tree seeds of some sort - I've seen other brands around.

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  3. The best parenting moments are those where you share something, priceless stuff you have here.

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  4. How splendid! And yes, odd homework requests can be a challenge. My eldest has already done a country report replete with a doll and a robot, which had to accomplish three useful (but thankfully imaginary) community tasks.

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    1. A robot accomplishing imaginary tasks?? I don't even understand the concept behind that one.

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    2. Ha, well the accompanying essay had to describe how the robot (here a cardboard box and some odds and ends) accomplished some useful tasks for the community. In any case, it was a head scratcher, and a bit hard for a kid that age.

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  5. Looks great! The only trouble is you will have all the other snotty parents insisting your daughter did not make it herself.

    As a teacher I have to confess sometimes you just get bored and wonder what you can get parents to agree to do for their kids homework . . . . "No really kid, you need to make a scale model of the Taj Mahal out of cheese for your homework!"

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    1. Taj Mahal with cheese? Next week perhaps ;)

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  6. That's so great!! Seriously, something to be proud of. The result itself is wonderful (gak, even better than what I would achieve!), but that's indeed the less important part of all the process ;) Congrats on all!!

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    1. Thanks Suber! It's just one process after another, but she's meticulous and precise, which is ideal for building a diorama.

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  7. A brilliant effort and sounds like a nice dad/daughter experience :)

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  8. That's really well done indeed. Also . . . you realize that first picture is a mile or two from my house? The one with the bridge? Hate the be the bearer of bad tidings, but the flowers are dogwood blossoms. Plus side? They're gorgeous. And they're the state flower. I spent a lot of time in that garden as a child. My brother, sister, and I fed the koi off that bridge, as it's the best place to get close to the water. (The zig zags are for getting rid of demons. They apparently have to go in a straight line over water. Good thing to keep in mind next time you're fighting an army of Tzeentch or something. Might see if it works.) A small part of my sister is buried there now, scattered under a tree that bears her memorial. (Not in your photo, but not too far away.) Anyway . . . That's awesome and the coincidence warms the heck out of my heart. It makes me enormously happy to see that bridge as a model for your model. If you come through St. Louis some time I'll take you there.

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    1. I had no idea where the photos were. Next time we make a diorama I'll try and make sure we're botanically correct ;) I'm glad we made a homage that pleases you, given you have such a strong association with the garden.

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    2. Cherry blossoms are entirely and always correct for a Japanese garden in the spring. This one just happens to be in an climate that is somewhat un-Japanese and so there aren't as many cherry trees. (I believe there are some on the other side of the lake.) And dogwoods would maybe also be fine if they grew in Japan. (They are persnickety things, but I suppose they might if someone took them there. Japanese gardeners have a certain reputation for patience.) It was just weird recognizing your research photo. I kind of figured it was something turned up by Mr. Google. This is so often the beginning of good research these days. And there are certain themes that are fairly common to all Japanese gardens, that style of bridge being one. (As is the waterfall in the picture below. There's a similar one in our garden as well, though with less moss. I'm guessing the second garden is someplace damper, as perhaps Portland or San Francisco. Or possibly even Japan. I suppose they do have them there too.) ;-)

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  9. Fabulous work! I'd be over the moon if one of my students brought in something like that.

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    1. Thanks! Perhaps one day it might happen :)

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  10. Fabulous work! I'd be over the moon if one of my students brought in something like that.

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  11. Heh heh ... looks like good old dad is someone's superhero now ^_^

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