SCENERY DIVIDERS: TREES AS AN ARTIST'S TOOL
BY DON HERZOG, MINIATURE PLANT KINGDOM
AND ALLEN TACY
TREES ARE MORE than merely beautiful. They can be functional on an outdoor layout. They help to suggest depth and manage the perspective within a scene. The result? If you place them carefully and pay attention to their size, they make excellent scenery dividers.
DEPTH PERCEPTION
Indoor modelers often employ a trick to enhance the illusion of depth in a diorama. They use smaller elements toward the rear of a scene. Sometimes they even use smaller scale models in the background than in the foreground. It works. Figure 1 shows a forest with a stream running though it. The trees in the back look smaller than those in front and the illusion suggests distance.
MANAGING PERSPECTIVE
You can plant trees of the same size and the horizon line will look consistent. But if you plant two sizes of trees the horizon rises to about two-thirds the height of the front trees. Larger trees in the background make the difference. (That is an example of the so-called "rule of thirds": The subject of a scene should be at either the one-third or two-thirds point of a scene.) The benefit of a higher horizon? Seldom do you have a neutral background. Nearly all our layouts, for example, suffer from totally out of scale full size walls and fences. By placing larger trees in the background, we are able to raise the horizon and our perspective. The scene then becomes more believable. No space to plant a forest in front of a wall or a fence? Try a vine or espaliered climbers. Try anything, but hide it!
There is another importance of placing smaller trees in the foreground. Natural forests contain trees of many sizes. Only trees in man-made tree farms tend to be of the same size. As the trees in the background get larger they lead the eye upward where you want it to go.
If you have a slope, you're lucky. You may be able to use upward sloping ground for wonderful depth and perspective, allowing trees to become smaller as you plant them higher in the rear. Unless, of course, you have one of those dreaded fences at the top of the slope.
SCENE DIVIDERS
Trees become natural scene dividers. If you want an idea of how dense your forest must be to be effective as a scene divider, experiment with seedling trees in nursery pots. In some parts of your layout you may prefer to allow the track to show through the scenery. Such a partial screen may be more effective because it not only allows a glimpse of the train but also some access to the tracks. The best way to figure out a good arrangement is by trial and error.
Who says you need a big backyard for an interesting outdoor layout?
