I THINK IT'S DONE. Or... I feel like I'm really ready to be done. Been tinkering with it on and off since late 2016. Made from cardboard, balsa wood, polystyrene. It was a fun project. Hope people like it. Here are some photos I staged in my basement. I have some decent experience with photography and lighting but I'm certainly not professional. Pretty happy with how the diorama turned out though. Hope y'all enjoy....
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| Backgrounds are projected behind the miniature. I show my photo setup farther below. |
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| I tried different things with lighting to simulate different times of day. Here's some golden hour. | | |
A 1976 Ford Gran Torino. Trying for something that looks like The Dude’s car from The Big Lebowski. I wasn't thinking of a specific year for this. I wanted a somewhat timeless quality but it seemed like there really needed to be some big old rust-bucket 70s cars in the lot!
This
whole thing started with me thinking I was going to do a diorama of my
70s childhood home. The 65 Pontiac Catalina in the pic above was my Grandparents car.
Then the news came that DJs was going to be demolished and I thought
that would be a cooler project. Kept the car though, and that determined
my scale.
Another shot of the Ford. I think my rust effects came out pretty good for a first attempt.
Closer look at the sign. The "L" in Lounge flickers like it's a bad spot in the neon (on purpose) and the little lights arounf the arrow all blink.
Here I took the sign outside and photographed it with natural sunlight and sky. I think it looks pretty realistic!
Some roof details. Oil pastels for rust effects.
Little door handles made from pieces of toothpick and wire.
The wiring for the lighting of the sign.
Special Bonus! Haunted DJ's Lounge. Ghostbusters Pinto Wagon on the scene!!
And here is me and my wagon, before they demolished the real DJ's. I've already forgot what year. I went around the whole place, taking reference photos like a weirdo, though I didn't really know why at the time.
Anyway, that's it. I don't know if I'll do any more of these. People are suggesting I work on some sort of "memory lane" street scene with a few different gone GR places and enter in an Artprize. I have some ideas. We'll see.
