Palm Tree Color

hi lemonjello

if you would like some pictures of palms, i can email them to you seperately. I work in a botanic garden you see. my email is greenlantern_77@yahoo.com.sg

Depending on the palms they pretty much all have that grey brown color. Some have an almost white grey where as others a deep grey. As they get closer to the top they will start to green as that is where the new growth is. Some will even have a burgundy color where the fronds erupt from the trunk.

I've used real tree roots for general shape and wrapped them in a criss cross pattern in wire. This is covered with tissue paper soaked in a 50/50 mix of glue and water. Once dry and ready for fronds, I paint it grey, add a wash of brown or paynes grey, then a dry brush of earth, a 2nd drybrush of light buff and then insert the fronds. Where they come into the trunk I paint a yellow green that blends to a burgundy and then add the husks or vegetation needed to make it look like it is growing.

Glad to help, though it's hard to describe color in words, if you need a picture e-mail me and I'll get you one over the weekend
John
helicopters don't fly, they beat the air into submission

Thanks, grandadjohn, for the tips. I went the scratch-building route with these, just to see how they turn out. Used wood dowels, wrapped in masking tape and some of my wife's scrapbooking paper for hand-cut fronds/leaves. It's a good starting color green, but I thought I'd need to add some yellow to the edges with dry-brushing. I'll see what I've got in the paint box.

Live palm trees around Phoenix have grayish-brown trunks, green leaves. Dead leaves turn a yellowish-tan. Dead trunks color remains the same as live trees until they start to decompose, then they turn a brown color.
John
da da da dah

tint the edges of the leaves with yellow and brown.