Landscape MOC-ing: Creating Chalk Art

[Peppermint_M]

To those not familiar, chalk art is a kind of geoglyph cut into hillsides, mostly in England.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_figure

I have been trying to make one to have in a MOC landscape. However, the mosaic technique looks too flat (For context, it is something I want to put into new Adventurer series of MOCs set within exploration of ruins closer to home ) but adding a few extra layers here and there looks too blocky or a mistake. 

I have been playing with SNOT techniques also but have dislike the end result more.

Has anyone seen a MOC of this sort of thing before? I'd like to see how others achieved it. Any tips for it? Currently google is not bringing anything handy up and it seems to no be something people have made much, mostly a confused mix of the actual real landscape art and white LEGO horses.

[Roses]

This is the first time I'm learning about this type of art, and I haven't seen any MOCs depicting it either, but it seems like your best bet might be a SNOT outline for shaping, with a mix of tiles & studs for the inner fill. The hardest part would be minimizing the gaps between the chalk art shape and the grass surrounding it, particularly if you were to use curved slopes to create the chalk art outline. Depending on what technique you use for the grass you might be able to achieve a cleaner look with part 24855 (https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=24855#T=P), which wouldn't necessarily be tied to the grid-style construction of studded surfaces, or with 32607 (https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32607#T=P), whose overhanging leaves would allow you to cover some gaps.

If you'd like your chalk art to be recessed from its surrounding environment, then a filled drawing would be easier to deal with, I think, than just an outline.

Would a tiled look with patches of studded areas for texture look too smooth? There are plenty of textured bricks that you can lay on their sides with SNOT techniques, but those would also create very subtle textures across a mostly flat area.

If you have any pictures of the surface area / type of terrain you have to work with or any WIPs you worked on, it sounds like a fun puzzle to solve.

[Alexandrina]

My instinct when approaching this would be to have a white layer, and then a green plate layer over the top, leaving gaps where the art is exposed. I tried to knock up a quick render in Stud.io just to see if I was making a complete pill of myself even suggesting it but apparently my computer is on strike and refusing to render anything - and no bricks handy either, so I can't tell if my method would work.

You could possibly use cheese plates to smooth any gaps, but if you've got diagonals at all then it becomes more complicated.

If you figure it out, I'd love to know what you did!

[Peppermint_M]

Yes, that was a thought when I was puzzling it out, but I have not got around to trying it out. The "mosaic" of green flower buds and white tiles was an easy option when I first started. Part of the appeal of the chalk figures though, is they look nearly natural as the hillside they sit on was not levelled out to create a flat plane.

Not even starting with the aesthetic of the figure itself: To go with the "spirit" of the horse (as I have heard the prehistoric dated Uffington Horse referred to) or a less abstract horse figure that looks like the majority of later examples.

I will try and make something a little tidier than my scrappy attempts (at least get some colour consistency in there) and have photos up.

[Mylenium]

It might help if you actually showed what you have. My first instinct would definitely be turning a regular stack of bricks and plates on its side with SNOT techniques sprinkled in to add the "grass" on top (the actual flank), but without any visuals it will be hard to judge what could work and what doesn't.

Mylenium

[MAB]

I would build the design flat on a plate, then angle the plate to create the hill afterwards.

[Professor Thaum]

I'm struggling with that problem too. By best attempt (but with an ugly rendering imho) was building a rocky landscape in dark bluish gray then change some rock color into white or medium flesh to try to picture a diamond (straight lines much more easy than an animal for my building level) but this is really NOT convincing  at the moment .

 

Perhaps with the net building technic should we have some cool render. (it will be my next try)

 

[Peppermint_M]

So I have wanted to build a few more test concepts, but on Monday evening I felt pretty rubbish and it turns out I have caught a cold (not the 'rona, we have to test daily for work) so I have been feeling too rubbish to concentrate on even a digital build.  

edit: OH HEY, spoke too soon! Tested positive and sent home from work! Maybe my daytime energy means I can make something up to show!

 

[Peppermint_M]

https://imgur.com/a/y6ugctz

Here is a quick look at what I first tried out. Now it is only a scrappy build IRL and this is a mock-up from Stud.io with a vague go at making it a slope also. 

Side not: Ugh, I am not a fan of digital building. I have used CAD professionally so I keep expecting a command line and a pan tool...