Diorama Development

I'm really happy to have been able to finally start on the diorama I intend to paint from. I am going to create quick craft replicas of the motifs I have been researching all semester, collage them together into a scene, photograph the scene and then create a painting. I am keen to emphasise the artifice of my construction, particularly by revealing elements of the construction process such as making the walls of the diorama visible and painting in the flaps in the paper background. So far I have made a 60 x 36 cm room box out of black foam core which is adhered together using PVA glue. I then found a generic image of a sunset (link), and printed it out in sections using A4 copy paper. I have stuck these on the background using folded over pieces of masking tape, resulting in an intentionally slightly textural and wonky finish. I also added a supersized moon as I think it creates some degree of eeriness and contributes to the apocalyptic imagery. The goat was made by creating a wire armature wrapped in pipe cleaners and then felting wool fleece onto it. I also sewed on two small black beads for eyes, and embroidered a black nose using embroidery cotton. At this stage I have just stared to construct the trees by painting cardboard tubes brown, and I will then add green tissue paper and possibly pom pom fruit. I still need to start making rocks using expanding foam, one of which I would like to sculpt into the suggestive shape of a skull, sew a small felt moth, create a portion of a monolithic structure and some barbed wire fencing to surround it, and reflect on any other elements I feel the diorama requires. So far I am happy with how the construction is coming together, however time restraints are beginning to affect what I can achieve so I will need to keep in mind just how detailed the diorama can be.