What's Opera Doc?

I returned from maternity leave with the operas before me. These are designed by my favorite of our regular designers. This year they are performing Dido and Aeneas by Purcell and L'enfant et les Sortileges by Ravel.
This piece is a cut drop merely referred to as the flying disc.

Here is the rendering:



I got very excited when I saw this. To me, this is a scenic's dream. In discussions with the designer he said he was going for the color and the texture. That I can work with.

Started out starched and primed.



I snapped out a charcoal grid and drew in where the cutout sections would be:


Base coat and redrew the cutout lines so I wouldn't lose them



The next several shots are what it looked like at the end of each day (I was working on another project at the time as well...to be seen in the next post)















With the painting complete, I cut out the drop









The last step was gluing netting to the back to keep it all in place while it hangs. I failed to get a photo of that while in the shop, but I'll snap one when we hang it.

Next post....hideous turquoise marble.

Hey I'm alive....and working

I know I fell of the face of the earth for a while but I have a really good excuse. I had this little guy two weeks early on September 5th:



His early arrival was quite unexpected and I wasn't quite wrapped up at work yet. Actually the day I had him I planned on getting everything set up for the person covering me. At least I made my anniversary date on the 4th.

So here's the show I had to abandon:

Carousel. The real problem with this, besides being 9 months pregnant in a very hot shop, were the renderings. This designer relies heavily on PhotoShop, which renders fine detail into a blur of pixels. If the original picture is poor to begin with, then it is just hell.

I started with the cut drop trees. As usual square out a box, staple down the muslin and starch. Here's a great photo of the magic of starch.



I do have to admit I was proud of myself being able to square these out perfectly by myself despite being so very, very pregnant.




At the end of the first day I had it drawn out and basic color laid in.

The second day:


The third day:



The fourth day:



All done:



We rolled up the drops to store until closer to load in. They were cut and attached to netting later on (after I went on maternity leave).
It was working on those that I had an epiphiny. Working in my socks while pregnant was killing me. I got the bright idea to get a pair of Crocs to wear on drops. It gives my feet support and is gentle on the fabric. Plus, I can dip them in a bucket to scrub them clean.

Here are the grassy hills:



This is how I painted the grass...with an ostrich feather duster.








I did a few other pieces but didn't get pictures. The next, and last thing I worked on was the carousel top. The rendering for this was the worst I think I've ever been handed. It was blurry mess of pixels. I think it was a photo scanned in and colored. I took a lot of artistic license with it out of necessity. Here it is:





And then the next day I went into labor at 4 am.