Turquoise

Sorry for the delay on this post. I was having issues with the photos and then the household got the stomach flu that has been going around. Tommy has been hell on wheels as well, but then that's a whole other post.

On with the opera.
This is the floor for said operas. It is what we like to refer to as fantasy marble, which is marble in colors/types that don't actually exist in nature. Always a challenge. This was a bit more so of one due to the material I was painting on. For marble you want a perfectly smooth surface. That wasn't in the budget for me so this is what I got:



Those are stock platforms that have been painted a gazillion times. They are gouged, chipped, gapping and not ideal for the task at hand. The masonite on the floor is rough side up and the piece have varying layers of paint so they aren't consistant in texture. Not ideal for marble at all. The rake of the stage also presents a challenge.

So here we go. Primed one coat and two coats of base white.



The turquoise base coat. Notice you can still see the gaps between the platforms. That never went away.



I hit a bit of a snag when I went to layout the squares for the 'tiles'. The ones on my drawing were not in proportion to the size he wanted, and none of the tile lines are parallel (or perpendicular for that matter) to any edge of the floor. So I pretty much had to make it up on my own. My head nearly exploded with the math since the size of the floor was a tad off from the draftings as well. But I made it work, even if they weren't exactly square.

The base color down, I started the marbling. To achieve the translucent effect of marble you paint it in lots of translucent layers. I started with the grey/black color and then added the white.



Each of these photos represents a whole day of painting.



Due to time constraints I cut out many, many more steps and layers of paint. Therefore this is probably the least favorite of the marbles I have painted, but it worked for what they needed.



And you may notice my orange clogs in almost every shot. Since I bought these I don't walk on the sets in my socks anymore. It makes for much happier feet.

Once the glazing was done, I laid down two coats of semi-gloss sealer. Voila, ugly turquoise marble.



Here's a closeup of one of the tiles. This really shows how textured the floor really is.



Next time: Tommy...one of my favorite shows, and now, one of my worst nightmares.