Footprints in the Sky

The Mikado

2009-12-14T10:53:00.005-05:00

I've had the pictures of these sitting here for a while waiting for me to write. I've a bit of something new to add this time too...
The fall musical: The Mikado.
I was very excited when I got the plans for this show. It was mostly simple but had a few elaborate elements to it.

I began with the carving of the details on the top and bottom of the arch. Those could be done without having the actual arch there to work with. I left extra to allow leeway when the curves were cut.

These were done from pink foam board which is typically used for insulation. I transferred a full scale drawing onto the foam and began to cut it out with a Rotozip. This was a great tool to use for this. It makes a horrible mess but I like that one can control the depth of the cutting blade. Here is the begining of the cutting process.

Here are the finished pieces. Since all the lines on the drawings couldn't be complete cut outs I did much of it in a half depth. These are the center pieces.

Here are the two for the bottom of the curves. I left extra material so that we could cut the curves to the arch for a better fit when it was built.

From there I moved on to the majority of the set. It was a fairly straight forward process for textured white walls. The texture came from an additive bought from the store. Do you recognize the columns from here?

The bottoms of these columns were to have a copper patina look.

The next project was the gilded screens. This took some research as I was concerned about the painting on top of the gold leaf. I also thought it would be a fun project to try some time lapse with.

The panels were done on MDF. First you see the primer, than a colored base coat. The sizing goes on white but dries clear. Then the application of the leaf, painting the design, and sealing the whole thing. The trim was attached after. The leafing was done with Dutch metal in #2. It was sized with Sepp Gilding Size and sealed with Rolco Acrylic Topcoat. Here is a still of the finished pieces.

Last came the gold fru-fru on the arch, beams and columns. The beams and arch pieces were done in the same manner as the other foam pieces. The columns were a bit more of a challenge as it had to wrap around the top. After some frustrating trial and error a solution was had. The foam was cut slightly larger than the design and then ripped on a bandsaw into very thin layers. This was a challenge considering the material was only 1-1/2" thick. I glued the sheets together with Spray 78, which is specifically made for this type of foam. (It doesn't melt it and cause toxic fumes) The layers were wrapped around some off cuts of the column tubes and held with shrink wrap to dry.

The pictures are of blue foam because we ran out of the pink and there was some blue handy in the size required. For the record there is a difference between the two. The blue foam is softer and less rigid. This makes it more suiting to wrapping around a curve than the pink foam, but less suitable for this sort of carving. The other cap was done with pink foam. Here is the the carved piece.

The pieces were then coated with a product called Flexcoat. It seals up the foam and makes it paintable and adds some strength to it. The arch pieces were coated in the same way and then painted with their required finishes.

Then they were all based, sized and then gilded.

The caps on top were pink foam turned on a lathe by our shop foreman. For all the fuss these were they really added a nice touch to the set.

Here are pictures of the whole set. I also sewed the purple banners. The applique was done with an iron on adhesive.

A full stage shot. I did have to go back and add a gray glaze on the walls with the circular windows. Apparently seeing drawings of white walls, research of white walls, and seeing the actually white walls in the shop isn't enough to prepare a director for the shock of white walls on the set. The brown/gray area downstage is actual crushed stone. Overall it was a fun show to do, and consisted of a good balance of easy to bang out techniques with more elaborate ones.

Saying farewell to summer

2009-09-27T21:03:00.005-04:00

Fall is finally here and I am thrilled. The summer did not go quite as planned. The opera job ended up taking much, much longer for various reasons. That and my son learned to walk at the beginning of July. We were not ready for him to be walking at 10 months and life has been a whirlwind since.

This summer's opera reps were Carmen and The Barber of Seville. The project was one of those that takes on a life of it's own. Plus many of us in the shop were still a little ragged and seething from the last two projects. At the end of it all, as the truck pulled away, I realized that I took far too few pictures. By the end it was all about getting it done and not recording it for posterity. But at least I took pictures of the fun parts.

The design was a good one, a proper rep set with a single main structure and various elements that would distinguish between scenes and between the two show themselves. One of the distinguishing features of The Barber of Seville was giant rendering of oranges that hung in the skyline above the main wall. Due to a theatrical trick two identical flats were needed. These were initially intended to be fabric drops, but due to the cut out shapes on the top it was easier to do these as hard, fabric covered flats. Otherwise it would have been a rigging nightmare.

Here you get a rare picture of me actually working on something. Being the only painter, I don't get pictures of me working on something that often anymore. Here I am gluing the muslin to the flats. The curves of the leaves and oranges meant a lot of clipping and wrapping of small sections as I wrapped the fabric over the edge of the luan.

All done, glued and sized, they are ready for painting.

After I laid in a base color, I pounced the basic shapes. If I only were doing one, I would have just drawn on the flats and skipped the pounce. But since I had two that had to match, it saved a lot of time to do a pounce.

Then I started to paint. The style was a very loose, watercolor look that I achieved with lots of watery layers of color.

The final touches were the white washes and black 'pencil' lines.

The other fun piece on this project was the bull fighter painting used in Carmen. I know I took more process photos but I did it on three different cameras, including my cell phone. These are the ones that I have on the hard drive at the moment, but at least they are the finish photos.

I like how the placement of the fan works with the flow of the cape on this one. All by accident too.

I also gilded the frame with the left over leaf from last year's ceiling project.

As I said before, there was much, much more to the set that I didn't get pictures of.

Now onto to a new season!

Tommy can you hear me?

2009-06-01T12:31:00.003-04:00

I'm being prodded to post, so here it is. I have two good reasons for being lax on updating here. One is the very cute little gentleman who brought plague to the house and then learned how to crawl. He's now pulling up on everything and attempting to walk unaided less than two weeks of learning to pull up. Evel Knievel actions with similar results.

The other is that the last few shows were tremendous aggrivations and I really haven't wanted to revisit them. But here we go:

Tommy
Oh I had such high hopes for this show. I love Tommy. I know every word and I was positively giddy when I found out it was going to be our spring musical. (and being built after I was back from maternity leave). The due date for designs came...and went. Finally draftings arrived but only for the main structure of the set. Nothing else. No set pieces and no color. For those of you who don't know Tommy, set wise it is a show about two things: a wardrobe with a mirror and a pinball machine. You can sum up most shows into an item or two that are critical to the show itself. Noises Off, for example, is about doors (and sardines). The Fantasticks is a show about a trunk. Well, my point here (and I do have one) is that neither the wardrobe nor the pinball machine was included in the first drawings we received.

To make a long story short (too late), information tricked in bit by bit, or not at all. Color was over a month late. The designer would ignore our requests for information. He never sent the model that he had completed. There were battles over non-issues (we can't paint the stage floor means we CAN'T paint the stage floor). In the end the designer pretty much walked away from the whole thing and we worked it out on our own.

Having never received an iota of information on the pinball machine I did a lot of research and came up with a design on my own. (I now know way too much about the history of pinball machines). We luckily have a pinball machine in our shop, though a very 80's one. With a little tweaking from my very talented husband we got it running. I found and replaced all the rubbers and worked up some new upper cabinet art. Our TD scored some plexi from a hockey rink to replace the glass on the playfield as the actor was climbing all over the machine. In the end it worked out pretty well. And now we have a functioning (though rather boring) pinball machine in our breakroom.

The main part of the set consisted of painted brick walls and a lot of white pipe railings, supports and beams. At least the brick was fun, though the time constraint due to the lateness of everything meant I was doing it all without proper sampleing. At least I got to break out the mega-brick stencil. Though I think it has seen it's last show. The stencil is falling apart and a little too unweildy for one person to easily use.

I started by painting all the walls with the grout color, using a lot of sprays to get the right texture.

Then I figured out the repeat on the stencil and where to begin on the walls (more measuring and math).

Then it was painting, painting, painting. I did the brick in more sprays, mostly using hand sprayer and some Prevals.

When it was done I did the shadows and the highlights.

Out of all the brick I've painted (oh and I've painted a lot) this was probably the one I was the least happy with. Had I more time I think I would have painted and then masked out the grout with tape. That would have allowed me to do more brush work on the bricks. (For those who are curious, I think my favorite bricks were the split homosote that were gooed and then painted with a compound piped in with pastry bags for the mortar. I'll have to find pictures somewhere)

This is the only picture I have of the wardrobe in progress. By the end we were in such a rush that there just wasn't the time to take pictures. The brown things are papertowels to protect the confetti cannons that are used in the shattered mirror effect.

Here it is in the show (picture taken by my TD)

The one truly fun project on the show was the Tommy's Holiday Camp sign. Again, time didn't allow for a lot of process pictures. Here it is being pounced:

And here it is before it was drilled for the lights. The words 'holiday camp' were spelled out in tiny light bulbs.

So that was Tommy, which led into the rep shows that had a lot of the same problems. Poor design, late and incomplete information, not much time, but this time the designer was also our Shop Foreman. Things got rather unpleasant and tense for quite a while. And since I'm a breastfeeding Momma, I couldn't drown my frustrations in gin and tonics, as I usually would.

The two shows were The Idiot Box and The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue. I only have a few pictures of Learned Ladies completed. Of the other I only have what my TD took. I had two and half weeks to paint two full sets, so pictures just didn't happen. Honestly, I don't even want to post pictures of them. I'm not proud of the work at all.

There I think we are all caught up. Now onto the Opera reps (both fun and beautiful)

Turquoise

2009-02-19T13:27:00.003-05:00

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.

What's Opera Doc?

2008-12-27T12:54:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-21T07:54:00.002-05:00

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.

sigh

2008-08-28T19:30:00.002-04:00

I'd be posting new photos of what I've been working on lately if I didn't have to spend my evening staring at pixels in PhotoShop just trying to get a decent enough rendering to use. Pregzilla really wants to beat this designer to a pulp. This designer is very PhotoShop dependent, he doesn't paint or draw any renderings. So I've got blurry drawings to work from....that is for the few drawings I have. *sigh*

So here I am listening to Weird Al while I manipulate pixels.

Madame Butterfly Ceiling

2008-07-29T21:51:00.004-04:00

This was my favorite project for this job, despite the challenges.

This is the rendering I received. What the rendering is lacking is information explaining that the background is gold leaf. Unfortunately I didn't get that information until we had bid for the job and ordered the paint. The panels were designed to be heavyweight muslin stretched over a steel frame. This would be the first time I ever gilded fabric. I went with imitation leaf to save on cost and for size. The rendering shows squares that are 6 3/4 inches....the largest leaf I could obtain was 6 1/4 inches. The designer had no issue with the change.

I treated the fabric as I would any drop; squaring it out, stapling it down, starching and basecoating. The base color is the color between the squares on the rendering.

I drew the florals out on grided craft paper and made a pounce. Then I pounced with with powdered charcoal and then markered it.

First I laid in the major areas of color:

Then the black areas:

Then the rest of the color went down:

It got a couple coats of sealer to make sure the sizing would sit on top of the fabric.

We decided to stretch them on the frames before I gilded them. I took me much of a day to apply the gold leaf sizing to the fabric. The sizing was brushed on all the areas where the gold leaf would remain.This is what it looked like after a day of applying the leaf. I had about a 36 hour window from when I applied the sizing to adhere the leaf. I would apply the size one day, then the leaf the next. The third day I would clean up the edges and burnish it.

This shows what an area looks like after it has been leafed.

This is how I ended up removing the leaf from the areas where there was no sizing, as well as burnishing it into the fabric.

And this is what the same area looks like after. It was like I had a magic brush and the painting just miraculously appeared from it.

And here are the finished pieces:

Ooohhh....shiny.

So that is it. I sealed them since the imitation leaf has a tendency to tarnish. I would probably change a few things if I were to do it again. I'm not sure I would stretch it first the next time, or not. We did have some issues with sag; the sizing pulled it tight but it ended up sagging again later. Some of it has to do with the size and some with how it was stretched to begin with.

Cave Drop

2008-07-29T21:05:00.002-04:00

This project was one I dreaded from the moment I saw the rendering. The drop is based on a picture of a chalkboard full of math/science jargon. My main concern was getting all of that writing onto the drop. I lack a large projection wall.

Here is the drop, starched, and base coated. I think this is the first time I remembered to put the bridges in before stapling it all down. I sprayed and broomed the base coat.

Then came the gradual sprays

Then it came time for the words. I ended up having to draw it all out by hand. I have no clue what I was writing.

Then it came to paint...this is the part that really I really had issues with. I wanted to make it look as if it were written with chalk, as opposed to painted with a brush. Sometimes I can get obsessed with a perfectionist detail. I searched for something to use, time and budget working against me. I ended up settling and doing it with a brush.

The colors of the writing fade from strong and bright in the middle to barely readable in the dark edges.

The other challenge I found was that the person who wrote on the chalkboard was left-handed. I'm not.

I don't seem to have a picture of the completely finished drop. The bottom is jagged cut. I did do a bit more painting after this picture adding more chalky smudges and some overall sprays to break up the lettering more.

Doors and Yoga Balls

2008-07-29T20:19:00.002-04:00

These are more set pieces for Opera North's production of The Magic Flute. These are the doors used in scene at the gates of the temple. The lettering is hand done, first in pencil and then with paint pens. I use to resist paint pens, thinking that using them meant that I couldn't do it the "right" or "real" way. I've gotten over that. They are a tool, that's all. I know I can do it by hand with a brush, but if a paint pen can save me time, then I'm all for it.

Nature:

Reason:

Wisdom:

The wisdom door is only functioning door out of the bunch.

Another miscellaneous project was large 'yoga' balls painted with scientific symbols to be used in the scene with the Cave Drop (next post). The most difficult part of this project was finding balls large enough for what the designer specified. Spheres are expensive in any material; when you go above 24 inches the costs get astronomical. The designer requested balls that were 5 and 6 feet across. We ended up using large beach balls, but even then we had to settle for smaller sizes.

These are the larger balls...the smaller ones are the old fashioned beach balls of color segments. The trick is to inflate the balls, paint them, and keep them inflated. They have short rings of sonotube glued to the bottom with construction adhesive to keep them from rolling, especially since they will be on a raked stage. I coated the balls with a mixture of Flexbond, Sculpt or Coat, and tint. This give the balls a durable and flexible skin to keep the air in and will allow the paint to stick. I applied two coats of this.

The next step was the solid base coat; a mixture of paint, tint, and Flexbond. The addition of the glue to the paint makes sure it will adhere to the surface as well as making sure it won't flake off. It took two coats of coverage to completely kill the colors of the beach balls. Then I projected the symbols on the balls, and painted them in.

Here's the finished product:

Scrim replay

2008-05-27T20:14:00.002-04:00

Remember the scrim from Macbeth/Midsummer? Well it came back to torment me again. This time we recycled it for Opera North. How does such a thing happen? Same designer. He's great about reusing and recycling set pieces, as well working within our budget restraints.

We knew before hand that we would be reusing this, and therefore were careful when we removed it from it's frame. The new configuration for The Magic Flute was much smaller. I was able to get the three panels needed out of two of the original, attempting to keep the flow the the clouds together.

Using the orginal scrim as a base, I needed to add some blue to the bottom and some line drawings. You may recognize these drawings from the Zodiac Drop. I had hoped they would be the same size as the drop, so that I could reuse the pounce. No such luck. Instead I drew the figures onto the paper under the scrim, where I could just see them through the scrim.

Here's a view while painting. If you look closely you can see the black sharpie lines beneath the scrim. There is a view of the rendering as well (albeit upside down) The yellow is a muslin overlay that you'll see below.

And here it is complete:

On to the overlay. This should have been easy. Unfortunately the rendering wasn't in scale. At least he did label it as such, unlike some other designers this year. I went off of the drafting for size of the panels as well as placement of the eye. The pupil eventually is cut out to show the scrim below, so that placement was important. I hand drew all of the glyphs as opposed to projecting and pouncing them. I had to be a little creative in placement as there was more space on the rendering than on the actual pieces.

And here they are complete. All that was left to do was cut out the pupil....which I did but didn't take a picture of.

And there it is....onto the next project.

The zodiac drop

2008-05-03T20:46:00.003-04:00

This is the project that I was just giddy over getting. I'd been hoping for something fun, challenging, and good for the portfolio all year. This designer doesn't seem to let me down, at least not right now. (he designed these two rep shows, as well as the two operas I am currently working on)
Isn't that the coolest. So how to go about this lovely thing. I had settled on a pounce rather quickly. I had wanted to project onto the pounce paper, but not having a wall big enough squashed that idea. Besides I had a fair amount of time to kill before the next bit of stuff was ready and the drop hadn't arrived yet. So I drew it on gridded craft paper. (thank the gods for gridded paper)

As you can see it takes up pretty much my whole paint deck. Here's a close up of my drawing of Capricorn (of which I am). You can see the grid lines on the paper. The red crosses are marking out every square foot since a horrible head cold plagued me at the time and I kept getting lost. I only drew the necessary details and not every little line. I also didn't bother with the numbers or lettering.

When the drawing was complete I pounced away. I had a bit of carpet that I put under the paper and moved it around , rolling the paper up as I went. That was an uncomfortable day or two crawling around on the floor.

Then the drop came. I flipped the floor paper over so I would have a clean surface, and squared out a box. Next the drop is stapled down and starched. I have a secret love for newly starched drops. They are so clean and beautiful (if done right) and so Zen. They have the potential to be anything, but are still nothing. The scenic's version of the Uncarved Block.

Next was the base coat. It was sprayed and broomed on, then several more layers of spray, fading the edges darker.

Then we roll out the pounce, being sure to line it up with the drop.

Since I was pouncing over a dark color I used baby powder instead of powdered charcoal. I've had trouble with the white chalk for chalk lines in the past. And as our ATD pointed out, the shop even smelled like babies. To pounce I filled a cheese cloth bag with powder and attached it to a bamboo so I could do this process while standing. The less crawling the better. And yes, that's a guy's butt.

Once all the lines are powdered, the pounce is carefully rolled up. This is not something to be done in haste as one can smudge the pounced drop or cause air to force more powder though, sometime creating a double image.

And here how it looks with the paper removed. Time to paint.

Here's a close up of Sagittarius.

This is my nifty little paint basket to carry my paint and water around without marring the drop.

My brush is held in a bamboo, (much like the pounce bag) to keep me on my feet while working. Bless the person who first though of this. You can see the progress from powder to paint in this picture, as well as the paint basket and the rendering I am working from.

Again another detail.

This is what it looked like after a full day's painting. I kept moving around depending on what was wet and what I felt like dealing with that point in the day. Virgo was by far the biggest challenge.

And here it is. I did all the numbering and lettering free hand.

And there she is...my baby. This drop is definitely a keeper.

I should have show pictures in a week or two. I'll be out of town this next week and no computer access until I get back. Wait until you see the projects before me now.

Dandelion fairies

2008-05-03T20:09:00.003-04:00

I have a ton of pictures to show...I'll do them by project and then the finished shows. When I finished the scrim it was onto the Dandelion Fairies for A Midsummer Night's Dream. These were a bit of a challenge due to the fact that the heads had to be lighted. It was a collaborative project between me and the head carpenter, with a little of the TD as well.

This was the drawing given to me to work from:

And here they are almost ready for me:

The poles look like birch trees because they were recycled sonotube from another show. We reuse as much as possible. The torsos came from this place.

I started draping the girls...it took a little while to get a good technique down. It makes it much easier to drape when you can staple right into their bodies. Most people won't let you do that. I padded out their hips with some batting. I also had to leave flaps in the back to access the light switches for the heads.

When they were all draped I coated them with Sculpt or Coat to attach the fabric to the torsos and give it a little more stability. I try to make things bomb proof, especially when they are being handled by students. Then it was sprayed with a coat of flat white.

Then came the fun part. I sprayed the green. The taller ones were a bit of a challenge trying to maneuver the spray gun and my pregnant belly on a ladder. Since I was using a small detail sprayer I kept having to refill often. Hey, it's better than a stair-master.

I also painted the leaves as I did the bodies. I didn't want to have to keep cleaning the gun as I changed colors. Having the sink so far from my working area makes me plan this things out a lot more.

Then onto the blue spray. After I did some more touch up with the green.

And here's a finished lady sans head. The lining on the leaves was done with an airbrush.

Here's the frames for the heads, including their nifty light sources. Around these frames I shaped and sewed polyester batting. Our head carpenter then spray glued another layer on, which I fluffed. I don't have process pictures of that. You'll see when I post the show pictures. They did have a neat effect though.

And here's the dirty mess my paper was after the scrim, some white panels (we ended up cutting) and the fairies. I didn't want to lay my next project down on this, so I flipped the paper over. I try to make it last as long as possible. Theatre isn't the most earth friendly business so I try to do what I can.

Scrim...

2008-03-16T16:27:00.002-04:00

How I hate thee...

For those not of the theatrical ilk, scrim is this wondrous material that designers love and painters hate. Here is a good example of what it looks like. It has to be painted in light mulitple layers, as not to fill the holes. One must also constantly pick at it to keep it from gluing itself to the paper as it dries. Since you are painting threads with holes, the paint on the paper underneath can deceive you as to how the actual scrim itself looks. It just is a finikey product that causes me to compose songs about how much I hate it as I paint it. Plus as the paper wrinkles with moisture underneath it creates a fabulous moire effect that does not go well with morning sickness. (oh, by the way, I'm pregnant)

But here it is...

This is what I get when it comes out of the box. From this I will cut my pieces and attempt to square them up. This is far easier on a scrim that is a sewn as a finished drop, but not always. These will be stretched over steel frames that will track on and off as well as fly out. Only half my floor is papered here because I ran out. It was that kind of week.

Here I have drawn squared out boxes on the papered floor to the size needed (finished size plus extra for wrapping). Then I primed it with four light sprays of thinned out white latex paint. Each spray is done from a different direction in an attempt to get all of the threads. I have no clue if that actually works, but it's what I do. Sort of my own little old painter's tale. You can see numbers and lines on the floor to mark out the scrim in one foot increments. This is to help me keep my place while painting the design.

I begin with the botom blue sprays. I did this with a Binks automotive spray gun.

Then I laid in the base green at the top.

From there I finessed and futzed with it until it looked like the drawing below. Then I gently pulled the staples and rolled them on to tubes to await load-in.

The colors on the rendering below are a bit different from the actual hard copy that I have to work from. I think I did well. We will see when it is stretched in the theatre and hung in place. I'll have pictures once we load in...sometime in April.

So there it is...on to the next project

On the Town

2008-02-24T13:32:00.004-05:00

I've had these pictures set up to post for over a week now. I think I just want to not think about this show anymore. But here it is. These are my adventures painting On the Town.

This is what I called Girder land. Eventually these were assembled into about 20 foot tall girders, three on each side of the stage. I'll get the assembled pictures when I go for touch ups this week.

As you can see they took up most of my paint deck.

Did I mention the lights running up the side of each of these. Here are all the sockets. And more sockets.

These lovelies are the rivets. Actually this is pretty clever on the part of the scene shop. These began life as plugs or feet for conduit type metal tubes. They cut off the part that would go into the pipe and voila you have a lovely rivet looking dome. The only thing is since they are plastic it is a challenge to get the paint to stay on.

These are the beautiful light fixtures that I was forced to paint to match said girders. That was the painful part. Sometimes in this job you have to take something really beautiful and make it ugly. It's enough to make you cry sometimes. I didn't use a primer and the blue is a latex so we are hoping to get the paint off after.

On to the other set elements. What is to follow is a bunch of before and after bits, so not a lot of description will be required.

Kitchen cart before and after.

Piano before and after.

Window...I don't seem to have a before. This was pretty much the only piece that wasn't straight color. It fades from the lighter brown in the top left corner to a darker brown to the bottom right.

Subway before and after.

Stage before and after.

Stage with its "footlights".

Nedick's counter before and after. This was one of those drawings that wasn't exactly in scale.

Cafe sets before... I have a few more step by step of these to show how I painted them without killing my back.

Painting the underside.

Painting the top.

The gold set (yes the table is a different color)

and the matching sign.

The 'red' set (the table and one chair match, other chairs different colors)

The sign during and after painting.

The blue set (again table and chair match, other chairs different colors)

Sign during and after.

This project was fun. This is a dinosaur skeleton that is knocked down in the action of the musical. Each piece is attached to a stick and held up by a crew member. The two legs have handles on the back for the same reason. I haven't seen how the tumble is choreographed but it should be interesting. I was very happy how this came out.

Lined and cut out luan.

Primed...you can still see the sharpie lines through the primer.

Painted in shadow color.

Then paint the bone color.

Then the black. The black just made the whole thing pop.

Here it is. I may have to hang this on the shop walls after the show. I became very fond of "Rex".

And here it is all in the end of my shop ready to go.

This was a finished a few weeks ago. I've since moved on to the next show. This one was a bit of a hassle due to the designer. I was emailed paint chip numbers which I had to find at Home Depot. I mixed the bulk of the color myself using scenic paints. Only the girders we had mixed at the store to have a paint with sheen. My biggest frustration were the "paint elevations" that he emailed me. Just slapping a scale legend on them (a box that tells you what scale a drawing is in eg. 1'=1" or 1'=1/2") does not make the drawing in scale. Six or seven out of my nine elevations were not in scale. I luckly won't be meeting this designer. He was here only for the weekend and will be gone by the time I'm back at work on Monday.

So there it is. I'm completely psyched about the next show. Lots of fun and painterly stuff.

Back again

2008-01-22T21:11:00.000-05:00

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. There just has been very little to show. We had holiday break and then very little painting. But now things are picking up.

So what's a scenic to do when a turntable is red for most of the opera but has to be white for one scene?

Make a turn table cosy of course.

This lovely little number is made out of muslin and took about two days to do. The first day I stitched together two pieces for the top, trimmed it to the circle, marked a seam line and basted the sides on (inside out). The second day was sewing the sides on. I left the hemming until it was in place and all the facing was on. It was quite difficult not to embroider some funky little thing on this. Oh and I hand stitched the hem too. We plan on salvedging the fabric when the opera is over. Hopefully they won't want it whiter and make me paint it.

The big project at my feet right now is On The Town. This has been somewhat of a troubled show from the beginning. The original director (who is an adjunct professor at the school sometimes) insisted on bringing in his own design team, instead of our usual options. Whatever...then he backs out of the show, two weeks before designs are due. The scene designer decides to stick with the project, as did the costume designer. The lighting designer didn't. We get a new director and all is well...or not. Designs didn't come when due. We go on holiday break. When we return partial designs arrive, but no color renderings. Then we find out I'm not getting renderings. He's going to send me paint chip numbers from Home Depot!!! So I am essentially painting a set by numbers. I've gotten a few computer drawings (not true to color) with the paint chip numbers labeling them. I might find it a little hard to be pleasant when I meet this guy. He doesn't even give me a sheen, just numbers or vague descriptions like "light steel" and "dark steel". *big eye roll*

So that's my job. Some of the drawings are rather rough, or questionable in intent. But at least I have plenty to work on. Oh and I didn't even get into the tale of the graphics....I'll save that for a later day.

I should have some other pictures of this set soon. Right now I'm in the land of the never ending blue girders. Unfortunately since it is paint by number, that means there aren't any real fun scenic-y treatments. But some of the future designs for the year hold promise.

Not a lot of action

2007-12-18T08:19:00.000-05:00

I got the point and will keep this blog going. Thanks for the comments everyone. I just wasn't sure that people were looking.

Things have been slow at work and I've done little to no painting. After Christmas I'll get the blog going again. I need to get my portfolio into flickr to post those pics and show some past work.

I'm curious

2007-11-20T10:49:00.000-05:00

Does anyone read this? Lisa is the only one who comments. Hrm, maybe a contest is in order. Painting for comments or something...I'll think about it.

Monday news

2007-11-19T08:10:00.001-05:00

Not really what one hopes to hear when one gets up on Monday...

for one talks fell through on the Local 1 Stagehands strike.

and then this: Student dies at Yale Rep.
Update article.

Theatrical accidents are never good, but do bring to light many sketchy things that we do. How many of us have done something risky and nowhere near OSHA approved thinking "oh I'll be fine." I have a friend who broke his back falling from a ladder while hanging lights. Too many times a cavalier attitude is taken towards safety. We've all done it, some sporatically, some with frightening consistency. I use to get mocked for wearing my respirator, and scoffed at when I told others (mainly carpenters) to put on theirs. I'm forever yelling at love to put his on. I don't know where this attitude comes from....well I know where mine comes from. I'm ashamed to say much of mine comes from the fact that I'm a 5'2" petite female in a male dominated business. For some reason toughness and lack of safety sense have been linked and I was sucked into that mindset while fighting to prove myself. Thankfully I've learned (for the most part) since then. Robb's accident really shook me up, as did meeting and learning from Monona Rossol (who totally rocks by the way). Pregnancy is a huge wake up call. I can tell you that I don't plan on losing another baby by doing something irresponsible and stupid to prove how tough I am; or how hard core old school I am either. It's not worth it.

Ok enough of my early morning soap box rant. Happy Monday.

Loading in

2007-11-18T17:52:00.000-05:00

Wednesday we started load in, which involves loading all the scenery from the shop into a truck (usually in multiple trips) and taking it to the theatre to assemble on stage. This process also involves a lot of coffee, ibuprofen and swearing.

Here's a few pictures of the process...

It has been fun, tiring and some time frustrating. I've done work that I've not done in years. Most places the scenic doesn't do load in. On the last show I was still painting much of the set. I told the guys flat out that I'd do what I could but I couldn't guarantee that I would know what I was doing. I think I impressed the pants off of some of them with how hard I worked (and my gutter mind). Friday ended with issues regarding the scrim foliage for the tree and a rendering that defies all laws of physics. Tomorrow will be interesting.

Oak, Lots o' Oak

2007-11-18T17:44:00.000-05:00

Before we started load in this week I was painting furniture like crazy. Tons of Oak. Here's some pictures of the process.

This desk started out painted flat black, blue and grey. I forgot to get a picture of the before. I'm rather proud of how it turned out.

I know some of the pictures are quite blurry. I just can't seem to take non-blurry ones with this camera lately.
To save space backstage we're using this desk as three different pieces. To change the look we have inserts for the panels:

and a wrap-around facing:

Out out damn spot...

2007-11-04T11:26:00.000-05:00

Macbeth is done and is being struck as I write. But here it is:

Remember the rendering I was given little over a month ago? I'm not sure the branches ever made it up. That is a topic I'd rather avoid discussing. There is always one thing in a show that is irksome and laborious. Those damn branches were it on this one. I have more detailed pictures but they are quite blurry. Love is going to take a few shots before strike today.

Here is the head, the rake and some of the cloud boxes:

Load in looked like this after the first night. We got the tiles on the rake and I sealed them. The eye was hung and the drippy blood installed. I'm still painting the clock. That's the blue blob on the floor.

This after the second night. The clock, the arch and the head were installed. The clock is still missing it's numbers and hands in this shot.

Here's a picture of the stage right proscenium flats. This is the first time that we have wrapped them to the side walls. The wood paneling there is quite a curse but I refuse to paint it black as has been suggested at times. As I point out, such a thing is easy to paint but a pain in the ass to un-paint as no doubt would be requested.

This is one of my favorite parts of the set...the drippy blood over the front edge of the stage. The stairs were designed to be all red. I felt that looked horrible once I laid in the primer coat. I suggested to the designer that we continue the drippy blood look and she agreed. I think it works quite well

I'm glad it is done. I'll be painting Macbeth for the University later this season so it seems I can never escape the show. Fitting though. I was in Macbeth when I decided to switch my major from art to theatre.

More Clapboards

2007-11-03T14:54:00.001-04:00

For those of you who thought my clapboard hell ended with the pretty wall never fear...
these are the side walls.

I actually finished these a few weeks ago.

I've actually finished a bunch of other things not worth taking pictures of and I'm waiting for them to finish building the last piece. So I've been bored...incredibly bored.

skies in our eyes

2007-10-17T22:41:00.000-04:00

Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.
Jules Feiffer
US cartoonist & satirist (1929 - )

I've been living sky lately, haven't I? I've been a busy girl...

I did some more work on the bloody head:

This is the beginnings of the proscenium stage right:

And then there are the cloud boxes. These are 8 multi-functional boxes used throughout the show. When first seen they look like this:

Here they must work as a whole. But then the clouds must work all around each box as well. You can see some of that here on the side.

But there is more. For the banquet scene they are lined across the stage and have silhouettes of chess pieces on them.

Again it all has to work over the whole box:

And here's how I added the silhouettes.

I started with a full scale line drawing of the pieces. I used a big safety pin and a pounce wheel to poke holes in the line. That was laid over a painted box. Then I take a little muslin bag filled with powdered charcoal and "pounce" it over the holes. Let me tell you it is hard to take a picture of yourself doing this.

This is the result:

From here I ink the charcoal outline.

After that I just fill in the outline with paint. This is a good process if you have to repeat a pattern. I used a single pounce for all the fire escapes/windows in this production of West Side Story. For the reverse I merely cleaned off the pounce and flipped it over.

Clapboards...continued

2007-10-17T22:30:00.000-04:00

Well the big pretty wall is finished. I finished it on Friday. We struck Caucasian Chalk Circle on Monday morning and picked this wall up on Monday afternoon. It was too large to get a good shot from above but here it is in two pictures.

And this is the infamous breakthrough. Not a total disaster. I did have a few foot print marks but they disappeared with subsequent sprays. Overall I think I'm happy with it. We'll see what the designer says. The wall is way the heck upstage anyway.

Clapboards...endless clapboards.

2007-10-11T20:41:00.000-04:00

How I hate clapboards. I've painted about 70 sheets of lauan ripped into 6" boards. The lighting designer requested that the edges be painted dark gray. Whatever...so I prime the good side with a roller, let dry, flip over paint the edges and back (as back paint) dark gray, let dry, flip over and then prime the good side again to cover any spooges of the gray. Plus lauan is thirsty and needed two coats on the good side. I think that took me about a week done in two batches. I developed some lovely blisters on my hands. What are all those boards for???

This:

This rendering is what is provided by the designer to work from. The odd reflection is from the plastic wrap I put over it to protect the original. This allows me to draw on it as needed. I've drawn the clapboards on the colored wall as well as the structual breaks in the wall. Half of the clapboards will go to the colored wall on the left and half will be grey walls on the right.

Here is the wall ready for me to paint. Per the designer, I need not go with the rigid pixelated look of the rendering. That is there because he just ran it through a Photoshop filter. Some days I think Photoshop is the worst thing to happen to scenics.

This is after the first day of painting. I'm using both a larger pneumatic sprayer and the smaller detail gun. The cans along the bottom indicate where the framing is underneath, running top to bottom. Those are the only safe places to step. So I am balancing on 1x framing on 30" centers while trying to manipulate a sprayer and hose and not step in wet paint while following the rendering. I still prefer this to retail.

After second day.

After third day (today) Sad to say this was the day I broke through one of the boards...cracked it more really. Nothing a little glue and gaff tape can't fix. I hope to have this complete tomorrow. Then I can move onto the gray walls.

Macbeth progress

2007-10-11T20:11:00.000-04:00

Here's the pictures I mentioned.

These are all the checkerboard tiles for the raked platform. I have a feeling once the are in they will need a coat of sealer. Otherwise they are done.

This is the big, bloody head. She needs a little work on her shadows on the side of her face.

Otherwise I've been doing things that really don't warrant pictures. There are 8 cubes that get a cloud/sky design and chess pieces on them. I've merely turned them blue at the moment. Tonight I primed the stage right procenium walls and painted the stage left one (singular as only one was available to me tonight) black. The clock flat will go on top of these two. Now the clock hands move. The primed ones are the clouds and doorway stuff. I like to let primer cure overnight, especially when it is raining this much.

Progress

2007-10-07T15:56:00.000-04:00

Well, I think the head is done. I may do a little tweaking later tonight. I have a few hours off right now.
I finished the third coat on the black tiles and have the third to go on the white, then those will be complete until installed. I may find that they need a coat of sealer later, but I'd like them to cure first. The can says full cure takes ten days.
Frankly the eye is just pissing me off. There's always one project that just kills me. I think this is it. I'm going to pull it up and attach it to the flat once love finishes building it tonight. The flat would be done but the breaker in the shop tripped the other day and we don't have access to the breaker panel. We put in a request to remedy this but they haven't done it yet. So after love is done with strike for his full time job, he's gonna string an extension cord across the parking lot to finish this. Tomorrow starts his 88 hour week. Yes, I did say EIGHTY EIGHT hour work week. And upper management signed off on those hours.
Anywho, I'll finish the eye once it is on the flat. I need to get it in place and look at it from the audience before I pass final judgment on how it is going.

plugging away

2007-10-07T09:30:00.000-04:00

I've been insanely busy with these two shows...not to mention insomnia and a surprise UTI after doctor's hours that cost me half a days painting yesterday. I'll have some pictures and details soon.

Macbeth

2007-09-29T18:15:00.001-04:00

This is the design for Macbeth.

Fun, no?
The influence are M.C. Escher, Salvador Dali, and Magritte.

I am starting with the Eye flat. Since we don't have our lumber yet, I am painting the fabric as I would a drop and then we will glue it to the flat. I tell the tale of our muslin woes on my Gothknits blog. First I draw a box on the floor the size of the muslin and staple it down. I will at some point do a step by step of this process, but not now. Often it isn't smooth and pretty when stapled down.

That is what starch is for. Just plain old laundry starch. After it is applied and dries you get something that looks like this:

Then I brushed on a base coat (in this case a pale grey) and the then two sprays of the same color. From there I snapped lines indicating the outer edges of the flat. I also marked some grid lines outside the muslin to help keep everything in the proper proportions. I sketched out the major details; the pupil, the iris, the eyelid and folds.

The little ho-ha in the center is a skully I drew in homage to the original artwork. In our version the pupil will be a hole in the flat.

Then I started painting. I am painting it with pneumatic sprayers (like this and this) to keep the look of the original piece.This is what I had at the end of this stint of painting. I was getting frustrated with it and needed to stop. I also needed some parts to hook up my airbrush to my air supply.

Tree

2007-09-29T18:02:00.000-04:00

Not much has been built yet for the next University show. Actually we just got our lumber delivery on Thursday, during lunch of course. So far all I have done is laid out the tree for the carpenters to cut out. We laid out the lauan on my paint deck and I drew from the designer's drafting. The tree will be solid while the leaves will be done in scrim so when lit from behind you will see the solid branches.

I snapped out a 1 foot grid on the upper portions to keep me sane. The x's mark the areas to be cut out. I actually pulled out one of my old art tricks I learned back in high school for this...Draw the negative spaces. This means rather than drawing the branches of the tree I drew the spaces between them. Much much easier. Hey I don't have a lot of sanity to spare. Anything to save what I can.

I also drew most of it upside down. I find it helpful when I am looking too much a the whole thing and just getting lost. Looking at it upside down gives a fresh perspective and you see things you didn't before. When I worked in framing at the retail store, we always faced the art towards the customer. Seeing upside down helped us to look at the colors rather than the subject of the art.

The Shop

2007-09-29T17:25:00.000-04:00

Well I finally got a chance to clean the shop and quasi-organize it to my liking. I re-papered the floor as well. I've managed to find some strange things amongst the supplies. Like old fashioned hair dryers...the ones where there's a bag over your head. There's two of them...for what I have no clue. But here's a few pictures of my home away from home. (Sorry they're so blurry. I can't really tell until I upload them here at home)

This is my "desk" area. Yeah it's right next to the file cabinet. I just repainted that bulletin board as well. I need a picture to hang above that and cover that nasty old Romex cable.

This is a view of my space from my desk.

This is it from the garage door. The beyond area is the scene shop. The openness makes for a dusty area, so I have to be vigilant about cleaning. And coordinate things like using polyurethane at times they aren't creating dust.

Here's my paint mixing area:

And here is further down the wall with my brush board. Bit by bit I've been painting all my shelves gloss black. I usually go white with these things but the black was the only gloss I had. I prefer the gloss because it holds up better and is easier to clean. Plus gloss black is just sexy.

So this is where I spend my days.

Update

2007-09-23T15:54:00.001-04:00

I know I've been horrible about posting here. I've just been so friggin' tired. I got the opera done and out on time. I took a few pictures, merely for the blog. This is nothing that I would put in my portfolio.

These are the two sides of double sided flats. There were a whole other set of flats that are doorways and bookcases to go with these. The swirly ones are for a dream sequence. What really got me is that when this project was pitched to me it was described as 9 wood-grained flats. Does that look like 9 wood-grained flats to you?!?!?!

No pictures of Caucasian Chalk Circle yet. Not very exciting scenery....just yucky old wood so I didn't take any process shots. Umber, umber and more umber...not exciting stuff. I'll get some pictures of the whole shebang.

Its funny. I jumped into two shows a little late (it would have been better to start me earlier but hey) and now halfway through the load in period we're pretty much done. I even got out early on Friday. Monday is about cleaning up, re-papering the floor, seeing what I have and organizing it all. Yes the space you saw below is my designated paint area. Lucky there is a paint floor laid in. Plywood and then homasote I believe. I know the homasote is there...can't see below that. X-ray vision is on the fritz. This is a big improvement from what they used to have in this space. Once upon a time they would ram set 1 x 3's to the floor to stretch drops onto.

I'm having to learn what level I need to paint at. This is rather hard to explain. I always try to give my level best, but some places expectations are higher than others. I always try to go the distance at the high school, but then again it's just a high school. I'll give them my LORT B level work if time permits. I'm not saying I'm doing crap work, just not my top shelf stuff. Does that make sense? So I'm trying to see what level I need to be at this job.

Speaking of the high school, Monday is our production meeting for the fall Shakespeare play. We're doing Macbeth. I refuse to refer to it as the "Scottish play". I personally think all the superstition around the play is just crap. But actors are touchy people so last time I was involved in a production (this is my 3rd or 4th go round) we dubbed it MacBubba. And that is what I shall call it. I haven't seen any drawings of it yet.

First week

2007-09-09T19:14:00.000-04:00

I made it through my first week. Thursday was a frustrating day where it felt like everything was going in slow motion. Friday I got far more accomplished and went home feeling much better. The weekend has been about recovery. My body is so incredibly sore. I nearly forgot how physical this actually is on a daily basis. Plus I've been on physical restrictions lately with the surgery. But I made it. I had to jump right into two separate shows that need to be done yesterday, so its a little harried, but I love it. Once these shows are done I'll have a chance to set up the shop the way I would like it and get into my groove.

Here's a quick and horrible picture of my working space. Once I get it to my liking I'll do a more in depth picture tour. However notice the lack of sink. See the wall on the right??? That is an area rented out to another business and our sink and bathroom is in there. A challenge to say the least. I start my day bringing out a few buckets of water to my area for mixing and tossing used brushes into.

I hope to have a few pictures of what I am painting this week. It's very rush rush right now and pictures are the last thing on my mind. I'm painting by the seat of my pants, samples being a luxury I cannot afford at the moment. Nothing like full scale samples to make the days interesting.

grrr

2007-09-05T21:33:00.000-04:00

I had forgotten how much I hate painting Broadway (soft covered) flats. I haven't done them since college. And just forget about wood graining the suckers.

Busy day today with two shows on my paint deck. I'm a little overwhelmed and will probably stay late tomorrow to catch up. They really should have had me start last week. It's tough enough to do this when you know your space, but worse when I have no clue what I have, or where it is.

I'm off to bed. I forgot how physical this job is. Last night I slept like I haven't in a long, long time.

I made it

2007-09-05T07:52:00.000-04:00

through my first day. A mixture of laid back and busy. I was given the shop tour and walked through the drawing of the two shows being built right now. I started to organize the paint area some, but the afternoon was spent painting. I'm a tad overwhelmed right now. New space, new people, no clue where anything is and two shows before me.

But I sure slept last night. I haven't slept like that in a long, long time. And I'm sore all hell too. So far I think it was a good decision. I'll try to get some pictures going.

Tomorrow

2007-09-03T19:58:00.001-04:00

Well tomorrow is the big day. The morning is going to be filled with paperwork and the usual start of job hoopla. I'm nervous and excited. I'll try to get pictures of my work space.

OMG!!!

2007-08-24T09:55:00.001-04:00

I GOT THE JOB!!!!

details to come later

Shows past v.1

2007-07-26T09:32:00.000-04:00

Still nothing on this front, so I thought I would post some pictures of my past work.

This show is Enchanted April. It was painted in the winter of 2000 for Hartford Stage Company. The designer is Tony Straiges. I worked all over on this show, doing both the floral drop that covers much of the set as well as the floor and the archway. This was my first season at said theatre company. Actually it was my first full time scenic job after collage. My charge artist wasn't scared to give me rather intense or involved projects. These two masking flats below were exclusively my work. It was a chance to work on the same as the large drop with out the pressure of something that would be smack in the middle of the stage. I think I did quite well. I did take part in painting the large main drop as well.

Nothing to report

2007-07-12T09:33:00.000-04:00

Nothing really going on in my painting life at the moment. The interview went well, and I should know at month's end. Its too early for any info from the private high school that I paint for. All I know is that the fall show is suppose to be Macbeth. A show I've done several times now.

Only slightly frantic

2007-07-03T10:39:00.000-04:00

I'm currently getting my portfolio squared away for an interview later today. Needless to say, I'm nervous as hell. At least I am interviewing with someone I have met before. I haven't really done a face to face interview before. My retail jobs I pretty much showed up and was hired after a few minutes of talking. My other theatre jobs were done through phone interviews.

Looking at my portfolio I really need to be better about taking pictures of my work. Getting a better camera will help. Our little kodak digital just doesn't cut it, especially since it no longer recognizes its memory card. Which means we can only take about 12 pictures before the internal memory is full. I've started looking at new ones. The boy and I are steering towards a SLR camera. With some luck (and an extra job or two) we can get one soon.

Under construction at the moment

2007-06-24T14:17:00.000-04:00

Just getting set up. But this is to be a tome about my adventures as a scenic artist. For the uninitiated the footprints in the sky refer to accidental footprints left on a painted drop. I'll have pics and tales soon.