Scrim replay

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

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

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...

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

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.