Madame Butterfly Ceiling

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

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

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

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.