As you can see from my choice of title we are in our last week of production time on Dr Angelus. Our deadline for completion of the set is midnight on Saturday and thus, we are very busy.
I am often asked what my job entails and how we go about creating the paint effects so I thought I would describe to you the processes we have applied to this set as an example of a typical show.
There are three major elements to this design. The first is the raked stage which will be painted to look like mahogany floor boards. Aside from being a lot of work for the carpenters it presents a nice challenge for us painters as it is to be painted in perspective. This is something that I have certainly never done before so am learning as I work. This is one of the things I love about being a scenic artist, every set is different and you will often come across something that you have never done before. Painting the floor has been a lovely thing to do but I would be lying if I said it was not quite time consuming. For example our process has been: the holes created by the screws and nails were filled, we primed it twice with a base coat, next we put on a gloss glaze to make it slippery which is necessary for wood graining on top of. We then mark out each plank and mask them off. After this we grained it, lined it in and then finally we glazed it again to protect it.
The floor has not been the only item that has involved multiple processes; both the cornicing and gold objects have several layers. The cornicing is made of vac form plastic so we have to cover it in a product to make the paint stick before we even start the paint effect. In this case there are then another four processes on top. We all have a favourite piece of the gold vac form as they are all different shapes though the giant horse would top most people’s list. We have been considering turning it into a huge game of Buckaroo. As is often the case in the theatre if we just painted something with one plain gold it would look dull and flat on stage. This means that we undercoat everything in Burnt Sienna paint, which keeps the gold nice and rich looking, then we use two different shades of gold dry brushed over the top of each other to give it more life. Finally we highlight elements of it in gold leaf, only imitation gold leaf! It may sound like a lot of work but it is most definitely worth it!
I hope that this has given you some idea of what our job can involve and how much work goes into even the simplest looking things on stage. This has been a particularly lovely set to work on and I hope that our enjoyment while working on it is obvious to you when you sit in the auditorium.
Enjoy the show!
Allie
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