(td)squared

Began our transparency projects!

We are making small drops that alter their appearance when lit from behind. Tis is accomplished through the selective use of opaque paints and dharma dye. By making certain areas less opaque than others you enable the light from behind to go through the fabric easier, you can then apply the dharma dye to the back side of the drop to create a new image that appears in that place.

This can be used for sunsets, windows lighting up when it’s darker, most often a change in time of day, or color.

The biggest advice I can give you is to starch and size the he’ll out of your fabric. On the back side use 3 layers of starch and 2 on the front (since the front is generally where you apply the opaque paint – whatever side you’re applying the dye on you want more sealant)

My project is one with the pyramids in which it changes from day to sunset. I’ve been using prevail sprayers to achieve semi translucent skies on the front, and then even coats of color on the back. Another important note is that in areas with transparency you will be able to see your brushstrokes, or any strokes made with your tool. This is why I used sprayers, however your choice of tool can also aide in your image, just make it purposeful.

For the past few days we have been working on our “you want me to paint WHAT?! on THAT?!”
Basically each student got an unusual fabric to work with and had to paint a given image on that fabric.

My project wS on a shower curtain, and I painted a translucent stained-glass window of an ogre.

Useful tips, when painting on a surface that the binder in the paint does not want to stick to, put a coat of crysal-gel, from rosco. Originally my paint would just chip off but after a few experiments I was able to find this solution. I also worked with Dharma dye,which is water soluble and translucent!

Some other tips that came from this project include:
Mask everything you don’t want sprayed, even if it’s 5 ft away, over spray will find a way.
When working with satin methicyl works as a great binder to maintain the shiny quality of the satin and allow paint to stick to the surface.
When cartooning on an unknown surface use string lines, so you don’t have to worry about the cartoon lines being unable to erase.
When working on scrim use a scrim pick to ensure that the scrim does not stick to the surface – things DO stick to bogus paper.

Today we finished up our marble! And also worked on drapery and stenciling.

For stencils there are a few ways to get the image to come through the stencilbwi minimal bleeding.

The most traditional way is to use a natural sponge, or sponge roller, and apply the paint to the sponge using a brush, to avoid over loading it. Then while applying the sponge to the stencil you do an even build up across the entire stencil, rather than focusing on one area at a time.

My personal favorite is the “wax on – wax odd” method. For this one you fill a large fitch with a small amount of paint, dab out the end before applying the fitch to the stencil, to get rid of any blobs that may be on the end of the bristles. Then you place your fitch on the stencil and move it in a tight clockwise motion, or wax on, then alternate with a counterclockwise motion, wax off. So you move across e stencil surface with alternating clockwise and counterclockwise motions, filling in the stencil evenly.

One last method Rachel showed us was to use a wood grain brush, the kind the resembles a wide tooth comb- where half e bristles have been cut out, and apply paint in one direct, giving a streaky texture. Us ia greT for stencils on wood grain etc.
With this method paint tends to gather on ne edge of the stencil, the edge you are moving all the brush strokes towards, this can either be annoying or wonderful, as the small build up tends to resemble stitching marks. If you don’t like this effect then you simply need to clean the stencil every so often to remove any build up on the underside of the stencil.

Helpful hint is. To always have a clean bucket of water and a clean sponge handy to clean the stencil. Build up will happen and it is always necessary to clean it if you want to keep a uniform stencil pattern.

Marble

The only sure thing about marble is that the is no one way to do it. Every reference of marble has new characteristics that you would approach differently with a new set of tools.

However there are a couple hints I can give you:
For your base coat scumble together 2 to 3 colors
Always take note of patterning and directionality of your sample
Consider using non-traditional tools such as burlap, sponges, feather dusters, sprayers.
Let layers dry, you don’t want to get soupy.
If you have marble with large chunks in it mask off with pieces of bogus paper
You can always go in with a glaze after it’s dry to add contrast.

Woodgrain, all day.

We started woodgrain exercises for both finished and aged wood. Right now they don’t lo like too much but tomorrow we will be adding in all the highlights and shading so I’m ready to make things pop!

Here’s some helpful hits I surmised today:
for your base coat, wet blend at least two colors, and make sure all your brush strokes are going in the same direction as your grain.

The next step is to have a sample of the type of wood grain you are trying to emulate. The pease of e day was “thin grain, thin space, wide grain wide space”. The rule of thumb is that when the grain is thinner the grain is very tight and close together, while when the grain widens the spaces between the grain widen as well. It also helps to use your brush as you would a calligraphy tool when doing the knots and wider grains. We were using a husky brush, much like a fitch except the bristles were aligned to create thin lines. When focusing on a section of all thin lined grain you can use a regular lay-in brush whose bristles separate easily.

After you apply the grain you begin adding details, such as glazes imitating the stain of finish wood, or highlights and speckles for aged wood.

All I can say is practice makes perfect. Every scenic artist needs to know how to woodgrain, you’d be hard pressed to find a theatre season that doesn’t use it.