Getting My Hand Back In

As I'm ramping myself back up towards Efficient and Purposeful, I'm trying to do more drawing.

Today's fun little project was a few portraits - action poses! - of friends' Minecraft avatars:

Inspired by (which is pronounced, "kind-a ripp-ed-off from") the wonderful illustrations that medieval scribes decorated the edges of texts with.  Combined with MC avatar designs, of course.  

Fun!

 

Scenic Painting - Backdrops

The traditional painted backdrop doesn't happen much when I set design... In part because I  just don't design for many proscenium theaters, but mostly because I don't lean toward the picture-postcard-backdrop school of thought - for me, sets are more environment than picture.

But Trinity Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale seemed to demand a backdrop.

Besides, for once, I had a real, bonafide, not-me! talented scenic painter on board.

So here's the process:

Schematic design sketch for Trinity Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

Yellow tracing paper, ink, and colored pencil

First came the rough sketch, showing the theater seating (thrust, with seats and balconies around three sides).  This was mainly to explain to the director what I was proposing.  The idea was to create a "tapestry" appropriate to the court scenes with which the play begins (and that reappear in Act II), but one that would also fit as the environment for the outdoor scenes.  A bleak winter woods.  Prowled by bears.

Design development sketch for Trinity Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

Yellow tracing paper, ink, watercolor pencil, colored pencil, and CAD

Here's the next sketch, just the backdrop itself because the frame is in another downstage plane.  The center part of the view will also be in another plane, back about a foot from the rest, and attached to a huge sliding door that opens for the final "statue" scene.

Color rendering for Trinity Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale 

Vellum, watercolor, watercolor pencil, and some colored pencil

I struggled with this.

Above is the final rendering that the scenic painters would work from.

 Progress photos of the backdrop for Trinity Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

Here are progress photos.  Unfortunately, the backdrop was too tall to fit on the scene shop's painting frame.  (This is a sort of elevator-easel that moves up and down so the painter doesn't need ladders.  Very cool!  I desperately wanted to see it in action... but it's only 20' tall.  This drop was 28'.)  So it was painted in the Opera Dept.'s rehearsal hall.  (Thanks Opera!)

Progress photo of Trinity Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

onstage scenic painting - backdrop, frame, and floor.  Notice how that tree stump has developed!

Then the not-quite-finished drop was transferred to the theater.  You can see how the center section has been cut out at that sliding door.  We tried to attached that portion of the view - painted on muslin -  TO the door, but in the end it had to be painted ON the door itself.  Notice the progress of the painted "stone" floor.

The Winter's Tale, at Leontes' court

Photo by Amy Peterson, courtesy of Trinity Shakespeare Festival

Here is the backdrop in backdrop/tapestry mode for Leontes' court.

The Winter's Tale, at Leontes' court

Photo by Amy Peterson, courtesy of Trinity Shakespeare Festival

And in the "chapel" scene.  Note the gorgeous floor.

The Winter's Tale

Photo by Amy Peterson, courtesy of Trinity Shakespeare Festival

Stage daylight lets you see the beautifully painted stump and other details.  Like, below, the distant view of a fortified city.

The Winter's Tale

Photo by Amy Peterson, courtesy of Trinity Shakespeare Festival

A big shout-out to scenic painter Kaitlyn Donovan and her assistants!  Thanks.  Gratitude also for the beautifully detailed build.  (There was some coolo laser cutting technology involved in those oval corner plaques on the frame.)  Props worked hard on great faux wool bales for the final "shepherd" scenes.

Trinity Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

The shepherds throw a party... complete with wool bales and piano.

Photo by Amy Peterson

And thanks for the lovely lighting!  Nice costumes too, huh?  This was just a beautiful show and an accomplished one all round, I thought.  Directing, acting, dance, song...  Critics seemed to agree - always nice.

Back to the drawing board... a little battered and coffee stained.

Oh, remember that rendering?  Here it is back home to my studio... having clearly worked for its living at the scene shop.  

Lessons learned?  (There are always lessons to learn.)

1)  Get better and faster at watercolor.  So I'm now taking a watercolor class.

2)  I really like this pro-scenic painter thing - get more of 'em! more often!

3)  Encase the rendering in plastic next time.

Haircuts for Radio and Other Weird Things

It's been a busy month or two.

At the moment I'm set dressing Wait Until Dark for Stage West and construction is starting on The Winter's Tale for Trinity Shakespeare, while I'm starting sketches for Circle's Don't Talk to the Actors.

Wait Until Dark, Stage West, design by Clare Floyd DeVries

But what was that about haircuts?

Yesterday a videographer for our local public radio station, KERA, followed me around the stage at Stage West, watching me safety-pin up giant (16' long!) B&W photocopies of the outside-the-basement-window view.  When this got boring (set designer with nice hair cut climbs ladder again!), the TD took us on an Alice's rabbit hole tour through the darkened corners of the theater.  We looked at ancient steel safes and old sofas up nifty counter-weighted folding attic stairs... Fun!  Explore the Theater could make a great virtual reality game.

I think the talk got more interesting too as the TD and I back-n-forthed over scenic problems.

Why all this videoed ridiculousness?

Well, KERA's Art & Seek has gotten a grant to document an artist a week for a year in a how-the-work-happens sort of thing.  As I understand it, there'll be a little bit on the radio and more (like vid) on the website.  Cool idea, huh?

Anyway, 52 weeks, 52 artists... starting, oddly, with me.

So that's weird.  On Monday they're coming by my studio to interview me.  (I'll be vacuuming till then.)  

More weirdness was my battle with the big rendering for the big big backdrop for The Winter's Tale.  I mean, I can design and I can draw... but painting... meh.  So I struggled with it for hours trying to meet the deadline - to the point where, when family arrived, I had to ask 'em whether the result was terrible or okay.  I couldn't tell.  (The consensus was "use it.")

Backdrop for The Winter's Tale, Trinity Shakespeare - design by Clare Floyd DeVries

So there I was yesterday, presenting this alleged artwork to a real painter - the scenic artist - with, as it happened, another very good scenic designer / painter whose opinion I respect looking over my shoulder.  

All he said was, "Colored pencil?"

"Watercolor pencil and colored pencil," I answered.  "But don't look at the technique, just the color."

Actually, that scene shop is absolutely stuffed with good painters who will, naturally, look at my, you should forgive the expression, "technique."  

I have now vowed to take an official watercolor class.

Line Drawing

I love color.  And color is a rather important aspect of a theater set.  So I usually add colored pencil to my ink sketches to indicate material colors and even to suggest lighting effects.  (An example HERE.)

But for my meeting with the director the other day... well, I ran out of time.  The ink was still wet when I laid my sketch on the restaurant table.  (One-on-one theater meetings with directors are often at restaurants: if your sketch isn't wet with ink as you present it, it's often wet with iced tea before you finish.)

My black & white sketch got more response than I expected when I showed it then and, later, to others.

So I guess it'll stay uncolored.

Sometimes I forget how strong pure line drawings can be.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Kitchen Dog Theater, design sketch by Clare Floyd DeVries C

This is ink pen - Staedtler Pigment Liners in 0.3 and 0.1 sizes - on that ol' faithful, yellow trace.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane isn't really a color kinda set anyway.

(An earlier post on yellow tracing paper and drawing is down the page or  HERE.)

Art Fest

Sunday I visited the Cottonwood Art Festival in Richardson.   The Festival is always colorful and pleasantly crowded.  Artists' booths are scattered through the park - some in the sun, some in the shade of tall trees - along with bands, food wagons, and a shady outdoor cafe.  There are children and ducks (a fun combination) by the bridge over the pond; kids' crafts; more food; mobiles spinning in the breeze; and more booths filled with fascinating art...  This is one of the best shows around, with a very high standard of work.

Lots of photography this year.  Goldsmith Jo Jennings had her usual booth near the entry, though I noticed (due to the price of gold I'd guess) her work features more stones/ less gold than in other years.  The ceramic alligator-head sculptor wasn't there, but the fantastical-painters couple were, with a wonderful ceramic bust of... a conquistador?  if his helmet were to become a Spanish galleon, that is.

My favorite booth this year belonged to Stephen Dickerson, an artist working on wood panels with acrylic and colored pencil, which creates lovely complex color and a linear quality I like.  I bought a small incised panel with a pair of fish - one with a large, sapient eye.  (The painting below has similar fish, though none with that thoughtful eye.)  There was a large panel with an egret like this but, in the distance, a house on thin marsh-y green-y stilts which I'd love to own.

image courtesy of Stephen Dickerson's website

Cottonwood Art Festival happens twice a year - try to catch it next Fall!