Cloth no5 - The Road to Nowhere

The reference

The final cloth!
I felt pretty confident in my newly learned abilities and the 'map cloth', as we called it,  presented an opportunity to enjoy them.
I also got the chance of working closely with Luisa for the first time and we pretty much flowed together without any waves. It was a pleasure :D

I love illustrated maps. Am a huge reader of fantasy books and there is usually a map of the new world I'm about to visit printed before the story starts. So this was a particularly exciting job for me.
We started on the cloth on a thursday - nailing it on to the frame - an opportunity to remind myself how it's done. It's not rocket science but it's a good method we are learning at the RSAMD.
The cloths are stretched and squared, using plumb lines and a wee bit of math.
Am also realising that if you get the groundwork as precisely done as possible it should make the job easier as you go along.
Luisa put a time frame on it of 3/4days max.
This provided a challenge and meant we could move on to the mass flat painting session that was to follow.

Before we started, Luisa had given a little thought about the time we had to spend and how much detail we could afford time to do.
As per Susannah's design, the scene was made from a collage of different patterns and different papers.
Each of the different elements we had seen before.
The road was made from brown paper; the border, animals and fences had the woodgrain pattern;
the trees were a mini version of the trees from the tree cloth..
and the parks, or grassy knolls as we renamed them were an absolute experimentation by myself and Luisa.
I notice I lack photos of the early stages map cloth - I think this was because there was so much scenery in front of it all the time and I just got completely focused on what I was doing.
Will have a search around for more.

Anyways - After we did our usual, - grid reference then scale up onto cloth - we started marking the design.
We usually letter each vertical line and number the  horizontals. So we can keep track of where we are on the cloth and the mark out is far more accurate.
All of the designs were easy enough to draw by eye, mentally measuring between the squares. However, we took time to measure, with a scale ruler and a meter stick using our grid as a guide, the exact measurements of the road.
It determined where everything sat, so it had to be pretty accurate.

We didn't have time to spend drawing in brown paper lines and since Suzannah had given a nice yellow printy pattern over the top - we just blended in water as we painted and gave it a watercolour look. When the print went on top, it would help add that other dimension.
It's all about layers- they just add a wee bit more information.

When we both started working on this cloth, the team feeling was trust. We had both shared 4 weeks of working together and realised we both had the same ethics and standards. So we could just relax and do our job, knowing the other would do the same.

 We painted the road surprisingly quickly - a couple of hours I think. It was nice to be at a stage where you could just chat away whilst getting the job done.
It's like when you drive without thinking about changing gear or indication. You just do.
The most challenging part so far was the marking up. It was time consuming to measure and so many lines disecting and similar road bend it was easy to get confused.
In fact, whilst distracted listening to one of Luisa's anecdotes I accidently drew an extra animal!
(couldn't decide whether it was pig or cow)
Unfortunately I was a wee bit heavy on the charcoal (you live and learn!) and it didn't really come out with water and a brush >.<

I touched it up with some colour from the background and it still showed through!!
I then went back onto it with a spray gun and tried to blend out the mark. In fairness you can't see it when its on stage, as all the cloths are being front lit. If I was working on a show where the cloth was back lit, it would be more of a problem.
Will be very delicate with my marks in future.

ooh - that tree on the right..

I must spend a moment to consider the grassy knoles. These represented forested, rural areas on the map, I think.
We had taken a number of greens from the tree cloth pallet and some texture rollers and a pump spray.
We masked off all the grassy areas with masking tape as we reckoned the lines should be nice and crisp.
..and to quote Luisa, we  "got in aboot it!"

My inital  "eh.." was answered by Luisa's roller on the cloth making lovely textury roller marks. A wee bit of water spray just made some loverly watery paint blends, which was even more impressive as more colours were introduced.
I remember at one point our rollers were crossing on the cloth, Luisa on the dark roller, me on the light.
I also remeber saying  "I'm going to go a bit mental here.. 2 colours on the roller!!"  Luisa responded with 3!
It ended up looking beautiful if I do say so myself!
That's 2 people with 2 different styles - merged together trying to make someone elses design. How cool is that!!
There was a wee bit of dripping colour from one of the knoles, it was hard not to want to spray more water - the reaction with the paint was amazing!
We went back to each green area about 5 or 6 times adding a few more layers to make it closer to the reference and evntually they were given the texture/spatter/trompe to finish.

cloth on..

cloth off

We finished the cloth on the Tuesday - that is to say if someone had to take the cloth away, it could go.
We couldn't help but touch it up a little on the wednesday :D
We left til thursday, as the van didn't come til friday.
It was nice to look a it over a cup of tea and a foxes buttery biscuit.
We used the bridge to move up and concertinaed the cloth, then folded in half.
Job done!




This was the experience so far that made me utterly realise that how much I'd learned and was now putting in to practice. I was managing to work, chat and enjoy the results. There was a real sense of accomplishment.
Luisa speeded me up and it's the one ongoing challenge I still have.
Working fast and still producing the same standard I ask of myself is where I'm aiming for.

Good times! x

The journey continues with 'The Floor - part1'