The Waves flats.

I think because I worked on the Waves cloth and had a good feel for the lines, Luisa asked me to paint the waves flats.
And to some degree, manage the job. Obviously she'd be there to help if needed, but I'd be in charge of it.
- gulp :D

One of the references

almost 12 metres long!

There were three waves flats. Each wave had three attachable parts, made easy to transport.
Each part was 4metres in length - which made a full wave almost 12metres long!
They had wheels fitted to the bottom as the design suggested that they could be moved together on stage to create an ocean wave effect.

The first thing I had to do was work out which flats went together and get them into their sets of 3.
Space became a bit of an issue. These waves took up so much space and it was almost impossible to line it up in its full wave without crossing over a fire exit hazard area that must be kept clear.
With the wave cloth up, other members of the team had been allocated to paint some of the flats coming in from carpentry. Floor space dimished rapidly.
I got round this by priming 2 of the sets outside the paintshop where they sat in the fit up area and a set tucked in paintshop.

They all needed primed with 2 coats and marked up according to reference.
The first challenge was fitting the design onto the boards. The waves had been reduced in height as it was discovered they were too high and were blocking actors.
So I would have to just fit them in.
Next, the original mark of the wave outline had been lost in translation during the height reduction. A lot of the waves didn't correspond to the reference.
I used a bendy line and I marked out proper curves as much in keeping with the design as I could.
Jigsaw'd off the excess.
Now with all the correct pieces together and the top edge flowing like a true wave - I marked out all the flats.

An amazing thing happened - someone from workshop saw me marking up the design with my charcoal on a stick and said,  "How can you use that chalk on a stick to draw, I'd be all over the place!"
and I said    < drum roll >
"It's just practice"
hahaha!
there's progress right there!
and to be honest, I do actually feel comfortable using it. In fact I really enjoying marking out undulating lines and you could tell. They looked better the ones I drew towards the end than from the start!



 Again, learning from what I just completed, I used a textured roller to color the blue and added a blue wash with a brush to cover any white.
On the first couple of wave boards I thought covering the white lines a little at the edges would make the lines a bit more printed looking. But when I covered it with the blue wash, the white lines became really messy looking - I would need to redo them with white paint.
As I painted more boards - I learned to become more careful, it would save me time in the long run.
My back was sore initially from bending over to paint these. They were too big to put up on trestles.
I eventually sat down at their level, I could just wheel them (if there was room!) if I needed to move on.


The new building had an Open Day - so we had to show off our new work space to the public. We were to have tours come in and watch us at work so we spent the morning tidying up and angling our boards towards the door.
Most people seemed blown away by the whole applied arts area. A lot of those people not necessarly theatre goers. The paintbridge seemed to interest a lot.
They also seemed to enjoy watching us work away within our workspaces and the musical theatre students performance of a piece from 'Sunday in the Park with George'
Funnily enough - Gary had mentioned about this Musical as they were practising and pointed out it was based on this painting by Georges Seurat.

I remeber thinking how ironic it was that they picked that particular music when our textured flats and cloths looked like it was made from loads of different dots. Not unlike this painting.


Coincidence? I think not - it's all part of the Plan :)

am crisping those white lines right up!

From this moment it was a case of making those lines look beautiful, adding a bit of texture and a little trompe l'oeil.
Seems to be a pattern here.

ooh - it looks like waves :D

The trompe l'oeil kinda freaked me out a bit. I couldn't always see clearly where the shadow was coming from. Gary's advice was look very carefully at the reference - it tells you what you need to know.

look at that cheeky wee bit o' trompe l'oeil

Added a little spatter at the end and Susanna seemed quite pleased with the end result when she popped into visit. She also gave a little appreciation to Alice - our magical looking glass. :D

reference again

The End

The journey continues in 'Cloth no3 - the tree cloth'