Paintcall no.2 - The floor

Today was the day we got to paint a giant doily on the floor as part of the floor design for Albert Herring.












I'd managed to rustle up 9 people to help paint the floor.
I'd invited a couple of students who didn't have scenic as their chosen subjects, but were interested to see a paint call.
I divided everyone into 2 teams - the doily team, led by Luisa and the paving stones team, led by me.


 
 As Luisa took her doily stencil and her team and started to mark out the floor area where it would be placed, I grided up the stage to compare to the reference in order to mark out where the paving stones would go.



As soon as the squares were marked out - I painted them in.
We used brushes on a stick to save us working on our knees.

I devised a brush/roller stick (inspired by the double bladed lightsabre hehe). It allowed me to cut in a line and fill in the shape quickly.

 It was important for me to keep an eye on everyone and make sure they were busy.

The paving stones required a  couple of color washes on top, so I set someone the task of mixing up those colors.






Everyone else that was free filled in the squares of the paving stones.








 In the mean time, Luisa and her team got stuck in with the doily stencil.

It's quite nice to look back at photos and see everyone hard at work with their jobs. After I had the gray paving stones painted in, I started bringing in the black around them. I had one of the first years, Chris, use a lining stick to bring sharp black lines in around the gray stones, defining their edges.

 Sarah and Emily (both 2nd year) started working on the colour washes over the gray stones, using the floor model as a guide.

Its starting to come together!

Meanwhile, back at the doily.
Luisa, after discussing with Gary, had decided to place the stencil design down twice -




- once with a light gray and the second time with the design shifted slightly to the right with black on top. This would give the illusion of a drop shadow, making the final piece look more 3D.
Well, that was the plan :)














As the doily starts to take shape. the floor begins to come together as a whole piece. We all had our jobs to do and the focus of the team at this point was immense.

 The doily really starts to look 3D.

 Luisa made a little hand stencil to add a little flower detail around the edges.

Lovely little flower detail

Did someone leave a doily on the stage?!?

 The straight edging of the black around the gray was paying off. The squares were amazingly crisp.

Et voila.. finally we had finished

All that needed to be done was have a little cake break and come back and glaze the floor.

A well deserved cake break!

Glazing it would provided a little extra protection and give it a little sheen. I didn't want it too shiny so I watered the glazed down a fair bit.

 Will the day over and the job done, me and Gary took a moment to reflect on the finish.
I was pleased with the result. The doily looked amazing. I was just looking forward to seeing all the set come onstage and bring everything together.

Next : Paintcall no.3 The Final Countdown