Art Lessons. September - December 2013.

Our first term of Art was to study and draw the Human Form in different materials (charcoal, pencil, pastels)
We had to draw each other plus do a self portrait.
I have chosen some samples of my better pieces below and  pieces that I really like to show what we get up to in our Art Lessons.
I have discovered I enjoy using charcoal the most.

 

 

 

I chose to do my Self Portrait (above) in pastels on black paper. I originally thought I would use just white pastel on black paper but as I started to draw I realised it needed something more than just white so added yellow, orange and black. I really liked the effect I got. I worked quickly on this project and did not think about it as I drew it, the finished picture was completed in about 15 minutes.

 

The picture next to my self portrait is an unfinished piece. It is a collage of a fellow student using paper which I cut with scissors. All our Art pieces are produced in very short time scales.

 

 

 

We also spent time drawing costume pieces. We started by just looking at the shapes the costumes formed in their construction and had to just draw the shapes we saw before we went onto drawing the outfit in more detail. We also had to draw just a section of the outfit.

 

 

 

In a couple of lessons we drew some still life objects placed on the table before us.

 

 

 

In our final lesson we were given a bag with an item in it. We had to first draw the item contained in the bag without looking at it. By putting our none drawing hand into the bag we had to feel the item and follow the contours and draw the item whilst feeling inside the bag.

 

After doing some quick drawings of the item after taking it out of the bag to look at it we then did a more detail drawing spending 20 minutes.

After this we then had to reproduce the item from the drawing into a 3D construction using paper in about 10 minutes.

 

Below is my drawing, the item and my 3D construction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panto (December 2013). Set Design. Rapunzel's Castle, Wall, Jack's House, Jail and Magic Mirror.

Rapunzel's Castle

Rapunzel's Castle was made on a trolley with wheels so it could easily be rolled on and off stage. Rapunzel was required to be able to stand inside the Castle.
I was not involved in any of its making or painting or of any of the other set designs featured on this page.

 

 

Jack's House

Jack's house was cut out of plywood and painted by Lucy.

 

 

 

Wall

The Wall was cut from plywood and was made for the giants to go behind in the shrinking scene.

 

 

 

Jail Plan plus Magic Mirror Drawing

The jail/cage was for Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum to stand behind, whilst captured by the Wicked Witch. The bars were made from stretchy bungee's as Tweedle Dee and Dum needed to be able to escape from the enclosure. I do not have a close up picture of this Set Design.

I included in the next picture the initial drawing idea of the Magic Mirror (see separate blog page on details of the Mirror). 

 

 





 

 

Panto (December 2013). Props.

There were only 4 props used throughout the show. None of them were made by me. I only have pictures of 3 of the props the 4th one, which I am missing, is the Door Knocker.

Paige made the Magic Pie from Mud-roc (plaster of paris bandages) over a tin dish.
The Pie was baked by Jack's Mother and Alice and the Mad Hatter took the pie up to the Giants Kingdom in the Clouds.
Later on Alice and the Mad Hatter re-appear in the Giants Kingdom with the Magic Pie cut up into slices (which Paige also had made using the same technique). When the Giants ate the pie it made them shrink into Dwarfs.

The other prop was a scroll used by the Witch and also in the scene in the haunted forest. It was made from calico which had been painted and attached to a batten either end.

Panto (December 2013). Set Design. Clouds and Bushes/cutting out and painting

Several Clouds and Bushes needed to be made for the Panto.
The Bushes were for the woodland scenes and the Clouds were for the Giants land at the top of the Beanstalk.

I had my first go of cutting plywood and enjoyed it so much I spent all morning cutting out several clouds and bushes with the jigsaw.  :-)     (Jigsaw safety will feature in another blog). 

The end picture shows a sliver I had taken out of the board that the plywood was resting on, obviously got to close to the edge and hadn't checked whether the plywood was away from the bottom board sufficiently, didn't do it a second time though!!

The Clouds were a bit trickier to cut than the Bushes as the curves of the Clouds went down into a 'v' shape. I had to cut down to the bottom of the 'v', bring the jigsaw back a little in the already cut line then curve towards the other side of the cloud formation and carry on until the next 'v' shape and then do the same procedure. Once I had cut all around the Cloud I had to go back and cut out all the pieces that were left from the other side of the 'v' shapes. This time starting on the opposite side down to the bottom of the 'v', removing all the unwanted pieces.

 

After the Clouds and Bushes were cut out, a frame out of wood had to be made for them and screwed into place to give them strength and support. To allow them to stand up an 'A' board leg (also cut out from wood) was hinged into place and a rope attached to the leg and board to stop it from pulling out further, thus preventing it from falling over (well that was the plan and mostly it worked but occasionally throughout the show a bush would fall over). The rope went through a hole on the leg and was knotted, the other end of the rope was stuck to the bottom part of the frame attached to the Cloud or Bush. (I did not participate in any of the frame and leg making) (Ooops tell a lie, I put 2 screws through a cloud to help secure the frame onto the back lol).

 

 

After the frames and legs were made the front of the Bushes and Clouds were painted white to help seal the wood to then paint onto further. Once dried the backs had to be blacked out including the 'A' frame leg. I did help with some of the painting.

 

 

I painted the first Cloud with grey outlines to give it more definition but then went onto another task and the rest of the Clouds and all the Bushes were painted by other Crew members. We had been given a coloured plan drawing as inspiration (as can been seen in top left hand corner of above picture). 

 

 

 

Panto (December 2013). Dwarfs. Set Design.

Initially Pippa was to make the Dwarfs but I offered to help her out.
In the Panto the Giants are to shrink down to Dwarfs so it was decided that the Dwarfs bodies were to be made out of calico cut outs that were to be hung over a wall. The wall would have cut outs at the top for the actors to place their heads against (like an old fashioned stock). The actors would kneel behind the wall with the calico Dwarf cut outs hanging in front and their heads against the cut outs in the wall, thus giving the effect that their bodies had shrunk.

Pippa drew the design for the Dwarfs on paper and then transferred the design onto the calico and cut them out.
The calico was then backed with stage gauze to give them more firmness and body. The gauze was stuck in place with glue. Once dried the bodies had to be trimmed so no gauze showed beyond the body.  

 

The next stage was to 'size' the calico Dwarf bodies with white emulsion paint mixed with water. It was not to be too runny or too thick. If too runny it would soak through to the other side. Too thick and it would crack once dried. Both sides had to be coated but the first side had to dry first before we applied the paint to the other side. We had to paint both sides in case one side shrunk after being painted, this way if any shrinkage did occur it would be evenly distributed. It was a lot harder to paint the stage gauze side and a lot more paint was needed on that side.

They did look amusing when I hung them out to dry on a make shift clothes line outside. I did have to bring them in to continue to dry before we went home.

 

 

Once dried thoroughly we had to iron them so they would lay flat as they had curled slightly. Pippa then drew the original design back onto the now 'sized' Dwarfs.

The colours of the trousers was to be dictated by the actual colours of the full size costumes the Giants were to wear. The tops were to be plain and boldly painted in individual bright colours. Pippa, I and Paige painted the majority of the Dwarfs outfits and I gave the whole outfits shading.

 

 

Finally after the Dwarfs bodies were dry they had black marker pen outlines added to them.

 

 

I feel that now that I have seen the 'Tech' run and the set designs used, the Wall should of been made longer and the cut outs further apart and the Dwarf bodies made slightly taller and the Wall slightly shorter in height as when the Dwarf bodies are hung over the Wall they are hanging in mid air. The cut outs needed to be further apart to allow for the actors all to fit comfortably behind the Wall and allow the Dwarf bodies to hang without over lapping each other. This in my opinion was not thought about or considered when making the individual items of the Dwarfs and the Wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panto (December 2013). The Magic Looking Glass. Set Design.

I was not involved in any of the production of the Magic Looking Glass but just loved the original drawing that our Tutor had drawn and was intrigued how the final piece would look.

 

The original idea was that some actors would stand to the sides of the Looking Glass and that the mirror part would be of some stretchy fabric that an actor could push their face against whilst standing behind the mirror, thus being the Magic Person within the Mirror that spoke.

 

 

The fabric was of shiny lycra that was sprayed silver as far as I can tell along with the rest of the frame.

The first picture shows the fabric being stapled to a frame that was then hinged onto the back of the Looking Glass frame, this was to allow the actors to actually step through the Looking Glass by means of the Mirror opening like a door.

I did like the whole concept of this idea and the actor pushing their face and hands against the back of the fabric was quite effective but they did claim it was difficult as they had to push quite hard whilst delivering their lines for it to look effective.

 

 

Panto (December 2013). First day/experience at LX Ops.

Had my first experience of working in the 'Tech Box' learning the LX Ops.

Looking out into the Theatre the first Truss is called F.O.H (Front of House) then there is Bar 1, Bar 2, and Bar 3.
There are also 6 Truss legs.

Starting from SL (Stage left):-
F.O.H     - sockets 1-12
Bar 1      - sockets 13-24
Bar 2      - sockets 25-36
Bar 3      - sockets 37-48

Truss legs:-
SL (Stage left)                 - sockets 49-51
DSL (Downstage left)     - sockets 52-54
FOH                                 - sockets 55-57

SR (Stage right)               - sockets 58-60
DSR (Downstage right)   -sockets 61-63
FOH                                 - sockets 64-66

There are also channels (sockets) at the back of the Theatre behind the Cyc.   - sockets 67-72

Sockets also called Channels. Channel numbers are individual lanterns.

Extra Lanterns on the Truss can be run from the extra sockets on the Truss legs.

 

The above picture shows the Lighting Desk plus the 2 monitors and keyboard. The monitor on the right shows the Channels and the one to the left shows the Show Cue list.

Also took a picture of the theatre in the dark with the Cyc lit up blue.

 

The Lighting Designer called for each Channel to be lit up individually then I had to record it and name and number each light.

 

To Preset  I first had to turn the lights down than tap in the number the LD called for then tap the CH/ID button (Channel ID). Then turn the lights up again. To Record I had to double click the 'All' button then tap in the preset number from the LD tap the 'Record' button, then type into the keyboard the name the LD gave me then finally tap the 'Record' button again.

 

We had to get all the Channels at the level the LD wanted them then record them at preset (or cue number).

The higher numbers the LD gave us (over 100) were for the chase numbers. He chose over 100 as he knew there wasn't going to be more than 100 presets.

First you got up the channel numbers than you turned the lights up to the intensity number you wished them to come on to. Then set those up which are then called the presets for example: forest, daytime, park bench.

Once the presets were recorded the LD put the settings into groups. 

Panto (2013). Scaling up the header for the tree plus cutting it out in calico.

We scaled up the planned drawing of the header for the tree in the same manner as we had done for the trees.
Lois, Pippa and I scaled the header up and Lois, Poppy and Tom cut the header out of calico.
The header will hang towards the back of the stage between the 2 trees that will hang at the sides of the stage.

Panto (December 2013). Cutting the scaled up trees out of calico.

After we scaled up the trees onto the paper and cut them out it was now time to cut the paper patterns out of calico.
We laid the calico out on the floor of 'The Street' as it was the only large available space at the time.
We had 2 trees to cut out of the calico and we laid them top to toe to maximise the use of space on the fabric. We also needed to extend the base of the tree trunks as the original plan drawing had not been tall enough. We also needed to add 10cms to the top and bottom to allow for a header tape to be added and the possibility of a hem. The calico was not as wide as the tree tops, so we needed to add an extension to each tree at the sides so we could cut out the whole of the tops. These extensions needed to be machined sewed on afterwards.

We all worked as 2 teams, each team working on 1 tree each.

Lucy sewed the extended tree top of her teams tree onto the main part of their tree and I did the same to our teams tree. We did this using a sewing machine.