NT Scenic Art : DAY 4

Day 4 and the last day of my first week (bank hol day off tomorrow).
Having sketched up the image yesterday today would be about one thing - painting. Firstly I removed the cotton grid using scissors enabling me to paint the canvas freely. This did however mean that from then on I would be painting any shading and toning on the figure by eye. Scary/exciting!

I began by applying the black background. This way the painted figure would then sit on top of the background and text could be painted directly on top of the black. This took me right up to lunchtime as I had to ensure an even coat and no dripping onto my sketch!

Painted in background

Now to move onto painting the figure. Firstly I mixed up the paints to give myself several base tones to work with. I created fleshy tones using white, yellow ochre, sienna and brown Roscos . My basic colours were a light, medium and dark skin tone and I then used sienna and brown for spots of warmth/shade.

As rosco paint stretches far when diluted I used quite a watery mix. This way I could blend the colours together easily and smoothly when shading.
Painting upright I had to ensure that I did not the drip paint on to the rest of the image so had to be extremely careful when using watery mixtures. There are two little drips on the black background at the bottom but this is not a large probably and will be covered over with the final coat.

I managed to get most of the flesh painted and will finish the face and hands on Tuesday. I can hopefully then move on to the hair and fabric. An ideal aim would be to get the whole figure close to complete on tuesday and then I can move onto pouncing and painting the text as I feel that this could be time consuming.
Here is my painting so far...

NT Scenic Art : DAY 3

When arriving at the NT today I had a sudden air of confidence about me! I got a nod from security and I made my way seamlessly to the workshops without a single wrong turn (which is quite an achievement at the national!). I sat down briefly but was itching to get started so go straight to work.

My first job was to finish off hammering the nails into the right hand vertical of my canvas. After this was complete I could now add the cotton to create the grid. I began with the vertical points and, going up and down using the ladder tied the end of the cotton to the top pin and brought it down to the bottom one etc. 

I then moved onto the horizontal points and, after about an hour, I had my grid! 

I then proceeded to transfer the image onto the canvas using 1:10 scale. I used charcoal rather than pencil as it creates softer edges that will blend with the paint leaving no pencil lines behind.

Using a ruler I measured points on the drawing to ensure accuracy on the larger version. A lot of the transfer was also done by eye.

I worked on this until lunchtime and then at 2pm watched the matinee performance of 'She Stoops To Conquer' in the Olivier. I got to sit in the directors box and met the DSM and Director which was interesting!

I returned at about 5pm and spent the last half of an hour finishing off the outline.

Here is the final outline (minus text) which is now ready to be painted:

Tomorrow I will begin by painting in the black background. 

The text can then by 'pounced' ontop of the black as this will be easier than trying to fill in the black background afterwards.

When the black background is dry I can then start painting the figure. Exciting stuff!!

NT Scenic Art : DAY 2

My day began with burning more objects for the Detroit sample. Using the blow torch we melted some of the rubber cuttings I had created yesterday. This gave an interesting effect as they all melted into each other.

After breakfast I moved onto my personal project. The first task was to stretch a 3mx2.5m canvas across a frame. This consisted of stapling the canvas onto place on two of the edges then stretching it out taught to staple the rest of it down.
With the canvas secure and tight it was now time to prime the canvas. I mixed prime up and painted it onto the surface ensuring the pores were saturated.

The primed canvas

Whilst this was drying I grid up my design in 1:10 making a few alterations (cut off some of the bottom text and added height to the top).

I then transfered the grid marks onto my canvas by hammering nails into the appropriate places ready for cotton to be stretched. I used a level to find my top horizontal line. 

I went and observed the 'She Stoops to Conquer' set with Hilary as smoke was billowing out of the front of the fireplace and blackening the set! Hilary decided that it would be a cleaning job for now as it seemed to rub off.

I am looking forward to potentially seeing the production tomorrow as the set looks very good - I was especially intrigued by the tall 'trees' that seemed to fly down. 

NT Scenic Art Placement :DAY 1

Set fire to wood, electrical devices and other household objects for the set of upcoming show 'Detroit'. The set is predominately the wreckage of a burnt out house. The Designer is coming in on Wednesday so we made up a sample to show him to ensure that he liked it before the go ahead. He is an american designer so this is the only time he will see the scenic effect before the fit up!