8 foot by 10 foot painting for the New Zenith Children's Theatre

[bwkeough]

the New Zenith Theatre is a non-equity children's theatre that is going to be producing the musical "The Secret Garden." Since my wife is in the show, I've been hanging around a bit, sometimes sketching on our laptop. When the director learned I am an artist he asked me if I would paint a set piece for them. Since it's not too often I get to work at a large scale I figured I would give it a shot, depsite the fact I haven't worked in natural media in over year! I don't think it's perfect, but it did meet my expectations for myself and everyone in the company likes it alot.

photo of the finished acrylic painting in the scene shop:

http://www.nand.net/~keough/lillyphotofin.gif

The director wanted a painting that showed the mother in her garden, in front of the tree she eventually falls out of, causing her to die in childbirth.

These are the two digital comps I presented for approval before transferring the second on to the scrim: (you may have seen them before in the WIP forum)

http://www.nand.net/~keough/among-the-trees.gif
http://www.nand.net/~keough/before-the-maze.gif

This is a too-dark photo of the painting hung on stage behind the frame. At differnt points in the play the painting will be either front-lit or back-lit. It is painted on scrim (a tight-weave cotton fiber net) so when it is front-lit it is mostly opaque. When it is back-lit it is mostly transparent, allowing actors behind the scrim to be visible to the audience.

http://www.nand.net/~keough/lillyphotoset1.gif
Later this week the stage crew will be in tech and I will get pictures showing both lighting situations.

If you live near Waterbury, CT and are interested in seeing the show next weekend, you can find details here. (http://www.nvctc.commnet.edu/newsevents/news040223.shtml)

[mtw]

What medium did you use?

I like the first concept more than the second, but the second one does seem to fit the play better (because of the larger tree).

[bwkeough]

yeah I liked the first one better, too. but like you said, the tree needed to be large enough for her to climb, plus the director wanted her dress to be white and for there to be a maze and a wall in the image.

the paint I used is Rosco scenic paint. acylic binder, but much more concentrated pigment than your ordinary liquitex acrylics. They also either don't make or the scene shop didn't buy white, so I was stuck using their white acylic/vinyl house paint. worked ok, but it was hard to paint opaquely enough to cover a dark color with a light.

[bwkeough]

Again, not the best picture of it, my camera doesn't like being far away in the dark. I'll have to get some pics from the cast photog. At least this shows the opaque lighting effect.

http://nand.net/~keough/onstage.gif