Rosco Spectrum: I am often asked “why can’t you use cheaper ‘House Paints’ for painting sets?” I admit, sometimes I can, but for most shows it’s just not the right product – usually because I can’t always get the color punch I want. I’ve also found that if I need to work with the paint super thin, house paint can actually cause more headaches, and worse – more labor hours – to fix than if I had used scenic paints to begin with. A great example of this problem presented itself on a show I recently painted at Penumbra Theatre.
2 comments:
I thought this article alluded to a very cleaver idea when it comes to scenic painting. Paints are one of the few things that cant be reused in theatre. Scenery pieces, props, costumes, sounds, and lights can all be reused in alternative ways to create a new show, but paint doesn't have this ability. So Angelique Powers goes about this issue in a totally different fashion than traditional scenic painters might work. Angelique uses Rosco Scenic Paints to get a heavy pigmented paint that can be diluted to spread the wealth among the scenic elements. What a supper cool and innovative idea that can be accomplished quite easily and has a beautiful product.
Well I guess I'm not entirely surprised. You get what you pay for. Also scenic paints are needed for different things than house paint so it makes sense that they would not act the same. The super thick viscosity of theatrical paint seems to be it's most valuable asset because it can be used for really intense vibrant pigment or it can be watered down as to go farther, save money and create a subtler look. Also I think that she makes a good point; that if you start out cutting corners and your process does not work out you will need to then buy the right tools and put in more labor hours would be a significant set back. If you just start out using the right tools you will not have to spend more money than you have to.
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