Guild of Scenic Artists: For our February show at Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Men on Boats, the design called for post-like wood columns and very textured “rough cut” wood planks. I assigned senior undergraduate student Mikayla Carr to be the Scenic Charge for this show. We wanted to use this opportunity to create homemade wood graining tools that we could use to create this texture on a curved surface. The planks were no issue as we used metal and rubber combs and grainers to drag through a thick coat of Jaxsan. But the rounded columns were a different challenge and we wanted something that could make the process go faster and be able to be carried through wider stretches of goop.
5 comments:
Yeah it was definitely the catchy title that got my attention here, I hated it so much I had to read about it. Regardless it was actually a pretty informative article discussing a really interesting approach to getting tree bark texture. I'm really intrigued by the idea of making custom tools for specific jobs and this seemed to be an excellent example of a successful case of that. I feel as if we're usually at least smoking if we're not on fire in the typical theatrical environment which encourages a don't think just do attitude on projects which inevitably causes issues/ costs far more time later on in the process. Prototyping different solutions is a great way to try and think through the process a little more thoroughly, but again who has time for that. But this provides a great example of a custom tool that was relatively inexpensive, simple and effective in it's application. Who doesn't love a good fake tree?
I love an article about scenic art, and like Lauren said, who doesn’t love a good fake tree?! I’ve now worked as a scenic artist on two fake trees, and both of those experiences used different methods for texture than this team did. That really illustrates that there are so many different ways to complete the same or similar challenges when it comes to creating theatrical scenery. When I saw that first clip image I was a little worried, because having only one pattern of comb would create a repeated pattern in the texture that might have been noticeable, so I was relieved to see they made more than one pattern of comb. Beth always talks about how the human hand by habit creates patterns, and then the human eye spots them, so eliminating these patterns when recreating a non-man-made surface is always a little trickier. I wonder if they decided to switch up which grainers they used on different parts of the same trunk? The seams between grain patterns might be hard to transition properly, but these columns were large, which reduces the chances of the audience noticing. But then again, how much is the audience paying attention to the variance in bark texture?
I thought this was article was going to in a different direction based on a quickly read title. I’ve seen student productions with sets of rectangles made entirely out of 2x4s, and I’ve seen professional productions with complex designs made out welded steel structures. Last year, ART did Moby Dick and the set included curved wooden set pieces. This is where I though this article was going. How to make wood with curves. Despite my surprise, I still enjoyed the read. I always appreciate unique tools that can be made easily at home and add that extra level of meticulous detail to a production. I don’t know what the venue for Connecticut Repertory Theater looks like, but I imagine they could have gotten away with painting and shading if there was some distance between the audience and these posts. However, now that they have this technique these columns could be in the audience and pass inspection by your average audience member. I will keep this technique I the back of my mind and hopefully either get a chance to use it or evolve it for new applications.
AH!!! I LOVE stuff like this. “Stuff” being crafty solutions to problems presented by the theatrical limitations we work within. When I think of wood graining, I think of chip brushes cut to look like wonky medieval keys, multiple layers of paint, and some careful detail work. I do not think I have ever thought of it as ACTUALLY adding tree trunk wood texture to something!! What a wonderful way to do this! It saves probably hours worth of carving time (which I assume would be another solution to the “tree bark” problem presented. It is easy, fast, and probably pretty cheap, and can be used over and over again if you keep the tool you made. This could be a really cool hack for someone trying to create some cool looking stuff for their house too. I am definitely going to bookmark this one, this was exciting to read!!
For starters I immediately was entertained by the title of the article and it did its job compelling me to read it. I love reading articles that talk about creative processes and how people solved problems in new ways. Going in I assumed that this was going to be an article about just a scenic painting technique; another tool for cosmetic purposes. I had no idea it was going to be something that was used to physically alter the shape of a setpiece. The fact that they decided to cover their structures in Jaxsan and detail it really does show that there are so many ways to achieve one thing. In the past, I’ve seen cloth, rope, paper, foam, and carved wood used just as tree making materials, and there are probably many more possibilities out there. I also think it’s pretty cool to be able to create your own tools for specific jobs whenever you need to.
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