SCENERY PAINTING FOR THE AMATEUR MUSICAL THEATRE and PANTOMIME

NATIVITY SCENERY - page one
D
esigned and painted by Brian Willis.
Performed by pupils of Bushmills Primary School 2003

"Mary" and "Joseph" outside the stable/cave.

 

Six Hours
From start to finish, this back wall of the school stage took six hours to paint. Unfortunately the mural is hampered by the length of wood which runs right across the centre. (seen just above the childrens' heads) There is a also a temperature detecting device which I covered with paper and included in the cliffs in the background.

 
Serendipity in painting a backcloth.
Because of the short time I had allowed myself to paint this "backcloth" I elected to go for a cave instead of the usual stable. Which in essence meant I could roughly block in where I wanted the outline to finish; the geometry of the stones and where the glow of light was to emerge. I then just slapped brown and yellow paint roughly in the direction of where I wanted my stones to lay, then stood back to see what it looked like. Once I had spotted a particular rock formation I then enhanced the shape with black. I usually avoid black but made an exception this time. I finally dabbed a broken piece of sponge, covered with various colours, on to the "rock" face to give it texture.
 
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