| THE CLOTH
Usually I paint backcloths hung from rollers but in this case the 20ft
x 11ft canvas was stretched and nailed onto a 2"x2"
wooden frame which had been screwed to the back wall of the stage.
SEALING
Once the cloth had been nailed to its frame I
sealed it with a concoction of PVA glue and
a very pale pink emulsion paint. The mixture slightly diluted with water.
This took a day and night to dry. Once dry, the canvas tightened like
a drum (I have broken quite thick wooden
frames in this process occasionally) This then gave me a wonderful surface
to paint on.
MIXING THE SEALANT
The inclusion of a little pink colour is two fold. Firstly I want a colour
to help me see my chalk lines and secondly, when mixing in colour to the
solution, I can see if the glue/water/colour mix is even by ensuring I
churn it around until I get a consistent colour.
SQUARING
Dead boring job. Using big chunky children's' pavement chalks (The
chalks are chunky - not the children) I drew a grid of 1 foot squares
over the whole cloth. Each horizontal and vertical line being numbered
to coincide with the original squared sketch. In
this case, the grid around the Temple and bell I made with 6 inch squares
as the ellipses of the building needed to be carefully drawn otherwise
it will look as if it is about to topple. I hate drawing circles in perspective,
and drawing bells even more-so. There is a geometrical method but it's
too much of a hassle for this particular task. |