Cobalt Studios: Summer Scene Painting #8

Cobalt Studios

Drapery Project
At Cobalt, as I have said a few times before, there was no wasted time.  Each time we finished a project, we'd set up a new project.  We would stretch muslin over our flats and have to size them with starch.  While we were waiting for the starch to dry, Rachel or Kimb would teach us something else.  On one of those occasions we learned about painting drapery.

Of all the things I painted at Cobalt, I think my drapery assignment was my least successful.  If I had to choose one project that I liked the least (not because of the teachings or anything the teachers did) I would choose the drapery project.  I performed the least well on that one.  I had one unteachable moment at the beginning of the project and it served to sabotage me all the way through.  I try to be teachable all the time.  Once in awhile I mess up, though and the drapery project was one of those times.  Consequently I had to learn the hard way on this project.

But since I learned things on this project and I am not afraid to admit when I've made a mistake I have decided to blog about it anyway.

Step One:  Base Coat and Cartooning
This was one of those quick projects in between other projects, and we were told to take a flat that was 2' x 3' and choose two colors from the paint corral and scumble them together.  I chose purple and yellow.  The paint corral was a collection of all the extra paint we had mixed up until that time.  When we would finish a project, instead of throwing away all that paint, we capped it and put it in the paint corral.  Then it was fair game for anyone to use from that time on.  It saved a great deal of time in paint mixing.  No sense mixing a new color when the color we wanted was already mixed.

I chose purple and yellow, complementary colors.  Other people were choosing blue and light blue, or blue and green, colors that were analogous or related to each other in some way.  Kimb questioned me about my color choice and I think was giving me the opportunity to make a switch, but I went ahead and did it anyway.  This was my one unteachable moment while at Cobalt Studios.

At this point, we didn't know what we were painting, we had just been told to scumble two colors together.  Then we found out.  We were painting drapery, but not just any drapery, embroidered drapery.  Even though I made a poor decision at the beginning of this project, I still learned the principles and when I have to paint drapery like this again, I will have a much better outcome.

Rachel showed us a photo of drapery that she had put through photoshop and had abstracted it into color blocks that represented local color, shade, shadow and highlight.  With charcoal on a bamboo, she then cartooned out the big shapes on her demo piece.  She suggested that with drapery, she usually cartooned it upside down because she was more successful on drapery when she approached it in the abstract shapes upside down than she did when she painted it right side up. I followed suit.

Ugly scumble of purple and yellow and charcoal cartooning

Step #2:  Stenciling
Next we were shown the collection of stencils and asked to find a stencil with an all over pattern but one with recognizable shapes within that pattern.  Rachel then taught us how to stencil specific to this project.  With wallpaper, it's important to meet edges and to be careful where the repeats go.  On embroidered drapery, however, it's important for the stencil to follow the curves.  We worked on one fold at a time with the stencil, making sure the recognizable shape was visible here and there.

I was not having a good color day and I chose brown for my stencil color.  Another poor choice.  That's the thing about choices.  A poor choice is still a choice.

Ugly brown stencil on an ugly purple and yellow scumble

Step #3:  Shade
Rachel then demonstrated how to paint the shade.  Once again, shade is the shadow on a surface caused by the absence of light on that surface while cast shadow is the shadow that is projected off of one surface and onto another.  The shade on this project as on all the other projects was made of burnt umber and ultramarine blue, thinned to transparency with water.

It's important to note that scenic artists keep the paint elevation or other reference material close by when they paint in order to compare and refer to it during the process.

The shade is painted by finding the deepest part of a fold and painting darkest there and bringing it out into a fuzzy line as the shade transitions to the light.  Fuzzy lines are made by painting a brush stroke of clear water on the fuzzy edge before painting with the paint color.  The paint then mixes with the water which dilutes and thins it.  We help a fuzzy line out with a brush just a little.

Rachel painting the shade upside down.  Note the source material next to her work

My project with the shade painted on it

Step #4:  Cast Shadow
Looking at the source material, we were to identify the difference between the shade and the cast shadow.  Whereas shade has a fuzzy edge, cast shadow has a hard edge.  Our cast shadow on this project (on every project) was a mixture of ultramarine blue and velour black, thinned to transparency with water.  In other words, Payne's Grey.

The shadow painting was pretty straightforward.  Where the shadow was on the reference, transfer it to the painting.  Pretty quick.

Shadow added

Step #5:  Hightlight
In the high points of the drapery, where the light would strike it normally, we added highlights.  Highlights are made by taking the predominant local color, and adding the "color of the light".  I had always made my highlights by adding white paint to the local color prior to studying at Cobalt.  Adding the color of light for my highlight was revelatory for me.

Since my predominant color on my piece was an unattractive yellow, I added the amber color of light to my base coat.  Still another example of where my poor choice at the beginning served to make this project less successful than it should have been.

As I looked at everyone else's work on this project, I have to say on this one mine was the weakest, and that was due to my one unteachable moment at the beginning of the project.

Highlight added

I really want to paint this project again, but this time make a better choice at the beginning of it.  I wish I had taken the opportunity Kimb had given me at the beginning to choose better colors.  I'm glad I didn't end my Cobalt experience on this project.

Cobalt Studios: Summer Scene Painting #7

Cobalt Studios

Grey Marble Trompe L'oeil 
For my mid-value marble, I chose a grey marble with black and white veins.  I had painted grey marble many times, but I wanted to experiment with a different techniques.  I asked Kimb if she had ever used charcoal for the veins in marble.  She knew a technique for that and coached me through it.

This project was really in two parts.  The first part was to paint a slab of marble and the second part was to paint a carved, trompe l'oeil entablature, complete with egg and dart moulding and dentals.

Step #1:  Base Coat
The piece of muslin I was using had already been primed with starch so I didn't need to do that.  I began with a three color scumble to block out the color zones in the marble.  A neutral grey, a darker grey and a lighter grey, mostly cool but the lighter value was a little warmer.  My scumble wasn't overly blended.  I wanted hard edges in places that would inform me later on where the veins should go.

I also spattered a little of the lighter value in places.

Base scumble

Step #2:  Veining
After talking with Kimb about process, I placed a large piece of vine charcoal in a bamboo and drew out the major veins.  Then I used a smaller piece of charcoal in a smaller bamboo and drew in the spidery veins.

Then I used Sculptural Arts Coating, Flat Plastic Varnish to seal in the charcoal.  I mixed the plastic varnish with one part varnish to seven parts water.  Then I applied it with a sea sponge, in a dabbing technique.  The dabbing with the sea sponge doesn't just seal the charcoal, it also moves the charcoal powder around and it tends to blend the overall piece.

The plastic varnish, mixed with the charcoal dust in the sea sponge tended to give the marble a granular feel, like real marble has.

Charcoal applied very heavily

Sealed and blended with plastic varnish

The piece I chose also had some white veins in it as well.  I thought about setting them with white paint, but then I remembered I was trying to learn something and do something I had never done before.  I found some chalk and laid in the white veins and once again used the plastic varnish to seal in the chalk.

White veins added in chalk, before the plastic varnish

Once the marble slab was complete, it was time to paint the trompe l'oeil.

Step #3:  Shadow and Shade, The Stencil
Once again, we used a story stick to lay out the horizontal lines of our entablature.  We were also instructed to walk around our piece and find our least favorite corner and orient our painting accordingly so we could paint it out like the other marble piece we painted.

Once we had our marks made and our horizontal lines cartooned in, we then painted in our cast shadows.  Most of the time, we paint our shade first, but on this type of trompe l'oeil, we paint that second.  The cast shadows inform the painter where the shade, highlight and zingers go.

To paint the cast shadow, we used stencils.  These were shop made stencils, made in the style of the Metropolitan Opera.  Rachel and Kimb learned how to make these stencils from the scenics there many years ago.  These stencils are made by first drawing out your design on a piece of kraft paper.  Then, using clear packing tape, completely cover the back side of the kraft paper.  Then you turn the paper over and completely cover the front.  Always careful not to create any puckers.  Then, using an exacto knife, you cut out the pattern.  Voila, instant stencil.  You don't have to find it online, buy it and wait for shipping.  You can create a stencil in this fashion and go straight to work.

We painted the cast shadows for the dentals and the egg and dart first.  This was the only part of the project I painted sitting down.  For everything else I used a bamboo brush extender and stood up to paint.

Metropolitan Opera style stencil.  Notice that the horizontal lines and the profile of the entablature have been drawn on with charcoal

Stenciling.  The only thing I did down on this project.  Everything else was done standing up with bamboos

Dentals shadows stenciled in

Egg and dart stenciled in

After the stenciling was done, I then added the shade.  Shadow is basically Payne's Grey and shade is made with ultramarine blue and burnt umber.  Shade is slightly warmer than shadow.  Shade is the darker area on a surface, caused by lack of direct light, whereas cast shadow falls away from an object.  The dentals don't get shade.  The egg and dart do.  The shade on the egg got a fuzzy line in the center, as did the curved portions of the entablature.

As in all trompe l'oeil applications, the most important thing to remember is light source.  Where is it coming from, what angle, what direction.  Always remember where your light is coming from.

It was also at this time that I painted the shade and the cast shadow on and under the horizontal lines of the rest of the entablature.

Shade and shadow

Close up.  Note that the shade is slightly warmer than the shadow.

Step #4:  Highlight and Zinger
Shade and shadow work best when they are painted transparently.  Highlight works best for me when it's painted translucently.  Zingers are opaque.

The highlight is made by taking the local color and adding the color of the light.  In this case I chose a pink for my primary light color.  The highlight goes on, basically opposite the shade.  The center of the egg also gets a fuzzy line with the highlight.

Highlights added.  I didn't really like the highlights on the dentals, but I believe from stage they'd read okay.

Next, we painted the zinger on the highest part of the relief.  I used a one inch Purdy for that.  The zinger is the highlight color with white added.  White tends to make everything a little more opaque.  It's good for a zinger to be opaque.

Zinger added, including a dab on the egg

Step #5:  Bounce Light and Cut Line
For my bounce light, I chose and orange.  Thought it would be dramatic.  I also considered it to be straight on and at ankle height, as if it were from a fireplace.  Bounce light tends to accent a piece in a dramatic way.  Wherever we go, there is rarely a single light source.  Bounce light creates just that much more credibility in trompe l'oeil painting.

Bounce light added.  Close up, it looks a little broad, but from stage it blends quite nicely

Then it was time to paint the cut line.  The cut line is opaque black and goes in the deepest part of the shadow, and also where planes are perpendicular to one another within the shadow.

Cut line added

Step #6:  Paint it Black
With a one inch Purdy, I then cut in the profile of the entablature with velour black paint.  Velour black is the deepest, most black artist paint I've ever used.

Once the profile was painted, I got a bigger brush and filled in.  The marble piece was done.

Cutting in with the one inch Purdy

All blacked out

The finished piece on display

Along with it's brother

This was a very rewarding piece to paint.  I had painted trompe l'oeil a little bit before, but never to this level of detail.  It opened up new horizons for me as a scenic artist.  I can't wait to paint more of it.  My time was well spent at Cobalt Studios and I am thankful to the Administration of BYU-Idaho and the College of Visual and Performing Arts for giving me the opportunity to go out and better my craft and for investing the resources for me to do so.  I believe it was money well spent.  My scene painting class was good before the Cobalt experience but it was exponentially better after.  I can't wait to teach it again.

Cobalt Studios: Summer Scene Painting #6

Cobalt Studios

Brecciated Marble
There was no wasted time at Cobalt.  While we were waiting for parts of the woodgrain project to dry, we stapled pre-sized muslin to the floor and began the base coat for our marble assignments.  We painted the end of both woodgrain assignments and the beginning of both marble assignments simultaneously.  For the sake of clarity, however, I will only write about one project at a time.

While we were waiting for paint to dry, we sat in the classroom (which was actually just a rolling table on the studio floor) and discussed different kinds of marble.  We learned about how marble is formed in the earth and we learned about different painting techniques.  Each of us was then instructed to select two samples of marble from the folder.  At least one of the samples was supposed to be a mid-value marble.  The reason for that was because it would become our trompe l'oeil marble and the mid-value showed the highlights and shadows better.

As a scenic artist, I have painted hundreds of square feet of marble in my career.  I have painted many different types and varieties.  I have painted many different techniques.  I don't say that to boast, it just is what it is.  I determined, however that I was at Cobalt to be taught and to learn, so I chose one marble I had never painted before and also two techniques I had never used for marble before.  I decided ahead of time that I was not there to demonstrate what I already knew.  I was there to learn what was being taught.

Breccia marble is a marble with a violent past.  It is a collection of broken rocks that are cemented together by a fine grained matrix.  Fault breccia is created when two fault blocks grind past each other.  The broken fragments are then cemented together.  There are other kinds of breccia.  Basically, it's the conglomerate of marble.  It takes a great polish and it's quite stunning to look at.  I decided to paint breccia for one of my marble projects.

Step #1:  The Base Coat
First of all, Kimb demonstrated a breccia method.  It was because of her demonstration that I decided to paint that particular marble.

The first thing I did was to tear up scraps of bogus paper into the irregular but angular shapes of the stones in the breccia marble.  I tore paper into large, medium and small stone shapes.

Then I put my first scumble down.  I scumbled some dark browns with some medium browns.  Then I laid the bogus paper onto the wet paint and scumbled lighter colors over that.  Successive layers of scumbling and bogus paper friskits later, along with some random spatter and I had my base coat done.  All wet on wet.  When I was satisfied with the base coat, I pulled the bogus paper and went to lunch at Big Kev's Barbecue.

If you attend Cobalt, Big Kev's is a must.  It's about half a mile down the road from the studio and he serves from a food truck from about 10 AM until all the barbecue is gone.  However long it lasts is how long he stays open.  Oh, and it is GOOD!

Sadly, I got so caught up in the painting of this project that I didn't photograph as much of it as I thought.  So I just have shots of finished steps instead of process shots.

Base coat, stage one

Base coat, stage two

Step #2:  The Layout
We were told to walk around our marble to find the worst corner.  The corner we liked the least.  Once that was located, we laid out our profile of the finished marble piece.  We were going to paint a marble entablature.  With charcoal on a bamboo, we laid out our entablature.  The corner we liked least would be painted out.  That way, our pieces were more dramatic.

We had a tool called a story stick, which is a piece of brown kraft paper that is folded down the middle lengthwise and has markings at intervals which are then transferred onto the marble piece on either side.  Lines are drawn between the transferred markings with charcoal and a lining stick.  Then the profile of the entablature is cartooned on the side.  Every great paint job is a good drawing first, I always say.

Step #3:  Shade and Shadow
Using the fuzzy lines we had learned about in the basics project, we began painting our shade on the curved surfaces of the trompe l'oeil.  Using fuzzy lines can help you paint both concave and convex shapes.  There were both on this project.  Shade is the shadow which is caused by lack of light on an object, whereas shadow is cast from an object.  We painted both of those a little differently.  Shade is created by mixing burnt umber with ultramarine blue and thinning to a watercolor transparency, and shadow is mixed by combining black with ultramarine blue, in other words Payne's Grey.  The shadows are also mixed to watercolor transparency.

On a convex surface, the shade is painted on the underneath side, whereas the concave surface has the shade painted on the top side.  It will be clear in the first photograph.

After the shade is painted, then cast shadows are added on the areas where light is blocked from one surface to another.  All of these shades and shadows were painted with brushes on bamboo and lining sticks.  This was guided work, not freehand.  Also notice that the shade, shadow, highlight and zinger all project past the charcoal lines.  This is all going black anyway so it doesn't matter.

Cartooning with charcoal and shades painted.  Note the concave and convex surfaces and the fuzzy lines

Cast shadows added

Step #4:  Highlight and Zinger
Highlight is made by taking the local color, or base color and adding the color of the light to it.  If your light source is amber, then add that to it.  If the light source is pink, add pink to it and so on and so forth.  It's important not to go too far in value above your local color or the piece will appear cartoonish.  I like my shade and shadow to be transparent and I like my highlights to be translucent.  Zinger and cut lines are opaque.  I get the desired translucence from my highlight by adding water.

On the convex surfaces, on the top third, I painted my highlights with fuzzy lines.  I also added a small highlight at the top of the piece.

Highlights added at top of piece and on the two convex pieces of the entablature

When the highlight was dry, I added the zinger.  Actually, I added the zinger when the piece was still wet which serendipitously gave me a fuzzy zinger that I kind of liked, then I waited for that to dry and added another zinger on top of that.  The zinger goes on the very top edge of the entablature and in the middle of the two fuzzy highlights.

Fuzzy zinger in an impatient accident

Solid zinger on top of the fuzzy one

Step #5:  Bounce Light and Cut Line
For my secondary light source, I chose a blue light from ankle level.  Somewhere along the way, either Rachel or Kimb or both suggested that bounce light often looked really good when it was a complementary color.  Since my basic color of the piece was overall an earthy orange, rust color, I chose a blue bounce light.  I placed it on the bottom edges of each of the projecting surfaces, as well as in the bottom third of the convex pieces.  Bounce light, by the way is best painted in a dry brush technique

Blue bounce light added on bottom surfaces of projections

Next came the cut line.  I used my one inch Purdy and a lining stick to make a cut line at each transition, where one piece projected beyond another one.  In other words the cut line goes at the deepest part of the shadow.

Cut line added

Step #6:  Paint it Black
With the one inch Purdy, I cut in the profile with velour black.  Rachel calls Rosco Velour Black the "Cadillac of black."  When that was complete, I got a bigger brush and laid in the rest of the black.  No sense painting it with a tiny brush.  I've always been taught to use the biggest brush possible for the thing you are working on.  Once the black was on, the piece was done.

Edge cut in

Black painted

This was a very satisfying piece to work and learn on.  I was happy with the results, but more importantly I was happy with the things I learned on this project.

All the paint is dry, the piece is finished

Cobalt Studios: Summer Scene Painting #2

Cobalt

The Day to Day
The Summer Scene Painting program at Cobalt is an intensive, three week, hands on experience.  It had been years since I had held a paintbrush for eight hours a day.  I loved every minute of the experience.  For me that is Zen.

We started out with basics, as one would expect.  Much of what I learned at Cobalt was material I was already familiar with, but somehow each concept was taught in a different way than I had heard it before.  This time, it wasn't just about how to do things but also why we do them that way.  There was a healthy dose of geometry and physics and a few other surprising sciences taught.

Every minute of the work day at Cobalt was scripted.  Rachel and Kimb know how long everything should take and plan accordingly.  There was time for each project to be completed with no real down time.  There was no real wasted time.  For each thing, they would let us know at the beginning how long it should take and gave us that much time.

Each day began in the waiting room where we had a joke of the day, then we would talk about that day's project.  At that point, we would go into the studio and sit around a table for instruction.  The time was balanced, in the first and second week between instructional experiences and practical experiences.  This was really important during times when we were waiting for paint to dry.  Instead of sitting around doing nothing, Rachel and/or Kimb would gather us at a table and lecture.  Each session was planned and there were great handouts for each of them.  No real wasted time at Cobalt.

The First Thing
The basics are important in anything we do.  Scene painting is no different.  We started out with layout and cartooning.  Every good painting, whether you are painting on an easel or on a grand scale for the theatre, begins as a good drawing.

The first couple of days, we worked on how to scale and layout drawings using charcoal grids.  Scenic artists traditionally stand up to paint or draw but their work is on the ground.  Vine charcoal and paintbrushes are inserted into the end of three to four foot bamboo poles and we work at arms length plus that.  People tell me all the time they can't imagine painting that way.  I tell them it's just a matter of brush choice, brush placement and trust.  If you can get past the mental part, anyone can paint in this fashion.

Years ago, I made a conscious decision when learning scene painting, to trust the teacher.  People who know what I want to know.  I decided they were teaching things for a reason and it must be important.  Being teachable is the most important part of being a student.  Period.

The first mini-project we were given was a line drawing cartoon.  Each of us received a different cartoon and we were expected to scale it and make a grid and then transfer it to a large piece of craft paper.  I got a turtle, whose name escapes me.

Drawing with a charcoal in the end of a bamboo stick.  Holding the reference drawing is essential

The finished drawing.  Notice the faint charcoal grid

The Second Thing
After we finished our drawings, the next project was to create a much larger drawing as a team.  My team chose a Hirschfield drawing.  Each of us took a different third of the drawing.  We created a grid with charcoal and snaplines.  Then we each cartooned our section of the drawing and hoped it matched up.

Once we were done with that, we teamed up again and had to lay out a perspective drawing.

Drawing the Hirshfield

The finished piece

The perspective drawing

Cobalt Teachings
During the first week, when we were waiting for paint to dry on a project, we sat around a chalk board and learned about light, shadow, highlight, bouncelight and etc...  Each thing we learned prepared us for something in the next project.  Everything built on the last thing.  It was very much a line upon line, precept upon precept experience.

We learned about how to draw cylinders, cones, cubes and spheres.  We learned about the different types of shadows and highlights.  Everything that was taught had a purpose.  There was no wasted time.  Great experience.  One I hope to repeat.

Pissaro shapes

With teachings

Reminders

Cobalt Life
The most important part of the Cobalt experience is the work in the studio.  When we weren't in the studio, we had a little time to ourselves.  Prior to attending Cobalt, we all received a questionnaire about food.  What we'd like to be stocked for breakfast, what food allergies we had, etc...  Since I have a great deal of food allergies, I thought I'd have to sneak out and find stuff to eat.  I never had to do so.

Each of us took turns over the three weeks where we'd either be the head chef or an assistant in the kitchen.  Every night there were gluten free, soy free, dairy free options for me to eat.  There were a few other students with some food allergies and everyone who cooked made certain everyone could eat.  That was a kindness.  We ate well at Cobalt.  Everyone was on their best behavior and everyone made sure they made their best dish.  I made my son in law's famous asparagus wrapped in black forest ham with asiago cheese.  Big hit with the other students.

Our day began with breakfast.  Everyone was on their own for breakfast.  The fridge and pantry were well stocked with the items we had asked for on the questionnaire so no one went hungry.  After breakfast we headed to the studio and worked.  At lunchtime, we went back to the farmhouse and ate lunch.  Typically it was leftovers from the night before.  Then back to the studio for the next round.  When it was time for dinner, the chef and the assistants left and began cooking.  When we weren't in the kitchen, we could explore the property, take walks, graze on blueberries, meditate or enjoy one another's company.  It was important to share an evening meal together.  After supper we had time to ourselves.

In the group I was in there were no smokers or vegetarians.  Rachel said that was very rare.  My time at Cobalt was idyllic.  Every moment of every day was exciting.  I had waited so long to come and I had been worried it wouldn't live up to my expectations.  All of that was put to rest the first day.  I was so thankful to be at Cobalt.  Mind blowing, life changing.

On the weekends we were able to go exploring.  We didn't go to the studio on Saturdays or Sundays.  Cobalt is in a small town in the Catskills called White Lake, New York.  The studio is eleven miles away from the site of the epic concert Woodstock.  They have a museum there and one weekend some of us went there.  Images of that trip can be seen here.  Some of the students opted to go into the city for the weekend.  I chose to hike.  We were in the Catskills.  I have already been to New York City and I am sure I will go back.  It's not often I get to hike the Catskills.  The National Park Service manages long sections of the Delaware River near there and there were a series of six short hikes you could do and then receive a patch for them.  A few of us decided to get the patch.  We had a great time and accomplished our goal.  Those hikes can be viewed here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The Studio Cat
Rachel says every studio needs a cat.  We had Winifred.  There were times when I had to work in the studio alone.  A few times I wanted to go in and finish something and ended up in the studio after hours.  Winnie was a welcome companion during those times.  She kept watch over the studio.  She knew who was in charge.  Apparently she gets the most hits on the Cobalt Studios Facebook page.

Winnie

Knows who is really in charge

Cobalt Studios is a great training ground for scenic artists.  I loved my time there and hope to go back for some of the other training that goes on there.  I would recommend Cobalt Studios to anyone who was serious about learning the craft of scene painting.  Great times.