Cobalt Studios: Summer Scene Painting #11

Cobalt Studios

Tiger on Velour
Our second to the last project was called, "You want me to paint THAT on WHAT?"  This was the first of two projects where we didn't have teacher demonstrations, but each of the teachers acted as designers and/or consultants for half the class.  For this project, Kimb was my mentor.

I had mentioned a week or so earlier that I had never painted on velour and wondered if they ever did such a thing.  Little did I know, there was a project in the syllabus where we painted on non-traditional surfaces, or alternate surfaces.  Turns out velour is more of an alternate surface because it has been used as a traditional surface for a very long time.  It's just not a regular surface I guess.  I dunno.

So when the assignments were handed out, I was given a small picture of a Chinese tiger painted in watercolor, and a piece of beige velour.  I had never painted on velour before, so I asked for advice.  Kimb suggested I use light sprays of plastic varnish in several coats to create a surface for the paint to lay on, rather than soaking in.  I had heard that paint soaks into velour rapidly.

For the project, we were also supposed to write out our suggested process along with questions we had from the teachers.  Once we had our process down, we had to schedule a few moments with our mentor and let them weigh in on it.

My maquette.  The paintbrush is in the picture to establish scale.  The velour at the bottom is the swatch

My Process
As I looked at this picture, I decided I would proceed as follows:

1. Spray 5 thin coats of plastic varnish on the velour, allowing them to dry in between
2. Make a transparency of the image
3. Project the image onto the velour (pinned to the wall)
4. Ink image onto velour with brown sharpie marker
5. Lay velour onto floor
6. Paint background "watercolor"
7. Paint basic tiger and rock shapes
8. Detail tiger with lining brush
9. Paint foreground with one inch Purdy
10. Create stencil for border
11. Paint border

My process seemed to be okay.  Kimb questioned if it was a good idea to ink directly from the transparency to the velour without making a pounce first.  I have inked from transparencies for many years and I was and am confident in my ability to do that so I felt I didn't need to add that step.  I think she was concerned about the fuzzy part on the belly of the tiger and the front leg.  I had already decided to just make indication marks for that, rather than a hard, straight line.

Step #1:  The Test Flat

We made test flats for many of the projects we did at Cobalt.  This one was no exception.  After I had cut my velour to size, I took the excess and stapled it around a piece of homasote to create a test flat.  First I divided the test flat into halves and on one half I sprayed several coats of plastic varnish, and on the other side I left it pristine.  Then I proceeded to try painting with different thicknesses of paint and painting in different directions.

I found that thinner paint seemed to sink into the velour pretty rapidly but more viscous paint stayed on the surface.  I also learned that if you paint along with the nap of the fabric the paint lays nicely on it.  If, however you paint against the nap, the paint tends to bunch up under the nap or pile and creates a texture that I didn't want on this project.  I suppose there may be times when you would want that texture.  I didn't.

I also found that the non-varnished side accepted paint just fine.

The test flat

Step #2:  Inking and Layout

I sprayed several coats of plastic varnish on the velour and had to find stuff to do while I waited for it to dry.  I'm pretty sure that getting ready to paint on this project took longer than the actual painting of the project.

I made the transparency of the tiger on a copy machine.  I had to lighten the image somewhat in order for it to read.  Then I pinned the velour to the wall and situated the projector.  When I had the image where I wanted it on the velour, I began inking with a brown sharpie.  I was careful on the fuzzy parts of the tiger to only make indication marks instead of lines.  Kimb saw that and agreed it was okay for me to have not added the pounce step.  The inking was a success.

When I laid the fabric on the floor, I worked my hand back and forth on it and discovered the direction of the nap.  On the selvage edge of the fabric, I drew arrows in the direction of the nap and wrote, "Stroke this way," in several places, just to remind me how I wanted to paint the thing.

The tiger inked on the velour

Step #3:  The Background Painting

I decided to eyeball the background portions of this piece, rather than inking them in.  I chose to do so because they had a watercolor vibe in the original piece and didn't have solid outlines.  Using a brush on a bamboo, I held the image in one hand and painted with the other.  Typically I hold the image in my right hand because I am left handed. 

For most of the background, I chose to paint upside down as far as the image went because it was easier to find reference areas, and it also became about painting abstract shapes, rather than trying to copy exactly some mountain or such.  The whole painting was done with the velour on the floor and me standing up with a paintbrush in a bamboo.  Everything except for the inking and the stenciled border.

Background laid in.  Without detail, it looks ratty.  Note the arrows at the bottom right of the image.  Those were my nap marks

Step #4:  Tiger body painting

Next I painted the broad strokes of the tiger's body.  I noticed there was a highlight built in to the paint job in the original right where the tiger's body transitions from a horizontal surface to a vertical surface.  I decided to paint that broadly and let the detail bring it into focus.  I also noted there was a bright orange patch at the bottom of the body.  I painted these features in as I painted the body.  I had to paint fast because unlike other surfaces, the velour didn't allow the paint to move around very much.

Having never painted on velour before, I kind of questioned myself at this point of the process.  I wasn't sure if I liked how it looked or not.  I decided to trust myself, though and kept painting.  I knew that people had painted on velour for hundreds of years and so I would be able to succeed.  When I started putting the detail in, I knew I was going to be alright.

Tiger's body roughed in.  Beginnings of detail in rock, background and tiger.

Step #5:  Stripes

As I began detailing the tiger, I decided I would paint the outline with black paint, at least where there was to be an outline.  Instead of using black paint for the stripes, however, I chose to use Van Dyke Brown for those.  Van Dyke Brown is a richer color and tends to reflect light better than black.  Van Dyke Brown is the darkest color in the Rosco palette before you get to pure black.

When I painted the stripes and the outline, the whole piece came into focus and I knew I was going to like this piece.  At this time I also detailed the rocks and some of the background.

Tiger coming into focus

Step #6:  Foreground

For the foreground bamboo leaves and such, I used a combination of burnt and raw umber.  I laid the burnt umber down first so it would appear to be behind and in shadow.  Then I laid the raw umber down where it would look like it was catching a little light.  Burnt umber is kind of a chocolate brown whereas raw umber is a little more green.  The two colors work together very well in my opinion.

I used a one inch Purdy for the bamboo leaves.  I started at the base of the leaf and as I dragged the brush, I gave it a quarter twist so I could start wide and terminate into a point.  I painted the leaves quite fast.  It may have been the funnest part of the paint job.

Finally I did line work on the rocks in the extreme foreground.

Evidence that I actually did paint this thing with a bamboo.  Note the reference photo in the right hand

Ready for the border

Step #7:  Creating the Stencil the Metropolitan Opera Way

I learned many new skills while at Cobalt.  One of which was how to create stencils the way the scenic artists do at the Metropolitan Opera.  The scenics there taught Rachel and Kimb how they crafted stencils.  I like this way better as I can create a stencil in an hour and be painting immediately, as opposed to finding a stencil online, ordering it, paying for overnight delivery and waiting for it to show up.

The first step is to draft and draw the stencil on a piece of brown kraft paper.  Then you place the kraft paper upside down on a self healing cutting mat.  The next step is to secure the corners with tape.  When the kraft paper is secured, you begin covering the back of it with clear, two inch packing tape.  It's important to lay the tape down in such a way that you don't curl the kraft paper.  It's important to let the tape go beyond the kraft paper on all four sides which also helps to secure it.  Once done, take an exacto knife and cut along the edge of the kraft paper.

Then you turn the kraft paper over and repeat the process.  When the front is all taped, you then cut out your stencil with the exacto knife.  We tape the front last so we don't have to turn it up when it's time to cut out the design.  When the design is all cut out, then it's time to release the stencil from the green self healing board.

I chose a two part stencil to replicate the border from the image.  One stencil would be painted darker and one lighter.  Remember when creating stencils to factor in a repeat mark so you can make your stencil line up each time you place it.  It's also important to design in little connectors or paper sinews so the fine detail in the stencil doesn't curl and bend as you paint it, giving you unpredictable results.

Design laid out.  Note the repeat, diamond and oval

Tapeed back

Front taped and folded in half so the mirror image would line up

Cutting it out

Burnishing the tape

Step #8: Stenciling

For this application, I sat and knelt down.  I set up the stencil on the center line first so the medallions or major part of the design would be dead center.  Then I used a scenic fitch brush in a dry brush technique, straight up and down and gently painted the stencil in a circular motion.  I laid in the background or lighter color first, then I painted in the darker part last.

First stencil laid in

Second stencil laid in

Sides filled in.

When I was just finishing the line work, Rachel and Kimb walked in from their lunch and Rachel said one word about my project.  "Magnificent!" was all she said.  That was a great compliment from her.  I appreciated hearing it.  I wondered when this one was done, "How can this possibly get any better?"  I would soon find out.

I loved my time at Cobalt.  I would return again in a heartbeat.

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.