Here is "my" Fagin's fireplace. I spent two days painting this. The set construction people had prepared this truck with a back wall of MDF and, directly in front of that, some three dimensional "bricks" made from expanded polystyrene. Also of course they had built the stove, chimney, mantlepiece and two boxes for plinths. The above photo was taken at the dress rehearsal so the piece has been appropriately "dressed" for the occasion.

Perhaps you might be interested in how I worked on this set.

First of all I attacked the Polystyrene bricks with a craft knife and sandpaper. I roughened up all the exposed edges and corners then, using the sandpaper, dug into the material to make the deep-set mortar joints. I then sealed the whole with a mixture of PVA glue and emulsion paint.

The Designer was anxious that I painted the piece to ensure the 3d brick effect was easily 'read' by the audience. So to help with this I marked out much smaller bricks on the back wall.

Then I painted the bricks. I used several hues of red and dotted these about the fireplace so that no coloured brick was the same as its neighbour. During the same session I also painted the brickwork of the two plinths.

Once this was dry I tore open a bath sponge and, using the rough exposed end, dabbed it lightly into three different colours - white, red and black. This I then patted onto each brick, followed quickly by a dry (non 'painty') sponge to blur the resulting splodges.

I then painted in the mortar joints. I decided which direction was my light source.(Even if the light direction is different in the theatre, paintings done in this way are still just as effective.) and painted in the shadows, thickness and highlight of each brick.

Even with a thing as small as a brick I still like to abide by my perspective decision (in this case to have the eyeline/horizon line at about the 6 ft level for this theatre and this production). This meant the top edges of the bricks could be "seen"

Once all the above work was completed and dry I then set about distressing the whole brickwork using a handful of scrumpled up kitchen paper towel dipped in black and smeared under the mantelpiece and around the stove pipe. This I blurred with a damp 5 inch brush of clean water. I also put some "soot" (For this was what I was trying to emulate) where the large foreground bricks met the back smaller ones. At this stage I also painted some "plaster" over some of my bricks which I also distressed.

Next I turned my attention to the flagstone floor and plinth tops. I put masking tape on the top bricks of the plinths where I wanted the sides of my stone tops to end and then slapped a grey colour over the base of the truck and the plinth tops and sides. Then I marked out with dark lines the edges of the flags - including down the front of the truck, and put in the odd crack for good luck (not seen in photo) Next, using more of my mucky kitchen paper towel, I darkened and textured the edges of the flagstones where they met anything. I even used a little green where the wall met the floor. Finally, when the stone colour was dry, I removed the masking tape from the two plinth's brickwork and put new masking tape, this time, along the edge of the plinth stone top. I then was able (once again using my blackened paper kitchen towel) to put in the shadows of the stone tops on the bricks below them. Yes I know it still looks like a box but this shadow helped the illusion of the tops being wider than the base upon which they supposedly sat.

Finally I painted (and distressed) the stove and stove pipe..

By the way the flagstone stage floor was done with sponges dipped in several colours. (CLICK to see my home-made "cobble maker")