Designed and painted by Brian Willis. Sets constructed by Sean Magee
Will be performed by Coleraine Provincial Players, (2010)
POSSIBLE ELEMENTS which could go into this scene.
BACKCLOTH
The Producers brief was:- old and dilapidated.
| Low ceiling | Smoke blackened |
| Barrels | |
| Fireplace | |
| Bottle glass window | A source of light is nice excuse for shadows and silhouettes and reflected light |
| Hanging lantern | Again another source of light. |
| Stairs | Always nice to have somewhere for the eye to escape to and wonder what is at the end of that route. |
| Ceiling support | A chance for a pillar in the foreground to help the illusion of depth |
| Dark either side to frame | |
| Figure Head | Chance to add some colour |
| Barrels on their side behind bar | Will need to construct the perspective of these carefully |
| Bottles and glasses | |
| Some bits made from wrecks | |
| Sawdust on the floor | An excuse for some colour |
| Anchor; nets, ropes | |
| Cracked walls | |
| Optics | Too modern |
| Stone floor | |
| Stairs | Steep |
| Dereliction | Nothing straight |
| Cluttered | But not look ... cluttered!! |
| Charts | |
| Paintings of sailing ships | |
| Cobwebs | |
| Brick arch | An excuse for some colour |
| Green mould on walls | |
| Jugs | |
TIPS
Dark silhouettes of foreground items (because of light from window)
So I build a room and populate it with objects. In this case I will make my room on the slant to give me an excuse for more depth.
It helps to keep the Vanishing Points on the canvas when laying out the full scale painting. The Eye line for this scene will be one foot off the ground.
I use thin layout paper to do my sketching so I can easily trace through the good bits and rework each page.
Because we are not using wings in this set I will use our widest cloth (20 feet)
Note figure for scale. Also the various VPs (Vanishing Points) and what they refer to. VPs are the dots surrounded by a circle on the eyeline which is a foot off the floor. (Thin pencil line)
The items on the bottom left will probably be hidden by a practical bar. Although I always paint parts which are supposed to be hidden because, more often than not, (Probably in the Dress Rehearsal) it's decided to move something and that area is then exposed.
Hmm. the above drawing looks a bit too much like the interior of a ship. I'll try a brick pillar instead of that wooden one. Also a wooden handrail on the stairs instead of a rope one.
And here is the practical bar. It goes Audience Left on the stage. (Position still to confirm with Producer) The sides fold in for storage. Note I can have a profile edge on the right (Barrel curve and top) as we can indent that support on the back as shown in the Plan view. but the left hand side must be straight so I will paint planking on it.
No dimensions for construction yet