SCENERY PAINTING FOR THE AMATEUR MUSICAL THEATRE and PANTOMIME

TREES - Page two
How I go about painting trees and forests on Backcloths; Flats and Wings.


TRANSFERRING
I then mark out my canvas in one foot squares and laboriously transfer the outlines (Just the outlines - don't get too carried away with detail) from the centimetre sketch to the canvas. I use charcoal by the way,

RESERVING OUTLINES
Now comes my "patented" reserving system. Once all has been transferred, I lay masking tape alongside each line. (alongside so it doesn't stick to the charcoal) I can get through two rolls of masking tape doing this job. Doing curves is a problem but I use small lengths and crease it to fit but I am not too worried about the exact position at this stage. The result is I can slap, say, a sky right over the area I want covered without having to remember where an element is. Then, WHILST THE PAINT IS STILL WET, I remove the tape to reveal the element's outline underneath. This system really came into its own with the trees in this "Haunted Cove" painting.

Dick Whit, Haunted Cove. Paint tin for scale.
The "Statue" on the left is a separate wing. By the way this painting is a good example of aerial perspective. - mist, colours degenerate in the background, detail fuzzy in background. Note how even the background trees are misted over. With these tricks you can make even the smallest school stage appear much bigger.
By the way the cloth is only seven foot high so I painted the back wall of the school stage to match. That's why everything stops at the seven foot height in this photo.

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