Painting trees- Transferring page one

SCALING
My advice is to work out what elements you need to put into your painting, then (Once you have measured your backcloth or flat) draw a scale sketch plan of your proposed painting. I have tried doing without this part of the project but inevitably end up painting my elements too small.

So I always draw a scale version first. I often spend more time on this initial work than actually painting the backcloth. And I always include a scale "Person" in my initial sketch to give me an idea of ..erm... scale. This helps me and the Producer.

TREES - Page two How I go about painting trees and forests on Backcloths; Flats and Wings.
SCALING My advice is to work out what elements you need to put into your painting, then (Once you have measured your backcloth or flat) draw a scale sketch plan of your proposed painting. I have tried doing without this part of the project but inevitably end up painting my elements too small. So I always draw a scale version first. I often spend more time on this initial work than actually painting the backcloth. And I always include a scale "Person" in my initial sketch to give me an idea of ..erm... scale. This helps me and the Producer.

Above is my scaled pencil of the "Haunted Cove" for the Bushmills PTA Panto. The cloth is 18 feet long with a drop of seven feet. I use the silly scale of one centimetre to the foot! Which means I can get quite a big image on an A4 sheet of paper. Then I photocopy the sketch, ink the outlines, and overlay it with one centimetre squares.

I colour the various elements with crayons to help differentiate when transferring. Colours have no significance. Big splodge in middle is black emulsion paint!
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