Sunday, January 10, 2016

Transfer Project: Grid & Sketching



On day 3, in addition to brickwork and stoning, we started on our final project, which will be a transfer of a Disney concept image onto a 4’x6’ drop (landscape). We'll be using your standard muslin stretched over a wooden frame and starched for tightness. We lay our muslin out on the floor, then placed the frame on top of it, centering it so that there was a few inches of muslin wrapping around the edges. Working in teams of two, we started in the middle of the long edge and stapled in either direction, pulling lightly against each other to tighten it up some (not too tight though, otherwise it would rip during starching). Then we repeated the process on the short ends and tucked the corners.

Chalk Grid on Canvas for Ease of Transfer. Scale: 1 1/2" = 1'-0"

Once the canvas was mounted, the starch was mixed into a large container, then poured into a garden sprayer and sprayed in a couple passes onto the canvas. To mix the starch into the fabric, we cross hatched over the freshly sprayed starch with a clean brush. When it dried, a chalk line was used to mark 1'-0" squares that correspond with a grid on the original painting. I was assigned a Gustaf Tenggren concept image for Pinocchio:

Pinocchio Shipwreck ~Gustaf Tenggren
The most challenging part of this process so far has been mixing the colors to keep the wood on the shipwreck from winding up looking like a big splotch of dark - but we'll get into that down the line. The printed image is also a little washed out so my colors will deviate just a little bit more. For now, it was just a challenge to get the image transferred.

Completed (but not full) Sketch of Original Image - Charcoal on Muslin
 Sketching the outline of the ship proved to be more difficult than I had imagined. Because of all the lines in the planks themselves, getting the depth and detail in without losing track of the pieces meant leaving pieces blank for later. You can see where I left it open to the left of the rudder and in some places on the back of the ship. The sketch was done in charcoal because it's easy to dust off and paint over, but it's still best not to get too heavy handed or it will be harder to paint over.

Beginning Paint
Now that the outline was complete, I began (trying) to mix the colors for the lighter areas in the ship's interior. These will be painted first, then the planks and holes in the hull will be painted in after. I'm not super acquainted with color mixing, but with some practice and a lot of guidance, I was finally able to settle on two colors that will read well when used together. Some places, like the fallen door on the right have some dimension that gives us some good opportunities for highlight on the underside of the boards.
 

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