Creating the Backdrop for ‘I Come From Arizona’
CTC’s Charge Artist, Mary Novodvorsky shares a step-by-step look at creating the backdrop for I Come From Arizona, rich with mural images from the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago where the play takes place.
The rendering for the I Come From Arizona backdrop is designed by Yu Shibagaki (learn about her design process for the show in this article) and includes a collage of murals from Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood created by Alejandro Medina and Jeff Zimmerman (see the above picture).This was not an easy or quick project to complete and it involved quite a bit of planning.
Beginning the Process
We have two spaces where we could paint this drop: on our warehouse paint deck or on our main shop paint frame. The warehouse space allows us to lay a drop on the ground to paint and then walk on it to paint different areas (You can see an example of this method in this article about painting “The Grinch” backdrop). The paint frame allows us to hang a drop vertically and a winch moves the drop up or down so that we can reach the entire drop. There are pros and cons to painting this drop in either space. We decided to do this drop on our paint frame because we wanted to use a digital projector to help us lay in the brick and the mural figures. We could certainly draw these ourselves, but the projector saved us a lot of time trying to get all of the detail into the drop. This drop is approximately 40 feet wide by 24 feet tall.
We first stapled the drop up onto the paint frame. Then we sized the drop with a starch mixture so that the fabric can shrink up nice and flat for the muslin to take the paint evenly. Then we drew out where we wanted the orange background for the three dancing ladies and base painted the rest of the drop with a mortar color.
Normally, we would make up a large stencil to do the brick. Stenciling this much brick is a time consuming process. Plus, stenciling on a soft drop on a paint frame is not easy because it is not backed by a hard surface everywhere. We tried out projecting and painting the first brick layer at the same time. Peter Baker created a digital vector image to map out the brick pattern. (see above). We snapped registration lines on the drop to accurately lay out the brick. Unfortunately, we could only have one painter doing this as they need to be on the one-person rolling cart to reach the area that can be projected. The paint frame painting platform is actually lower than the floor level in the shop. And there is a railing wall to keep dust and debris out of our faces in the way of projecting. This process ultimately took about the same time as a stencil would have taken, but without the issues that come with stenciling. In the long run, it was probably less irritating to project the brick.
Second Step
After the pattern was laid, we taped off and covered the window frames, then painted in four more colors on the brick along with an overall spatter to make it look more realistic. The additional layering of color on the brick took three painters, Peter, Sara Herman, and me roughly 12 hours to paint. We estimated there are about 2,500 bricks on the entire drop.
This drop has door panels which open at the bottom center. These doors are built as separate pieces so the drop needed a section cut out at the center for them. We needed to trace our brick and the overlapping mural images so that we could transfer them to the door after the drop is installed on stage.
Beginning the Mural Portions
After the bricks were all on, we projected the mural images over the brick. Now we could start painting the murals. I chose to airbrush them so that I could get the blending done without disturbing any of the brick paint. By spraying, I could also let the brick image ghost through the mural figures to show up like on the rendering.
You can see me in the above image with my HVLP (high volume/low pressure) sprayer working on the stage left faces. Peter is up on our rolling platform so that he can reach another section to paint all of the lettering for the stage right signs on the drop. Sometimes it’s hard to have more than one painter painting on the paint frame because we might need to be at different sections of the drop. We were also a little behind on the drop because earlier there was scenery being painted in the shop that would have been in the way for our projecting. Please notice we are both wearing respirators. That is to ensure that we aren’t breathing in any paint dust that might float around from the spraying.
It took approximately 24 hours to airbrush all of the faces. We knew we weren’t going to be able to completely finish the drop before it had to load in, so we tried to finish everything that is above eight feet from the floor. Anything lower, we finished onstage along with matching up the doorway. We needed to finish the drop after the door loaded in anyway.
Adding Layers and Dimensional Treatments
That is why the three dancing women are partially started in these pictures. I would have preferred to finish them in the shop, but sometimes schedules don’t always work out.
The day before it had to load onstage, I and another of my painters, Tina Yager, painted a drop shadow on all of the bricks. There are approximately 2,500 bricks on the drop, and it took the both of us about six and a half hours to do this. The drop shadow helps to make the bricks look dimensional and we’ve painted them over the murals as well so that the murals will look like they are on dimensional bricks.
This is a subtle detail, but it really helps to make the two-dimensional brick paint look three-dimensional. We really should have done a highlight as well, but unfortunately we ran out of time and that will come later if we can get to it. We also pulled the tape on the window trim and finished that, too.
On Stage, Finishing the Door
The drop was brought on stage and the doors were placed in position. We then transferred our images to the door portion and finished our dancers and arm with the rake. We had to work around the electrician and rehearsal schedules, so the rest of the drop elements came along in sections.
Complete!
We finished the drop shadow on the door and the drop is ready for performances. — Written and Photos by Mary Novodvorsky
I Come From Arizona had its world premiere at Children’s Theatre Company October 9 through November 25, 2018.
