My final week at Juilliard

Sadface. It's all over. I had such an amazing and insightful experience at The Juilliard School. I have returned back to Glasgow equipped with new skills and a determined drive to succeed.

le don pasquale set on stage!

During my last week at Juilliard I spent a lot of time doing the jobs scenic artist dread doing, like washing endless buckets to an inch of their life, filling dodgy flats with plaster of paris and priming. However, I did not mind at all - I was just grateful I was there being to help in anyway I could.

Wahoo, part of metallic gold portal!

My final week was the week before Tech Rehearsal for Don Pasquale and therefore it was final touch up time! I painted the backs of the flats on stage in a dull grey colour so that there was no chance of raw wood being distracting. Even thought this seems like an unimportant it came evident to me that Juilliard have high attention detail. At RCS, we normally leave the backs of flat raw as we just presume they will never been seen, but at Juilliard they cover all their tracks, and this is something I will take back to Scotland with me. I also did a few other touch ups here and there for Don P. such as glazing the posters with Nick and Rachael, as well as painting some of the red wooden flats. It was interesting to see the process for the red flats, as at first glance it looks like they are paintined one shinny flat red colour, with a series of dark washes. However, the richness of the red flats are achieved by priming them in a dull red and glazing them with a very vibrant red - this was a technique I had never done before, and the results speak for themselves!

La Donne

The last few days I was there I was sent up to the third floor to help out in one of the studio theatres to work on the show La Donne. Along with Rachael and Hunter, I helped prep the walls for wall paper, which turned out to be quite laborious job. The large revolving walls where made up of several flats, but the seems weren't entirely flush so we had to use a lot filler and sometime time sanding down the surfaces to get a perfectly smooth surface for wall papering.

The team in action

On Friday I was gutted to be leaving. I wish I had opted for the longer secondment as I felt there was so much more I could learn in a professional environment and I even though I tried so much to to show my scenic talent, I felt I didn't get to show my skills off to their full potential.

Before I left Rachael and I bought One Direction, painting watches .... I  HEART 1D!

I feel very fortunate that I got this amazing opportunity to work at Juilliard. I have an ambition in my scenic art to career to always to try work with people better then me so that I can aspire to be like them and so I can push myself to work alongside them to the best of my ability. At Juilliard I was lucky to work with a bunch of extremely talented individuals, all who gave me helpful guidance and made me feel very welcomed during my time in New York.

Well it's back to reality for me tomorrow. I'll be walking down Great Western road instead of Broadway to my paint my first commissioned painting! Wahoo! It's going to look a bit like this:

The Juilliard School New York

Hello from New York! As part of my course I needed to find work experience for 2 weeks in a professional environment, so I contacted The Juilliard School in NYC. I've always thought of it as an amazing place, it's situated in the Lincoln Centre - surrounded by the heart of the Performing Arts of the city.  My first (very cold week -10!) has been amazing! Getting out here was a bit of a nightmare though ... I can't believe British aviation can't function in a flurry of snow ... not to mention everyone knew we where expecting snow last Friday! Anyways I arrived in New York a day late (yup I slept in Heathrow on a cold floor!) and had no luggage (yup BA managed to loose my luggage for 3days!)

On Monday, bright eyed and bushy tailed I made my way from Port Washington to the big City of New York. I was so nervous to say the least, I still couldn't/can't believe Im in New York helping to paint the sets for Juilliard!

Juilliard is massive! Their paint shop is similar to ours, but they don't have a frame, and not going to lie I feel the organisation in their department is second to none! There are two professional interns, David and Rachel, who are super nice. Then there is the Charge Scenic Artist Jenny, and her assistant Emily who both made me feel very welcomed! There where also some freelancers helping paint this week - Claire, Nick and Hunter, all who are very talented!

I was so so so nervous, especially on my first two days, I was so scared of making mistakes that I painted so slow, and then as I was so worked up I kept on doing daft things like painting a straight line super wonky. Lets just say it wasn't my finest scenic art work. By the middle of the week I became much more confident and started to relax, I really started to push myself to speed up when painting and tried to strop thinking 'they are probably judging me!'

The Paint Shop

Currently at Juilliard they have been working on the opera 'Don Pasquale'.  It's been the first time I've seen a model box where the majority of the model pieces have been photoshoped, I've always been used to models that are hand-painted. The design is lovely though, and I have been working on the portals (they mask the wings), under direction from Hunter. We have been painted them look metallic and 3-D. It's been great learning new techniques such as using textured rollers in a new way and gold leaf (at RCS we don't tend to use gold leaf as it's rather expensive).

A section of the portals

On Friday I had bit of a change from the portals and got to work alongside Rachel and David on some black and white stripy flats. Working on this task I learnt a lot, as at RCS we usually paint straight onto the wooden flats, or if we have a larger budget we will paint on flats that have a framed canvas. However, at Juillard they paint on muslin which is primed with a 1:1 ratio of white latex and water, then sprayed with a starch solution which gives the flat a nicer and sharper finish. Anyways, I got the task of priming them, man I found it hard work and got two nasty blisters!

I've also learnt a lot of basic things that will come in handy when I'm back in the UK. Normally we just wash our brushes in water, but at Juilliard they wash them with Murphy's oil or soap. They never leave brushes in water over break as the water reacts with the binder in the ferrule. Housekeeping is done thoroughly, we usually just wash out buckets until they look good enough, but at Juilliard they wash them until they are pristine. I'm also getting to grips with the imperial system (hello inches). And finally maybe a Purdy brush shouldn't  always be my first brush of choice, at Juilliard they use a lot of Chip Brushes - we usually use those when using substances like using meths or glue!

Look at the organisation!

For improvement for myself as a Scenic Artist, I've realised that I really need to get quicker at painting. I feel I am good at drawing up model pieces, but I think I should start going to evening drawing classes to get even better, and seeing how much at Juilliard they paint on the floor, I now want to do a personal project of a landscape on the floor, painting with a fitch (a small sash brush) on a stick.

It's been a great first week, and I can't wait for next week to do it all again! I really want to move out here next year, I just have to keep working hard and hopefully I can create my own luck and make my dream into reality.

Hand Painted Furniture

Ahhh I'm going to New York tomorrow for work experience today! I can't believe I'm going to The Juilliard School - I am so excited!!!!!

So I have finished both my personal projects (yay) and I'm now on to another!

 As a scenic artist I am a bit scared about the future so as I back up I am painting furniture to a high standard so that I can potentially sell them! Right now I am working on a chair, originally I wanted to ombre it using a grey-scale palette, but after speaking to Gary it seems like a better idea to ombre it using the same colours as the cushion ... i.e blue. I am doing a Timorous besites pattern on the pillow so hopefully it will all go to plan!

Sanded Chair