Queen's Birthday Party - NATO, Brussels

I have been very lucky to have been asked by NATO Headquarters in Brussels to do two paintings for their annual Queen's Birthday Party. So when ever I have had a night off from production work, or a spare moment here and there, I have been painting a portrait of the Queen. I have been working from the official canadian portrait of the Queen which was taken in 2002 as I feel it shows her in all her glory, however instead of the original background I felt it would look more patriotic if I had the Union Jack behind her.

Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme

Whilst the sun rays where beating hard down in UK, and they rest of the student population in Glasgow were enjoying the mini heat wave, Jude and I where inside painting a Frank McGuinness's iconic show about war and death - Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, which was shown at the Tron Theatre.

Photo Courtesy of Emma Fitzgibbon

Nearly the end of Magic Flute

Magic Flute is almost done yay! The past week has a been a funny week, I think after doing the same thing for the past 6 weeks I finally crashed and wasn't my usually optimistic self - I just wanted to get all the bricks done! Thankfully we have got all the bricks done, all the wallpapering and all that is left to do is paint some windows/doors/skirting in flat colour so that will be pretty easy.

Last of the brick flats

Stonehenge at Glasgow Green

Yesterday Jude and I decided to head down to Glasgow Green to not only do some culture but also to have a good old bounce on the massive bouncy castle shaped like Stonehenge!

More Bricks

At the start of this term things weren't very busy as we hadn't received much from construction to start painting. However, the build for the opera 'Magic Flute' is now in full swing. We have began late nights and next week we will also being doing Saturdays to plough through the thousands (no exaggeration there) of bricks to be painted.

Interview and Website

One of the modules in my course had a component where I had to organise a mock interview with someone in the scenic art industry. So Jude, Rose and I took it upon ourselves to contact Fiona Clark (the head scenic artist at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh) to arrange an interview.

For the days leading up to the interview I grew increasingly nervous as Jude and Rose had both met Fiona before and I was beginning to feel like a quiet tag along. However, I made sure I was prepared for the interview by updating my CV, researching the Lyceum, and getting my website up and running. 

The interview itself went much better then I expected, Fiona was so nice and made me feel very comfortable (i guess it must have been scary for her too!) and her comments on my online portfolio boosted my confidence. I felt having my website ready for the interview really helped as it allowed her to see my current work and made me more determined to get more work on it so when a real interview comes around I will be able to show myself in a positive light.

We finished the floor!

Woo, we finished the floor for the opera magic flute! It's meant to look like 1950's linoleum and a bit grotty and i think we managed to achieve that look! I did get a bit frustrated at times when painting in those black squares, as sometimes my line would get a bit wobbly and then this meant going over the creamy/white squares again! HOWEVER, the designer doesn't think the floor is yellow enough but it looks just like the model piece ... hmmmm, i hope she likes it when she comes to the workshop to have a look!

Magic Flute - Bricks

Gosh, its only been one day of texturing a large six and half metre wall but man was it hard work and a lots of maths for someone who thought she would never need to do maths after standard grade! Basically, for magic flute the designer wants the majority of the walls to be textured bricks. Stole this picture from Jude and this gives you an idea of what we are doing, this is the first stage - texturing with idenden ... only another 21 flats to do ... that 16, 632 bricks (good maths Bomph-Dog)

The Tron Show

Last week went rather slow to be honest, i think its because we haven't had much work in from construction but no doubt it will be coming in thick and fast over the next few days! On Thursday 19th and Wednesday 20th Jude, Rose and I had the fun task of creating a muddy war like floor for the drama 'Sons of Ulster' which is being shown at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.

Make Up Class!

On Wednesday I had a makeup class with a few others from Second Years and I thought it was so much fun and really beneficial. To begin with we got into partners (I was with Lisa Bertilloti) and we learnt how to a standard face of makeup for someone who would be on stage so we had to really give them a healthy glow and be a bit more dramatic so it would stand out on stage with all the lighting.
In the afternoon, we learnt how to do ageing makeup, which I found pretty difficult to begin with as I was scared of being to dramatic and for the wrinkles I had created on Lisa's face to turn out to look like weird crazy strippy lines! However, in the end I do think I managed to make her look like an old lady (named her Pearl haha!)

Grad Show

This week has been manic for the 3rd years, they've all been working their socks off to get everything finished for their Graduation Show on Thursday! So on Tuesday night I stayed late to help out on the costumes for the show as well as drawing up a spiral a circular board thing.
To be honest at first I was a bit reluctant to help out as I sort of felt pressurised to and I thought this is really the third years work, but in the end I thought why not? I wasn't really doing anything Tuesday night, and I always think its important to help out a friend in need!

(This is a photo of one of the costumes in working progress)

Magic Flute - Week 1!

Ah its so nice to be back in the Scenic Department where everyone is ready get stuck into production work. It looks like we have a busy six weeks ahead with like 5 shows to paint eep and because the 3rd years are now all going on their work experience us second years are taking a big step up in our scenic art roles!

The fist production we are working on is 'Magic Flute', the design looks great - nothing tacky or grimmy, just a classic high finished design. We finished the stage floor on Friday (well it might need another gloss coat actually on monday) but i think it looks rather good - its meant to look 1950s linoleum.

(PICTURE TO COME - i stupidly left  my SD card in belgium)

My Kiwi Bird Hot Air Balloon

It was rather hard to try choose something to make in props, as literally the world was my oyster and I was given the option to make anything I wanted. So i spent about half the day researching with Rose and she came across a really cool Art Director/Set Designer/Prop Stylist called Rhea Thierstein (click for her website) who has made prop and designed sets for one of my favourite photographers - Tim Walker. Whilst looking at her portfolio I came across a really cool hot air balloon bird, and I thought not I try make that!

Props

My time in props has been really good, I'm so happy I swapped my elective from design to props or i think i would be going out of my mind! There has been times in props though when I feel I'm just plodding along and this has shown me that I really like working in fast pace environment, but I guess it has also shown me that in the theatre business sometimes its all work, work, work or just plain sailing.

Tommy

Even though I have been in my elective props for the last 4 weeks,  I still have been venturing into my favourite place ... scenic! I was a bit gutted when I found out I wouldn't be working on Tommy as the way my timetable fell I was in props whilst the majority of the Musical Theatre prodctuion was being painted. However, the saying 'if you don't ask, you don't get' is so true as I asked Martin (head of props) if i could pop into scenic for some of the paint calls because I really wanted to use the spray gun on the back of the Atheneum stage wall.