The Hollywood Backdrop Collection
A Living Legacy for Future Scenic Artists
As Scenic Artists, we have the incredible responsibility of bringing stories to life on stage and screen. Our craft and art form, developed and passed through apprenticeship, tradition, and techniques of generations of artists, is our legacy and our responsibility to carry forward. One of the most invaluable resources available to us today is the Texas Performing Arts’ Hollywood Backdrop Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. This rich repository of painted backdrops is striking in its aesthetic appeal and is vital for training the next generation of Scenic Artists. By understanding and utilizing this treasured collection, we honor our craft, keep the artistry alive, and inspire future talents to not only preserve but also push the boundaries of what scenic design can achieve, thereby contributing to the evolution of our field.
The Hollywood Backdrop Collection, a treasure trove of painted backdrops from the MGM, 20th Century Fox, and JC Backings’ rental inventory, is not just a collection of beautiful artworks. It is a living testament to the evolution of scenic artistry in the mid-century Hollywood Motion picture entertainment industry, a history that we, as scenic artists, are a part of and to which we continue to contribute. This historical connection to our craft is what makes this collection so significant and inspiring.
In the mid-20th century, generations of top scenic artists coalesced into the major film studios’ scenic art departments, collaborating to produce sophisticated backdrops at an industrial scale. These artists had thousands of hours of painting practice and strong foundations in understanding architectural styles, color theory, and linear and atmospheric perspective. The best artists of this age refined their visual acuity and command of recreating “reality” for the camera through direct observational painting from life. Spaces like MGM’s Culver City scenic art building supported their work through moving paint frames and a dedicated facility for painting, as chronicled in the award-winning 2016 publication, The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop, ReganArts, by University of Texas faculty members Richard M. Isackes and Karen L. Maness.
Today, despite the availability of digital technologies, savvy directors, production designers, directors of photography, and art directors continue to integrate painted backings, flat cutouts, and windbags in feature films and episodic television to create cohesive visual, constructed environments, as seen in Barbie (Warner Bros., 2024), Wonka, (Warner Bros., 2024) Tenet (Warner Bros., 2024), The Witcher (Netflix, 2024), Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures, 2024), and Nathan Crowley’s 2025 Academy Award-Nominated Design, Wicked, (Universal, 2024).
The backdrops in UT’s Collection provide unmatched insight to aspiring scenic artists and designers into the skills and techniques that have shaped our field. The paintings represent the distillation of techniques refined by scenic artists trained in the styles of late 19th-century British, Parisian, New York, and Chicago theatres migrated to Hollywood, then adapting their approach to painting to meet the demands of the burgeoning film industry. By analyzing these works, emerging artists can learn about perspective, brushwork, and color theory directly from the masters who came before them. Moreover, the Hollywood Backdrop Collection is not just a historical archive but a practical resource for hands-on training in an age when the traditional apprenticeship method has disappeared. It equips us with the skills and insights we need to succeed in our careers as scenic artists, making us feel equipped and prepared for the challenges ahead.
Students from the University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance, Arts & Entertainment Technology, Studio Arts, and Radio, Television, and Film gain access to the Collection through courses in scenic art and environmental rendering, advanced scenic art, art direction, production design, the Hollywood Backdrop Collection’s website www.HollywoodBackdrops.org, and employment in the Texas Performing Arts Fabrication Studios.
This Collection offers developing scenic artists and designers the chance to recreate portions of iconic pieces, benefitting from UT Professor of Practice Karen Maness’s ongoing research to chronicle Hollywood’s mid-century and contemporary motion picture scenic art. Students learn from hands-on demonstrations and context from veteran motion picture scenic art professionals. The practical UT Austin-centered benefits make the Collection an indispensable resource for students and educators in the arts, providing them with the skills and insights they need to succeed in their careers as scenic artists.
Scenic art continues to be chosen for its adaptability to specific settings, benefiting contemporary productions, and produced at a fraction of the cost of digital and printed trans-light backings. One of the most critical lessons from the backdrops for today’s students is the significance of collaboration, preplanning, and the remaining relevance of the skill set of scenic art as an indispensable tool in the arsenal of illusion creation for film, themed attractions, and live events. The Hollywood Backdrop Collection is not just a repository of painted backdrops but a vital link between our past and future film, scenic art history, and artistry. Drawing from its rich history and traditions, we impart invaluable knowledge to the next generation of artists, ensuring that the skills and insights are preserved and evolved. By embracing this Collection as a fundamental training resource, we honor the craft and inspire a new wave of creativity, innovation, and collaboration in scenic design, motion pictures, and themed attractions, making us feel inspired and motivated to contribute to the evolution of our field.
Hollywood Backdrop Collection, Student Research and Selection:
Each student selected a backdrop and isolated a section of the painting to focus on the painting process, color schemes, brushwork techniques, and compositional elements.
Students prepared their fabric for painting after completing their analyses of the original Scenic Artist’s approach. Working with heavy-weight muslin, like the MGM artists, students stretched muslin over 4’x6′ flats. Then, they sized the fabric with two coats of starch in a binder, floating the starch on the face of the surface to avoid burn marks in the fabric from the starched fabric hitting the frame.
Cartooning:
An earlier lesson in the semester focused on linear perspective. For speed, students transferred their selected designs onto the canvas, aided by projectors, using vine charcoal and a light hand. To avoid keystoning and distortion, students measured and established the horizon line, mapped dominant vertical lines and vanishing points to anchor the projected image, and quickly cartooned the drawing. This step involved measuring key elements to maintain proportion and perspective consistent with the original backdrop.
Translucent Backdrops:
Like watercolor painting, preserving the luminosity of the surface material is essential when painting a translucent backdrop. The students applied their paint in washes in areas intended to remain translucent. Careful attention to edge painting transitions between opaque and translucent areas is paramount. Managing subtle brush strokes between these edge transitions is vital.
Atmosphere:
Students layered their paint systematically, working from background to foreground, using wet blend and ombre techniques for the sky and broad, scumbled, and more graphic marks to define the planes of the mountain ridge as they transitioned from the sky into the mountains and down to the horizon line. Lost and diffused edges and a cool cast color temperature in the distance created an atmosphere.
Shadows and Depth:
To pull the foreground elements forward, students focused on increased contrast in edges and values, defining the finer details and adding strong shadows, textures, highlights, washes, and intricate elements to refine the scenes and add depth.
Back Painting:
Some students moved quickly enough to take their projects further, back painting their pieces in dark gray to block light from behind, cutting away sections of the painting, and backing those sections with silk, as shown here on the left, in the illuminated TWA sign on a painting study from Two Weeks in Another Town, completed by UT’s Roxolona Krywonos in 2019.
On the right we see details of the original MGM’s Glass Bottom Boat, with holes punched and backed with silk for the cool cast lights in the boats and boardwalk, the back is painted with dark grey to shape the shadows around the lit the elements in the scene.
Final Touches:
The final step involved students evaluating their work against the original backdrop and making any necessary adjustments as time permit.
Presentation and Reflection:
Once completed, students presented their recreations to the class, discussing their process, challenges, risks, and insights gained from learning about the Collection, the artists, and the style of Mid-Century Hollywood motion picture scenic art.
The Hollywood Backdrop Collection is a vital link between our past and the future of Scenic Artistry. Drawing from its rich history and traditions, we impart invaluable knowledge to the next generation of artists, ensuring that the skills and insights are preserved and evolved. In an age of rapid technological innovation and industry disruption, a new bilingual generation with analog/digital visual literacy is developing across digital ideation and physical fabrication. Language forged in the past, nearly lost, will empower a new, talented generation to bring their ideas and creations into being. By embracing this Collection as a fundamental training resource, we honor the craft and inspire a new wave of creativity, innovation, and collaboration for the stage and screen.
Karen L. Maness
Assistant Professor of Practice, The University of Texas at Austin,
Associate Director, Texas Performing Arts Fabrication Studios
Sweet Balloons backdrops are always reliable for making events special.