Edgar Guajardo tells us how offering free Scenic Art workshops at Deluxe Theatre has led to personal fulfillment and genuine engagement with the community.
For the past seventeen years, I have been fortunate to call myself a professional theatrical artisan. I don’t have student loan debt, and I am able to pay all my bills working full time for the Deluxe Theater and designing sets and lights for various arts companies in the city of Houston Texas. I say all of this not to simply give a small bio of myself, but also to count all the blessings I have doing the job I love. But I am deeply aware that my opportunities of education, financial assistance, and honest luck are not universally accessible.
Giving Back
For that reason, I started doing free Technical Theatre workshops at Deluxe Theater in 2022 to give back some of that good energy back to the theater community. Workshops are held in the summer for three days and a Mini Workshop Session in winter for one day. Normally, I half the day so one part will be Lighting and the second half will be an Audio Tech workshop or I pair a Scenic Construction workshop with a Scenic Painting workshop so we can build something first and then paint it.
Deluxe Theater’s motto is “Theatre within reach”, I stand true to those words by creating these workshops and hosting them in the Deluxe theater. We already have very equitable rental rates and provide a ton of free programing to the community, so I focused on doing the same and sharing my knowledge with others. I started with Lighting and Sound first but quickly understood that Lighting and Sound had barriers to them: the biggest being access to equipment. So I switched the focus of the workshop to offer platform and wall construction in addition, but again I discovered another roadblock. Not all participants had access to the tools I used for the course.
I didn’t stop offering any of these classes, instead I added Scenic Painting to both the wall and platform construction side. Painting was an accessible thing for many, because you don’t need the most expensive paint or the nicest brushes, all you need is the surface you want to paint and your imagination. This was the correct formula to bring to the workshops, and I knew it the moment I saw in the faces of my students the “Ah ha!” in their eyes. Painting allows for such a deep well of creativity to come pouring out, whether it’s a page, canvas, floor or a 3-dimensional structure of some shape, painting is healing. It allows you to transform something simple into a deeply textured lived-in thing. Painting can take bare wood and make it look like concrete or take a black stage and make it look like an art deco marble floor. The Art of Scenic Painting is a bow on top to theater sets and without it, it’s not a complete picture.
Keep it Simple
Teaching teachers, students, actors, producers or sometimes just someone who wants to learn Scenic Painting allows the person to learn how to transform a space with a brush stroke. I have built many sets in my seventeen-year career and paint can truly amplify or break a set
The techniques I teach are:
- wood grain & dry brushing
- sponge bricks
- a technique I call the Dr. Seuss Effect
Each are very quick and direct techniques and don’t require years and years of training. They simply require a joyful spirit and a forgiving heart. I like to tell my students to be ok with the mistakes that are made while painting, because you can always paint it white and start over or embrace the happy accident. I love starting with the Dr. Seuss Effect style first. Many people have fond memories of those books and can easily reference them when painting and because of the whimsical nature of it, the style is very forgiving. The Dr. Seuss Effect is all about bold colors as your base and clean black lines to border or add small minor details. It’s always enough to make a surface pop.
I then show them quick ways to paint a simple wood grain and how to create bricks.
Wood:
- For the wood grain technique I like to start by basing the surface with a light tone, like a light brown or a tan color.
- Then I go over it all with a dry brushing of a darker tone.
- Followed by using a ruler and creating the board lines with black paint. The lines don’t have to be a specific size, they just need to be the size you want them to be, so have fun with it.
- I finish it all off by then doing a little shading with a watered down black on some of the corners of the boards to add a little shadowing.
- Once that is all done I seal it with a nice high-gloss cement seal to make all the details pop and protect the floor for the duration of the show.
Bricks:
Now sponge bricks are a little different but have a similar mindset.
- First you base your surface with your lightest color you want to layer
- Then you take some old sponges or new ones that you tear up and start tapping a complimentary darker tone on top. You use the sponge as a kind of stamp and just evening space each print out in a grid.
- After you apply that lighter tone again, lightly to break up the darker tone a bit.
- Once that is done you go back in with a brush and you muddle around the distinct sponge spots to define the shape of the brick a little more.
- After that you finish up with some light highlights either on top side of the brick seam line or the bottom
- Seal with a high-gloss seal. I like to seal with a high-gloss cement seal because it catches light better and amplifies the details.
Also remember that when painting for the stage it doesn’t need to be perfect upclose, it simply needs to create the illusion from afar, so trick the eye from far away. These quick tools allow the attendees of these workshops to be able to continue to explore and practice without feeling completely lost to how to create something impactful on stage.
Tips for starting your own program:
- If you don’t have a designated space, find a comfortable space with a room that’s well ventilated, like a community center or school gym.
- Find affordable paint resources in your location,
- See if there is an art supply/creative reuse or local art supply store in your area. In Houston, Texas Art Asylum and Texas Art Supply have a ton of affordable paint resources.
- Pick up oops paint from Home depot
- Make it a BYOP Bring Your Own Paint event
- Brushes don’t have to be fancy, think of all you can do with even just inexpensive chip brushes. Go to Walmart, Ross, Ollies or your local art supply store and pick up some cheap brushes.
- You also don’t need canvas or wood to paint on, you can use cardboard to start.
- Always remember to just have fun with it.
I have truly found great joy in seeing people learn in my workshops how to create something they never thought they could do. It’s important to help others find that little bit of joy we all had when we used to do arts and crafts as children, because it allows you to have fun. We can all have a little fun these days. I make sure that these workshops stay accessible, never charging for my time and knowledge. It’s my way of giving back to a world that has given me so much and I want there to be more theater artisans. Theater is healing and painting in theater is simply nourishing the soul.
About the Author
Edgar Guajardo
Edgar Guajardo is a Lighting, Scenic, Sound and Projections Designer/ Scenic Painter and Carpenter originally from Pharr Texas, but has been residing in Houston for 10 plus years. He has a BFA in Theatrical Production with an emphasis in Lighting Design and Scenic Design from the University of Houston. He was the former Assistant Electrician on Mickey Mouse’s Rockin Road Show for Disney Live and the former Assistant Technical Director of Queensbury Theatre. He currently is the Resident Lighting and Scenic Designer and Technical Director for Opera in the Heights and Production Manager of the Deluxe Theater/ FWCRC.
