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Hello! I’m Addison Griffin; full time scenic artist at Gulfshore Playhouse Naples, FL. I’m starting an independent study outlined by Crabtree and Beudert’s Scenic Art for the Theatre: A Pathway of Student Projects. The study is projected to take the full year 2023-2024 as I’m trudging through month by month at my leisure and want to really exercise projects to completion. I’m excited for the practice because Gulfshore Playhouse is gearing up for seasons of heavy drop work with the construction of a new theatre opening approximately 2024-2025. I also have the personal goal of testing into USA membership/apprenticeship around that time as well. Needless to say I need the practice and advice, accountability, and constructive criticism from experienced scenics along the way would be much appreciated. I’d also like to invite any artists like myself who desperately need a brush up on trompe l’oeil to join me and post any process photos, updates, or final projects from past or present- it’d be awesome to have someone to struggle through with. I look forward to problem solving and learning with everyone. Thanks in advance! 🙂
I love this! I will jump in when I have some time. Trompe l’oeil party anyone?
This one was supposed to be easy and it was NOT lol. Overall not too rocky of a process just relearned/stumbled through brush work. Struggled a bit with mixing and pushing values. Not quite sure I found the sweet spot value wise but not too bad. Was a bit heavy handed/shaky with highlights and cutlines. Good practice round; time for the next one! Also attaching my Tentative Schedule/Curriculum because I made one, so why not 🙂
Couple of things to work on- cylinders and anything circular in perspective should never have what appears to be a corner. Your cylinder is drawn in a football shape. The edges of the perspective oval should always be round like your highlight. If you’re having trouble drawing the bottom curve, lightly draw in the hidden back curve to check it.
did you just do a brush stroke for your red circle highlight? They look a little contrived or drawn. They’ll look more natural if it’s just a nuanced brush stroke. Just like you didn’t “draw” or fill in the straight line highlights. Let the brush do the work for you.
Couple of things to work on- cylinders and anything circular in perspective should never have what appears to be a corner. Your cylinder is drawn in a football shape. The edges of the perspective oval should always be round like your highlight. If you’re having trouble drawing the bottom curve, lightly draw in the hidden back curve to check it.
did you just do a brush stroke for your red circle highlight? They look a little contrived or drawn. They’ll look more natural if it’s just a nuanced brush stroke. Just like you didn’t “draw” or fill in the straight line highlights. Let the brush do the work for you.
Awesome, thanks for the advice! Yes, the highlights on the spheres were “drawn” in with a smaller brush because I had such a hard time with the lowlight looking natural (that’s a single stroke blotch with a big brush but took a couple tries to look right). I was surprised how many times I ditched the bamboo and got stuck on one thing. Definitely a bit over worked. With the sphere I really didn’t want any directional brush strokes, would’ve liked less strokes throughout the piece generally, but was having a hard time blending it out even with wet on wet. Hopefully things will get less unintentionally textured/cartoony over time and I’ll pay better attention to perspective/cartooning in the future.
1’8″x 2′ Gold Cartouche
4’x 8′ TOSPMS Project
I didn’t quit I promise! Ended up batching the first hand full of projects; I’ll have them all posted pretty soon. If you want to see close-ups and process photos feel free to search @griffpaints on Instagram and Facebook. The Cartouche was an absolute delight to paint; once I had the formula down things just flowed and for my first trompe l’oeil gold I’m very pleased. The TOSPMS Project ended up being pretty difficult and time consuming however because I made some ~bold~ and complicated choices for each treatment, but all in all I’m very happy with the way it looks. Let me know what you think 🙂
Addison,
I am seeing a lot of improvement in your skills as I caught up with this forum thread. Good Work!
3 things I think you are missing in your Tromp work – 1. Colored Reflective (Bounce) light, especially in your Pissarro shapes. for example, I’d like to see some of the blue box shining a bit onto the red ball etc. 2. Cast shadows: Right now you have what I call “Shaded Shapes” You turn them into Objects when you see how they interact with the world around them – and that is done by seeing the shadow they cast onto the wall or object next to them. 3. Try a different shadow/shade color that isn’t black – for example in your curtains, although your layout of the folds is quite nice, the black makes them cartoony. Try using a Navy next time or Payne’s Grey. Once again adding a shadow from your curtains on the the rocks and stones will also help give shape to those surfaces as well.
Keep up the good work!
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