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Hi all! Last week at USITT, I had the opportunity to meet Steve Younkins, the creator of Q2Q Comics. One of his most recent characters is a paint charge, Jo Flores. You can see one of her appearances here: https://q2qcomics.com/comic/q2q359/https://q2qcomics.com/comic/q2q359/” class=”bbcode_url”> Steve isn’t a painter himself, and doesn’t have a lot of comic material for this character. So, he asked me to send him funny stories and occurrences related to scenic painting. I think this forum would be a great place to gather those stories!
from Steve: “I’m looking for either the little frustrations that are specific to the world of scenic painting or connective moments that every scenic artist shares. The “what the hell even is my job?” moments and the “wait, you all feel or do that thing too?!” I want to hear stories, though. I don’t want to get a bunch of “in panel one Jo does this” suggestions; I want to hear about the quirky stories that get you scenic folk feeling like “oof, yeah, I’ve been there.” Even just hearing stories about what things are like in the paint deck will help.”
Here I am with Steve and the Q2Q Cryptids
😀
[attachment=0]image1 (4).JPG[/attachment] [attachment=1]blorp.jpg[/attachment] Thanks!
Ooh! I got one.
It’s 8 in the morning after an all night floor paint call. I’ve just sent my team to bed, and I’m just finishing spraying a black ombre fade around the edges of the deck, when my often – grumpy designer comes in to see the results.
I’m exhausted, and super jittery and over caffeinated, carrying my 2- gallon garden sprayer with a twitchy trigger, and worried about hearing his feedback. I’m studiously listening to my designer’s notes when he stops, looks over my shoulder, and says “um…”
Turns out the sprayer wand I had tucked under my arm was jetting an arc of black paint 20 feet across the white cyc behind me, and as I turn and notice this in complete exhausted dreamlike horror, I am now actively spraying my designer with same black paint.
Ended up calling the whole carpentry and electrics crew from breakfast for an emergency cyc cleaning call while I helped, leaking sleepy tears. (I somehow did not get fired).
Once I finished up a pretty complicated floor (it was a bunch of swirling stone and brick paths – lots of layout), put the final coat of sealer on it, put up all my “Do Not Walk On Floor” signs, and headed home for the night. After I had left, a “helpful” member of the janitorial staff came in, noticed it was a bit warm in the theatre and turned the HVAC system on full blast to cool it down overnight. I came in the next morning to uniform paths of clouded sealer all over the floor where the air had come through the vents. Ah! I think everyone can relate to that fear haha.
Anyone ever get the postcard as a rendering for a 20×70 translucent drop before? No? Just me, huh.
Qpowers wrote:Anyone ever get the postcard as a rendering for a 20×70 translucent drop before? No? Just me, huh.
Augh!! no, but we did get a Nutcracker “growing tree” rendering woefully out of proportion. Most of the ornament drawings we had been working on were wrong. Groan.
One of the things my friends and I all say at school when we are worried about how something is looking is “look from far, and if you are looking from far look from further” 🙂
Also the typical “here’s a pixellated tiny rendering sent by email. Here are several photos that seem maybe completely unrelated to this image. You can do this, right? I want it exactly like this picture, except totally different in all possible ways.”
I was working on a show for a small theater and the designer and I were the only paint crew. We had a list a mile long of “to dos” (graining and glazing all the woodwork, painting the platforms, etc.) A fair amount of important stuff. We were in tech week, dancing around lights and carpentry (who was still finishing their “to do” list), and rushing to get everything done by the dress rehearsals. Anyway, after tech rehearsal we all gather for notes, and the director points out a mouse hole on the SR wall where the facing on the platform didn’t quite meet up with the wall. She made a huge deal about it and said in a pretty condescending voice, “That’s going to be fixed by open, RIGHT?” The designer kept his cool and assured her that it would be, but afterwards I never saw him so pissed! He grumbled about her for the entire next day. It still makes me laugh to remember how mad he was.
I am constantly playing the “bruise or paint?” game in the shower.
Gosh, I’d need ten hands to count how many times technical directors, stage managers, carpenters, or anyone else around the theatre that’s not a scenic say “well if the audience is noticing that, then the show has bigger problems” or “then the actors aren’t doing their jobs” personally I find this approach appalling and degrading to the importance of my job, but I’m kinda a perfectionist! Where did this saying even come from?? I’ve yet to work at a theatre where I haven’t heard it! Its amazing how consistent a theatre it 🙂 I guess that’s what makes Q2Q so great, eh?
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My absolute favorite thing that hits my buttons is when I am in the midst of a paint technique like step 2 or 3 out of 10, and the director, costume designer, TD, a number of carpenters, etc. walk by and say “is
that what is going to look like?” 😈NSFW – even though it only happens at work- having to lean over, or squeeze past scenery you forgot was wet and got two big spots right on the boobs.
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When you’ve been using the sprayer to the point that it looks like you died, your hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes.
I once was handed 3 crayons in place of a paint elevation. Aside from being totally absurd, which part of the crayon is the color was I supposed to follow? The wrapper color?! The wax color?! The color it came out on my notebook?! Absurd. 🙄
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