Painting the set for the Maplewood Barn Theatre in Columbia, Missouri.
This set was my first large-scale painting project. The Jesse Hall image from Mizzou is a large photo backdrop. The rest is hand painted. The play was "Much Ado," a Shakespeare classic, set in a modern college era. The biggest challenge was time. I had to paint while the cast wasn't rehearsing, I wasn't at work, and (because it was outside) while the weather was good.
Full Painted Set
I started by creating the outlines for the trees and the baseline for the grass. The cast and crew then helped me fill in the base brown, green, and blue (which looks more white in the photos). They also filled in some detail on the grass.
Here you can see me adding the branches to the far right tree.
I had three colors for the leaves, which were to be a fall color. I went with a Japanese painting style for this project. Partially because I love the style, but also because I knew the director was an anime fan.
Some of the trees came together really well, but the project took a lot longer than expected due to weather.
Members of the cast helped me with "baby tree" on the right and filling in color on the left.
