THE USEFULNESS OF CROWDS IN STORYTELLING

Here is a journey through Wilhelm Gause's painting showing how the use of crowds can aid in the storytelling aspect of any film moment of book illustration or painting.   This  link  takes you to Zana Bihiku Tutt'Art's page  with lots of ads which are distracting, but the content is still useful.

Professor Perspective Explains Human Scale and Proscenium Proportions

When explaining how to manage perspective to someone, it is a good idea to really talk about relationships and proportion and distance and all of that. We begin with the basic height of a figure, because all perspective drawings are in relation to something, such as the human figure. So that the students are not thrown off by stopping to draw the perfect human figure, I establish this basic bowling pin figure, which is easy to replicate, and can be made fat or thin and tall and short or sitting in a chair…

Copyright Heidi Hoffer. If you use this please credit Heidi Hoffer

The person usually is off to the side in a proscenium picture, establishing an immediate visual scale. Very much like the figure artist using the head to determine, “How many head down is the chin, the chest, the navel, the crotch, the knee, and so on, we use the figure in a similar way. We’ll establish “How many people tall is the proscenium?” and, “How many people wide is the proscenium?.”

You might ask, “Well, why can’t we just use a tape measure to answer that?” And the answer is because you should think about all things in relationship to the human, not the tape measure. There is a visceral reaction to geometry we can react to when we have a human scale. Using a figure to establish a visual scale will immediately provide a buy-in from the viewer. And, believe me; the viewer will toss away any visual that feels incorrect even if a tape measure says otherwise. This is because people are attuned to certain geometric harmonies.

So, here’s the basic theatre proscenium in relationship to human scale. It is not a GOLDEN RECTANGLE http://www.miniwebtool.com/golden-rectangle-calculator/?a=20   

but it is a satisfying ratio, considering how the sides of a proscenium are largely ignored for stage action, unless there’s vignette scene happening way down right.

Copyright Heidi Hoffer. If you use this please credit Heidi Hoffer

For a 42 foot wide proscenium, the height should be 26 feet for the golden rectangle. But, since we reduce the size of the proscenium to something our budget can manage to fill, we usually design with something closer to the golden ratio, such as a width of 34 feet and a height of 20 feet. The void is filled with a proscenium arch or black stage curtains.

Since the proscenium is usually the plane at which we can measure accurately, knowing that things get visually smaller as they recede from us or move upstage, this is a good place to have the human for scale. It is called THE PICTURE PLANE. I like to think of it is the proscenium with which we are all familiar.

Copyright Heidi Hoffer. If you use this please credit Heidi Hoffer

Professor Perspective

World by Design highlights design elements that catch my eye. Today’s design elements are brought to you by Professor Perspective.

Since some professors like to wear bow ties, I will honor them by using the classic bow tie to show the basic perspective idea that what’s above the horizon line goes down to it as is recedes upstage away from the viewer, and what’s below the horizon line goes up to it. Many perspective vanishing points can be used this way.

 The multiple vanishing point possibilities makes this perspective form better for coming close to reality than the one-point perspective (train tracks and telephone poles receding in the distance)

 Just for reference, here’s the old one point perspective. This is very limiting!

The Drapery...of trust

And this is the beautiful drapery, valence and header for the window unit pictured below. It took a team of artisans to create just this one special section of the scenery. It was beautiful.

Process and Trust for Design

 I'd like to consider how a 2D drafted thing becomes a reality.

Typically we've got a sketch, drafting, sometimes an exquisite model piece, a 3D drafting sometimes, and the final version before paint, the painter's elevation, and then the full final version. There's a lot of trust going on in the creation of this art! It take scores of people to bring to fruition.

Spatter is Magical Visual Texture

Spatter texture by Scenic Artist Jessica Amador for Andrew Layton and Kelly Kissinger’s scene design of Oedipus Rex.

Visual Textures inform us whether or not something will be slimy, furry, prickly or flawlessly smooth.  In order to effectively create readable textures for the stage, we are familiar with the idea that the textures might need to be enlarged, their apparent depth enhanced by color, contrast and even actual size. The reader (your audience member) of those textures is usually seated in a distant range of 30 to 75 feet away or more. To provide useful information regarding the textures of the scene, they need visual assistance from the set designer and scenic artists.

Charred wood and spatter texture by Scenic Artist Jaime Giovannone. Her website is: http://www.jaimegdesign.com/

The apparatus that tells us what a texture will be before we touch it combines information from the physical eye and personal experience. For example, never having touched angora before in my life, I was prepared to touch something soft, judging from the apparent shadows and glossy highlights of the fur fibers. Upon actually touching it, I was astonished at how extremely soft and fluffy it felt, almost oily and slippery despite the apparent fibers of its fur. Now, before I touch angora, I know exactly what it will feel like.  We are adept at assuming what the texture of things feels like. By developing a theory and proving it through experimentation we can for example believe that talcum powder will feel nearly identical to flour, but not corn meal because of the apparent grain size. Apply this idea to painted scenery, say, a rough brick wall, and you will likely have the visual stimulation of your tactile senses because you have touched a variety of brick walls in your lifetime.

Brick spatter texture by Scenic Artist Jaime Giovannone.

Visual texture on stage often means creating a kind of pointillism on an otherwise flat surface. After a scenic artist spatters paint onto a wall, for example, the surface remains physically flat and the flatness is relieved by small dots of differently colored paint. The purpose of the spatter is to diffuse the reflective surface so that whatever is seen against it is not viewed in harsh contrast or stark flatness. The spatter helps create a visual disturbance which functions like atmospheric perspective in that it separates the actors from the background environment.

This is a design for Oedipus Rex. The Scenic Artist for this show was Jessica Amador. Scene Designers were Andrew Layton and Kelly Kissinger.

Above in the image of Oedipus Rex is an example of effective spatter for relieving the surface of totally fake stone. Actors are more easily seen against the spattered surface. Imagine the doorway on the right if it were just painted with flat interior paint. It would pull focus away from the actors.

Scenic artists are adept as visual trickery using spatter. Their paint spatter can contain dots of color that are different values of the same hue. For example, a yellow wall on a stage setting could have a spatter system of light yellow and dark yellow dots on top of a medium yellow base. The wall will still be a yellow wall, but it will seem more vibrant, and more alive and less dead flat. Actors and objects in front of the spattered wall will appear more three dimensional because they are set-off by the variations in spatter rather than the flat background which had no way of providing a difference to our perception of textures between the actor and the wall.

This is a sample of yellow based spatters on a yellow wall, provided by Jenny Knott. Jenny is the Paint Product Manager for Rosco Laboratories.

 Spatter and other paint techniques add depth and shine to the surface of this stair unit and the surrounding platforms. Scenery is for A Little Night Music.   The Scenic Artist for the show was Jessica Amador, and the scene designer was Mike Dempsey.

Collaborating with a lighting designer, the set designer or a knowledgeable scenic artist can widen the range of visual texture. The scenic artist can change the apparent depth and color of the texture on backgrounds to work in combination with the lighting designer’s color palette for any particular scene. The result of this collaboration is like magic, and it is only color theory.  Imagine a grey stone wall. The scenic artist will know to paint the grey color using a mixture of ultra-marine blue and Van Dyke Brown or some similar combination to make an exciting grey. Using colors to make grey is an old scenic artist technique developed because merely adding black to white in order to make grey creates a “dead” color. By sticking to the use of color to make grey, the scenic artist is providing a grey which has both warm (brown) and cool (blue) colors in it. This mixture is often called Payne’s Grey.

Jenny Knott shows how to spatter the basic greys of mortar color here in preparation for painting a mortared brick wall. 

Armed with a flat grey background that has been painted using a mixture of colors to make the grey (rather than black and white), the lighting designer already has a better visual texture from which he or she can make the tone of the scene warm or cold by applying color theory to bring out the separate colors. The wall is still truly flat and grey to the audience member

If the scenic artist uses color theory too, the breadth of the change from applied lighting can be jaw-dropping. Imagine the same grey wall. Using the fact that the distance of the audience to the stage will help the audience visually blend the dots of paint, the scenic artist will, on top of his or her grey wall, spatter a duet or trio of colors. One is a blue-violet ranged highlight, the second is a deep warm red or Van Dyke Brown dark shadow color, and the third is the base color grey. Note that the highlight color can be the warm tone and the shadow color can be the cool color with similar results. 

Scenic Artist Jaime Giovannone shows the steps to create a basic grey but highly colorful and lighting designer friendly floor for a production of Ragtime designed by Heidi Hoffer.  Layers and layers of color spatter were applied to make this Lady Liberty floor reactive under many different lighting conditions.

So, by mixing colors to grey and making that the base color and spattering colors on top, one can greatly increase the usefulness of the built environment to fund the play’s meaning. The color theory of spatter success lies in choosing two or three colors that relate to the colors that make up the base color. The first relationship is an opaque highlight and the second relationship is an opaque shadow color. Both spatters can be created from opposite colors, a purer form of the original colors before blending to make the grey, or analogous colors. A third spatter color is often a spatter of the exact same color as the base color of the wall, useful in maintaining an even spatter.

Scenic artist Jessica Amador used spatter in addition to a stencil to create this floor which sits above holiday themed decorations. Look at the next photo to see how rich the floor looks under the light.

The scene design for this lovely Wedgewood inspired set for Scrooge in Rouge is by Bret Young. Jessica Amador was the Scenic Artist.

Collaborating with the lighting designer will aid in choosing which spatter color theory to apply. For example, on a grey wall made from ultra-marine blue and Van Dyke Brown (This mixture is commonly called Payne’s Grey), if the lighting designer chooses to light a scene with a key light of blue with greenish overtones such as Rosco R 369 Tahitian Blue, the scenic artist and set designer can choose a highlight (or shadow) spatter that is analogous to ultramarine blue on the green side of the blues, such as a turquoise or cerulean. This will insure that the Tahitian Blue light will bring out the greenish blues in the wall and deaden (again, using color theory) any reddish warms that have been spattered creating a larger contrast against which the actors will be seen and changing the apparent color of the grey wall to a greater degree than normal. The blue colored light is reflected in the blue spatter as well as the blue from the original grey base coat, making the wall almost sparkle. Add costume colors to the color decisions and a wonderfully enlivened palette can be found using colored lighting on selective paint spatter to enhance the scene.

Let me refer you to the online article from The Painter’s Journal, figure 4 page 14 which shows you the effects of analogus and complimentary spatter.

http://www.aphelpsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Painters-Journal-Spring-2005-Electronic.pdf

It should be understood that any old spatter of something darker and lighter than the base color will do. Scenic artists often create visual texture on a piece of scenery by spattering it with “dirty water” to break up to otherwise flat surface as illustrated below. Dirty water spatter is sometimes not completely opaque and is used to help disparate elements on a painting look like they are all in one painting as in Diane Fargo’s image below.

Blood Wedding floor spatter treatment by Jessica Amador. Scene designers were Andrew Layton and Kelly Kissinger.

The dirty water spatter here, done by Scenic Charge Diane Fargo, successfully marries the blue surface, the rope border, and the fringe at the bottom.

 But to really broaden the range and usefulness of visual texture one must collaborate with the other designers on their color palettes and choose spatter colors that will actually be able to be pulled out by lighting and contrast with the costume colors for a particular scene.  Interestingly, under normal work light you would only see a basic grey wall. It is only when lighting is applied that deadens or resonates with the spatter colors that you get exciting and useful visual texture.

For a few different paint texture techniques, let me direct you to “Creating Textured Surfaces” written by Jenny Knott for The Painter’s Journal.  Jenny is the Paint and Coatings Product Manager for Rosco.

http://www.aphelpsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Painters-Journal-Spring-2005-Electronic.pdf

Spatter is Visual Magic Special thanks to Jessica Amador, Diane Fargo courtesy of Jenny Knott, Jenny Knott, and Jaime Giovannone.

The Greying by Nature

As things weather over time, they obtain more and more character, and often turn grey. The façade of this mountain cabin pictured below is streaked with dark lines where the wood has darkened. At the base where the snow sits for a long time, the wood is actually turning grey. The exterior wall of this cabin is showing signs of age and weathering but the warm color is still mostly there. This is a great study for rustic pine wood paneling. It occurs to me that as we age we obtain more and more grey hair, too.

Photo by Heidi Hoffer. All Rights Reserved.

 Now this wood pictured below is at a regular old mine site and has been sitting in the snow year after year since the 1930’s at least, and is much more grey. It is also much thrown about from the forces of nature and deterioration. Man-made structures like the cabin and the mine building eventually give way to mother nature and decompose back into the land. Sometimes this is seen as a bad thing, and people try to keep structures alive for a while because of the very fine memories they housed or caused.

Photo by Heidi Hoffer. All Rights Reserved.

 Mother nature, however, also makes even live trees dead at some point, and during their decomposition, the same fine shades of grey can be seen. This swirly mass of grey wood once belonged to a fir tree. One can almost see animal shapes in the grey swirls. Even in decay, the tree presents a kind of beauty. 

Photo by Heidi Hoffer. All Rights Reserved.

 The very mountains age using grey colors. The agents of ageing can be beautiful things like trees and bushes, but their roots seek moisture and nourishment by digging into cracks, popping apart rock into smaller rocks. Snows and winds have their diary, too, leaving traces of their language in the form of scree, slabs and boulders thrown off the mountain, all in grey.

Photo by Heidi Hoffer. All Rights Reserved.

Dragons and Other Medieval Animal Zoomorphs

The Musée National du Moyen Âge in Paris, France has the best and most approachable collection of pieces. Medieval works are featured here, including the Celtic chair discussed below. The lighting is difficult for photographers in the wintertime, but manageable using a clever camera. Photography is allowed in the museum with no flash. Photographers must use existing light only. 

What struck me most about the medieval times represented is the penchant for dragons. Even in the Christian religion there is the St. George and the Dragon story, which some scholars believe is a very early story used to undermine the old ways (dragon) in favour of new ways (Christianity) when that religion was introduced to the Celtic lands.

Photo by Heidi Hoffer. All rights reserved.

 This post will discuss the idea of animal likenesses as objects humans use. Their design is either decorative or useful such as mice drawer handles. In the museum there was this wonderful wooden medieval chair from about the year 1000 AD.  Every inch of it was carved with Celtic helmeted men and sinuous dragons. This I photographed at the Exposition: Celts and Scandinavians, Artistic Meetings, Seventh through the Twelfth Centuries.

The first four photographs here are of the wooden Celtic chair; the design of the dragons and other beasts is merely decorative and possibly inspired by a story or myth of power.  I was amazed that an extant wooden chair from the 11^th century existed in such good shape, and that the Celtic peoples HAD chairs of this nature in the first place. It’s linear outline or silhouette is Roman or Egyptian, but the décor is heavily Celtic.

The front seat rear rail contains these carving of men and dragons. I thought they looked mostly like dragons trying to break out of an egg.

Photo by Heidi Hoffer. All rights reserved.

 The front rail of this chair seat shows what looks like horses, lions and more dragons.

Photo by Heidi Hoffer.  All rights reserved.

The central splat at the back is cruciform in shape, the center of which shows a twisting dragon in a roundel. There are additional serpentine shapes on the cross arms.

Photo by Heidi Hoffer.  All rights reserved.

 People in the world over have references to dragons in their cultures. Basically, Eastern dragons have good things associated with them, and Western dragons are bad and eat children. Overall, though, the dragon is a power symbol. Perhaps this chair, since the dragon is contained in the roundels and the helmeted warrior on the front seat rear rail looks to be half dragon half man; this chair represents a seat of power.  The ancient Celtic peoples revered their dragons as wise and full of guidance for ruling the land. Celts typically believed the dragon brought the heavens and the underworld together.

For interesting but not necessarily verified reading on Dragon lore, check out Reptilian Agenda’s article  http://www.reptilianagenda.com/hist/h110599a.shtml and neka’s  http://www.slideserve.com/neka/mystery-of-a-dragon-and-a-code-of-the-bayeux-tapestry

For the Musée de Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny) website check this in French: http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/

The zoomorphic ornament and interlaced designs featured in the chair above are relatively flat, bas relief carvings. A similar central design emblem is the lion’s head seen on the fencing around the l'Hôtel de Ville (Paris), in slightly more relief than the carved wood. 

Photo by Heidi Hoffer.  All rights reserved.

In this sense, like the fully sculpted lions that often guard entrances to city buildings, the lion seems to be a security device, proclaiming that power resides within the grounds or building. Indeed, most door-knockers on formal (Roman inspired) facades feature a lion’s head.  This great image of a Medieval Lion Head door knocker  I purchased from Dragoneye at Dreamstime: © Dragoneye | Dreamstime.com  (© Dragoneye | Dreamstime.com)

Old medieval iron door knocker in shape of lion head isolated on white background with clipping path. © Dragoneye | Dreamstime.com

Izzy Burton's photo of a door knocker in Paris also shows the oddly shaped head, and the crossed paws are a delight to see instead of the usual brass ring. With THIS one one actually gets to touch part of the animal in order to use the door knocker as one does with the mouse drawer handles discussed below. Izzy gave me permission to post her photograph in my blog. Here is HER Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/izzyburton/7920869138/in/photostream

Photo by Izzy Burton. All Rights Reserved.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/izzyburton/

I like the fact that Northern Europeans likely did not get to see lions, and often created their sculptures based on verbal descriptions. Perhaps that is why these lions have such a long bovine faces.

So, door knockers are useful as well as decorative!  In this next image, the actual BODY of the animal is put to use – as drawer handles! In this case, the animal is not morphed into something else. It is a pretty good replica of a mouse, mouse-sized,  and used as drawer handles. (Maybe they are rats as Medieval rats might be smaller than modern rats.) 

Photo by Heidi Hoffer.  All rights reserved.

  Climbing up the linen fold carved drawer fronts, right where you’d put your hand, are beautifully carved little mice. Make one think of the old nursery rhyme, …the mouse ran up the clock.” Here’s a detail:

Photo by Heidi Hoffer.  All rights reserved.

The next item is a drinking vessel. It starts out with a round rim and handle like any mug, but it turns into a horn (evoking the old fashioned real animal horn drinking vessels) which ends in an amazing wolf’s head flourish. Again, I rather like the idea that the drinker is imbibing the characteristic of a wolf…

Photo by Heidi Hoffer.  All rights reserved.

You never see a lamb’s head drinking horn, or a pig-head one, so obviously those animals have a lesser character of strength and virility and cleverness.

Returning to the purely decorative, but in a more three-dimensional way, are these snakes which twine themselves around a crystal chalice. They don’t actually do anything except hold the crystal goblet to the golden base.  The effort and realism here is what caught my eye. I did wonder about the snake which sheds its skin and has a bad reputation in Christianity as a choice for a chalice, though.

Photo by Heidi Hoffer.  All rights reserved.

Lastly, there are these cute little salamanders which peek out underneath a heavy armoire. The top of the armoire features bull’s heads, and underneath are these little guys who look to scare someone who is sneaking into the cupboard unawares. These carvings are about the size of iguanas in real life, and have no teeth! They serve a purely decorative purpose, and are not useful to humans using the armoire.

Photo by Heidi Hoffer.  All rights reserved.

 If you liked this post on zoomorphic ornament, consider following my blog to see where my design eye goes next! Maybe we’ll stay in Paris for a while.

Scottish Festival Personalities: War Re-enactors and Artists

As I travel around the world I am always interested in the choices people make for personal adornment. This could be as simple as deciding which earrings to wear to deciding how to complete a serious re-enactment outfit. At the Oklahoma Scottish Festival I saw a good bit of both, and also noted that somehow 19^th century artillery re-enactors got involved in the festival, too. They even got to shoot off their cannons.

River West Festival Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma

This handsome fellow roamed the festival.

The performers had to shift for themselves, it seems. This musician re-worked the sound system to make things better.

Scottish Musician

Scottish music abounded throughout, but my acoustic favorite was these harpers. A whole stage full of them created quite an astounding sound!

Harper

Potters, it seems can visit every fair and fit right in, Scottish or not. This lady had the patience of a saint as children would ask her many, many questions. She had excellent skills and was throwing well-balanced wares on her wheel as we watched.

Potter

This father and son duo caught my eye and I asked if I could take their picture. They were delighted, and very happy to pose. I believe they were not unique in their zeal for the fair, but they looked like they had the most fun.

Father and Son Duo

At the MacPherson tent, I found the patriarch tuning on a set of parlor pipes. Excellent playing, and his hands were astoundingly agile and delicate as they coursed over the holes. Wonderful clan with whom I could be associated!

MacPherson

This black shirted and kilted onlooker framed nicely the father and son in Kilted regalia. The Scottish Festival is being passed down to the next generation for sure.

Generations

This ends my blogs on the OKScottsFest. What designed event will catch my eye next?