Friday, December 21, 2012

Deck the halls with glossy paintwork!


Finished decking the halls in a very nice home nearby. The owner asked for an all glossy paint project, with a brush. There's something wonderful about having a brush in your hand.

This is the one end of the hall with two bedroom doors, four closet doors and all the trim.

Here at the other end there are actually 2 more bedroom doors, the thin closet door and associated trim. The closet door is painted and you can see the original color on the far bedroom door.

Everything has been painted with two coats of Dover White High Gloss paint from Sherwin Williams.

Enjoy


Friday, December 7, 2012

Set Design and Stage Construction

Set Design
Many moons ago we received a sketch from Pastor Paul at South Hills Assembly and it was the idea for the set of the upcoming Christmas Production. The sketch was, well, let's say rough. So Hendersonworks went to it and built him a model so the stage crew would have something they could tell was a set.

Set Design
These shots are the model we built a few months back. It will be the Inn where Mary and Joseph come to try and get a room. The right side of the stage will "fold" in, revealing the stable outside the Inn.

Set Design
Our idea was to cover the set in "stone" made from sheets of polystyrene insulation. We had lots of work to do, and only a couple weeks to do it so in conjunction with Barzan Productions we had at it.

Set Design and Construction
Working space was always at a premium! The blocks were cut and then the edges would be shaved down and cracks carved into the foam blocks. You can see test stones on the left.

Set Design and Construction
We had lots of volunteers helping to paint...

Set Design and Construction
and to cut. We used thicknesses from a half inch to two inches. This would allow the stones some depth when applied to the stage set.

Set Design and Construction
We tried a number of cutting tools to get different textured edges. To give the surface texture for painting, Barzan Productions developed "The Texturizer".

It was an old paint roller with gravel hot glued onto it. When rolled onto the foam, it made sweet indentations for drybrushing.

Set Design and Construction
Then, "Black Friday" started with set construction! Thanks to Ghelarducci and Sons for getting the scaffolding in and helping organize the construction volunteers.

Set Design and Construction
Here's the model, hard at work..

Set Design and Construction
The walls going up...

Set Design and Construction
Which way do the steps go?

Set Design and Construction
Look at the size of that thing!!! Cut the chatter red two! It's over 100 feet across and 16 feet high. We need lots of stone to cover all that surface!

Once the stones were textured and had a base coat on them, the painting continued with our midtones and highlights.

Set Design and Stone for Stage
As painting continued, we tried a few patterns up on the set...

Set Design and Construction

The first arch was pieced together from individual stones and then realizing we had to do 10 arches we needed another plan.

We decided to carve them out of a single piece of foam. This made construction much easier and quicker.

Set Design and Stone for Stage
With stone running low and more surface to go we improvised. On the upper level we had two fake doorways so we cut the opening from a full sheet and planned to carve full sheets on the entire upper area.

Set Design and Stone for Stage
Here is one of the carved panels. A piece was attached to add extra dimension, matching the rest of the set.

Set Design and Stone for Stage
We painted the gaps with a dark gray for additional contrast on the upper level.
Here are the doorways on the right side before painting. Occasional thicker stones, seen in green, were added to vary the thickness.

The upper level panels going in slowly but the adjoining stone going from level to level came together nicely. All the pink foam was getting covered in the base gray paint too.

Our "wood" railing being added. Yes these were also carved from the foam insulation boards.

Working out the details on the hinged side of the set. Stones that cut across the joint will be seamed with gaffers tape and painted to match the stone. This will allow them to flex across the hinge and cover it too.

Here we see the lower levels almost complete, except for the stable.

Set Design and Stone for Stage
One of our lovely assistants drybrushing stones

Set Design and Stone for Stage
The various thicknesses allow great shadows!

Set Design and Stone for Stage
Here you can see how the texture looks when the drybrushing is completed

Set Design and Stone for Stage
Now we've got a good looking wall!

Some stone work needed touched up and the right side needed a few remaining block...

Set Design and Stage Construction
There they are, that's better!

Into the stable! We used stone on the bottom but wanted to go with timbers on the top. The stone was carved from 5 pieces, much like the upper level. Here it is in place.

The redwood was cut from a fence railing and stained. Pegs were added to hand sacks and other stage dressings. We did not want an arch in the stable, but a framed door, so part was cut away.

Set Design and Stage Construction
The wall was painted with dark gray and brown to simulate wood boards and the carved timbers were added. Straw covered the top and a few additional details added

Without the flash and better stage lighting, the timbers stand out quite well.

Set Design and Stage Construction
Here is the stable in the closed position...

Set Design and Stage Construction
opening...

Set Design and Stage Construction
and opened. Ooops, need to touch up the backs of the stone sticking up on the other side!

Other wise we think it looks pretty darn nice.

Finished Stage Design
Here's a few last images. with most of the stage dressing completed. Thanks to the many volunteers from South Hills Assembly who provided an untold amount of man hours in base painting and stage construction! Well done.

Finished Stage Design
With over 250 individually cut stone and another 200 cut into full or partial panels, it came to completion rather well.

Finished Stage Design
The show is Dec 7th, 8th and 9th at 7:00 pm. Stop in and see it live!!

Finished Stage Design
Enjoy


Finished Stage Design

Finished Stage Design

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Floral Logo Design for Local Ministry Center

Women of Excellence Floral Logo Design
A locally based ministry we support was in need of a logo design for a new program. The Abundant Life Ministry Center has programs with a worldwide reach. From counseling women in difficult situations to rescuing girls in the slums of India.

When they needed a logo to help promote their new weekly event called "Women of Excellence". We stepped up to the plate and gave it a swing. Here you see the finished log, but how did we get there? Let's take a look....

Women of Excellence Floral Logo Design ideas

The first round of ideas was presented in three different directions.
The first a light contemporary,
the second classical and elegant and
the third was a more natural approach.

Women of Excellence Floral Logo Design more ideas
After some conversations, we proceeded to round two. The contemporary was liked but not the font and they wanted some color. So we switched to Vivaldi for the font and swapped the black and white image for a color one.
The classical version wasn't out yet but they didn't want it to look so "Old Fashioned". We went with two variations of color with corresponding floral elements. A simpler version of each was shown for use on letterhead or other limited color printing.


Women of Excellence Floral Logo Design
The contemporary won out! We were now very close to finished. All that remained was to lighten the floral element slightly. Here is the floral layer lightened and shown on a dark background to see the element breaking the boundry

Women of Excellence Floral Logo Design
We had to edit the font to change the capital "E". We removed the swirl that continued into the middle of the letter. An outer glow was added for logo readability when over the floral element.

Women of Excellence Floral Logo Design
Combing the layers together, we had the final floral logo with type. All the work was done with Adobe Photoshop.

A fun successful project! You can visit the Abundant Life Ministry Center site for any information on their ministries.

Enjoy