A Grave Situation

Working outside in the Lizzy can be an exposure to the most extreme elements, but we have been so lucky to have beautiful weather while we fit and touch up the outdoor shows.  


First, a little update on what's been going on lately:

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Here is the finished inner above now that we have tied together the ceiling and painted the floor in place to match.  

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Here is the view of the house while standing in the inner above. 

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Our second long week has been SUPER productive.  While Thayne, Amanda and I have been leafing like crazy, our new paint shop assistant, Leah Ramilliano and Erin have been working on the floor for the outdoor shows.  Here you see Erin making sure all of the cracks in between the boards get painted using a syringe.   They used jaxsan to create woodgrain texture, even sculpting knotholes.  

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The sets also call for some realistic large bouldars.  These were carved from foam and coated with fiberglass to make them near indestructible since they need to withstand the weather and use outdoors for all three shows and for several months.  

Here Amanda coats the rocks next with Jaxsan (our miracle material) to begin giving them a rock-like texture.  

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Leah puts a finishing touch of a gloss spatter on one of the boulders.   

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Below a finished painted rock sits on the set.  Right, a real rock I found in some landscaping.  
Not bad, right?

This wee I had the chance to work on two gravestones for Cymbalene's Mother and Father.  Made up of a wooden base and a carved foam top, these gravestones need to be durable enough to sit and stand on, just like real stone.  

Here I am using jaxsan again to give the headstone a stone-like texture.  

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Next, the stones were given a quick paint job using a scumble with sponges and a series of spatters.  For a final touch, I spattered with first flat and then gloss sealers to give the stone a little glisten like granite.  

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Next, I added some shadows and contours and a super white drybrush to bring out the highlights in the texture.  

Now we have new gravestones.  Cymbalene's parents have been dead for 20 years, so we need to make these graves look like they have been exposed to the elements for 20 years.  

Erin and Leah have created several gallons of "moss" by coloring powdered sawdust with green paint.  Using glue, I clumped the sawdust on in places where water would gather and moss would grow.  

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Now to begin the aging process.  First a drippy raw umber glaze.  

Next I'll add a super dark as well as a super light lime green to bring out the moss.  

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Here are the finished gravestones!  Ready to mark some graves!