Coffin' it up!

This week, I have been painting three more coffins for our production of Dracula.  These coffins are all supposed to look exactly the same, so the audience can recognize it as "Dracula's Coffin" though each is used for a different effect throughout the show.  

There is the regular coffin, a box that just sits on the ground, the coffin that looks like it has washed up on the rocks, and a trick coffin.  The third is a coffin that sits upright.  The lid swings to the side and Dracula's clawed hand reaches out.  

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The first two were built out of planks of cedar.  I came up with a faux stain and some washes to help these look like the research:

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The third coffin however, was built out of sheets of luan.  It needed to be textured and painted somehow to look like the above stained wood. 

Starting as a plain grey box, I grained it into planks using a texture of the famous scenic recipe, and flocked it with sawdust.  

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After the box looked like wood, I then treated it as I had treated the cedar: using the faux-stain and the washes.  

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Here is the end result:

On the right is the lid from one of the actual cedar coffins, and on the left is the painted and textured box.  

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Shop Foreman, Leah Busse takes the peek-a-boo coffin for a test drive. 

Scary stuff. 













Below are some detail shots.  Click to enlarge.

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Meanwhile, Jim has been carving up giant piles of rocks for Dracula's coffin to wash up upon.  

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Here Jim displays the rough mock-up of one side of the rocks.  The coffin is there in the center.

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Here is Jim softening out the edges into the rock's final form.

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Tech time!