Painting theater set backgrounds and props. (A first for me!)

 I was asked if I could paint some theater backgrounds and props for my kids school production of Frozen Jr.  It was a fun project and completely new to me.   I was given a basic description of what they wanted on each panel.  One of the other volunteers had a theater background and helped by labeling what needed to be painted and making props.   I just picked out and combined some movie reference photos and tried to work as quickly as I could.  I had about a month to get everything painted.  

I started out painting Anna and Elsa’s beds with donated wall paint.  When I finished the beds I made a stencil based off the movie wall paper.  It took some extra time at home to draw it and cut it out of poster board but it held up for the stenciling. I used a similar process for a door that was donated for a prop.

  

Next I painted this podium that someone rescued from the trash.  I used a darker brown watery paint to cover the orangey stain and then painted the Arendelle flag on the front along with some castle column details.  

The lady in charge of props had her husband make some wooden trees for me to paint.  One side was summer and then they rotated for a winter tree.  The kids primed them a green color for me.  

Next I started on the castle walls.  These were also primmed gray for me by the volunteering students.  I used a projector to sketch out a stone pattern that looked similar to the art in the movie and then I added a few shadow details.  

Next up I painted the castle gates.  These were also sketched out by projector.  It helped me get the brick lines more even and the arch correct on either side of the door.

 Then I started on the ‘spring’ boards.  I again found some movie reference and then tried to simplify it while getting the colors as close as I could.  I projected just to sketch out scale and keep the ground plane even.

Next up Katie and her son finished making the ice throne out of cardboard. So I started painting the ice crystal look over it.  

Michelle and her daughter Ev came in to help me prime the ice crackle panels in a gradient before getting started on the crackle look.  

I had Michelle, Ev, and Kelly come in to help me get started on the largest scene.  This was a combination of snowy concepts from the movie  that I combined in a photo editing software and projected.  We made a lot of progress for one day and I just needed to add in some mid tones and finish the castle. 

In the end I needed almost every day of the month I had to paint in order to finish.  Each 4’ x 8’ panel took a day to complete, props took about 2 days for each.  I worked while my kids were in school from 10-3, 4 days a week.  So a pretty time consuming project!  

After the show I was thanked for my painting work and given flowers, a card and some money as a present and thank you for the work.  Everyone was so sweet.  The costumes were amazing and I had a lot of fun seeing the behind the scenes work that goes into a theater show.  It’s a little sad to think everything gets painted over for next year’s show but maybe some of the brick walls and trees can be reused.  The kids were so cute performing.  I hope it inspires my kids to get involved in future shows!