(PROJECT) Photo booth backdrop

Charissa Wright and Justine Griffin in costume for the night 

flyer from the event night

Opportunities to help out your local community should never be taken for granted. The pottsville community preschool was holding a fund raiser in august, the theme was Heroes and Villians and they had requested a photobooth backdrop and props in the theme of gotham city. With a time frame of one week to complete.

For this event two backdrops were to be made:

1. Smaller police lineup backdrop for the entrance of the event

2. Large backdrop for group photos of up to ten people. The backdrop was to be a city scape, with a street going into the distance. 

The execution

Backdrop 1 

material/media: laminated MDF panel, wire hooks, marker pen

techniques: projection

scale: H120cm x W80cm

installation: suspension

Step 1: Digital creation of the police lineup image

Step 2: Place the laminated MDF panel on an easel, set up a projector.

Step 3: Measure lines onto the board using a pencil, then project the digital image. The purpose of the digital image is to resolve the composition and to proved the numbers. Note that this template is for adults, hence the height range.

Step 4: Fill in the pencil lines with marker pen, for this project use a POSCA PC-17k chisel shaped 15.0mm or similar.I chose to take the board off the easily to fill in the line work and to place it on a flat/firm surface. 

Step 5: This board was attached to a standard door at the entrance of the venue by drilling two holes in the top corners and using

ABOVE: door hooks

 

ABOVE and BELOW: the finished results

Brian Griffin ( DAD ) doing his best villain face

With an event that involes dressup its important to start the night with a bit of silliness. Some people felt a little subconsious as they approached the door but when asked to stand and have their mugshot taken before then entered the venue, you could see them really let their hair down. Many people commented that it was a great way to start the night. 

Backdrop 2

material/media: canvas, wire hooks, acrylic paint

techniques: projection

scale:  2(two) panels of  H3m x W5m

installation: wall mounted

Step 1: Digital create the image for the backdrop

Step 2: Lay the canvas out on the ground, with dropsheets laid first, and prime the entire surface with gesso. For a canvas 3 meters by 5 meters in size approx 3 ltrs is required for 2 coats, watered down 50%.

Step 3: Suspend the canvas from a wall ( keep im mind that the paint will go through the canvas onto the wall, so place dropsheets behind it). This is done by stapling the canvas to a timber rod.

Step 3: project the digital image onto the canvas and draw in the major lines using charcoal

Step 4: Paint in using black the darkest sections of the painting

Step 5: Block in the major areas of color (This painting was monocromatic making it easier to block in )

Step 5: This stage is now refinement and normally the longest, but by this point I only had 2 days left to complete the painting and I had to complete a floor panel for it as well. 

 

Step 6: using a second sheet the same size as this one prime it again as before

Step 7: using a large brush scuff the surface with the same colors as found in the bottom (road) of the image covering the entire sufrace, it is particularly important how it is laid out as people will be standing on it and props will be place on it as well. 

On the night :

Props used below:

Letter box (in shot)

Street lamp (in shot)

Lamps to provide light to the scene( top left and lower right)

During the evening group shots were taken infront of the backdrop/props.

The event committee

As a part of the fund raising, teams were given the opportunity to purchase their group photos and mugshots. As part of the event I digitally created a mock newspaper with the teams name and their group photo ( BELOW )

Conclusion 

While this backdrop sold on the night of the fund raiser, I would not consider it a completed artwork, time was just too limited.   I was travelling an hour to get to the venue to paint the artwork while also travelling 5 hours to my studies which greatly reduced the time available to work on the painting. But in the end what was important was that it aided in raising funds, kick started the frivolity and brought a little joy to people on the night. I dont think that there is any greater reward.

C3 community parkland and walking track project - early February update

Giving credit to my amazing wifes blog before I start as she posted most of this up first.
Sweet potato topped beef bacon pies CLICK HERE

After being in contact with the Natural resource management unit of the tweed shire council we were given approval to begin clearing the non-local/non-native/dangerous(high risk) trees from the parklands area and the development and management of the remainder or the project within the parameters of the proposed plan. The past two weeks has seen the clearing of some of the weed trees, management of the previously cleared weeds and expansion of the weed clearing to cover the entire proposed parklands area and removal of the old fence. Id like to especially thank Margy ( Below ) for coming on thursday (4th feb) , in the pouring rain and to Ben the following thursday(11th feb) to assist us in clearing the trees.

 "Our awesome friend, Margy, not afraid to get dirty and help out, even in the rain. 

It was actually quite a challenge. 

The years have left piles of leaf litter on top of stumps, branches, and interesting finds.

We were just keeping our eyes open- the area was perfect snake habitat." Marija

ABOVE: The first of the trees to be removed are the Umbrella trees, the two larger trees were dropped last week (4th feb). The majority of the stumps have now been removed and are ready for painting with herbicides.

BELOW: If you took a look out the back last week this is what you would have seen. The trees were down and ready for cleanup. Sadly this was made harder as during the week someone had spread them around. 

For the moment you will notice there are large piles of tree waste outside the kids church, this is a temporary location until the compost bins are constructed. For the remainer of the trees they have been removed from the parklands. 

We have now cleared all of the parkland areas, seeing me in the distance gives you an idea of the size of the parklands area and grass has already started to come up in sections. This is giving us a great canvas to begin the next stages of the parklands project.

Keep an eye out for more updates, and if you would like to be apart of this project we are onsite:

Monday 7am till 9.30am

Thursday 7am till 12pm

(PROJECT) Santa Chair

Santa chair, christmas 2015

Build a Santa Chair in under 3 days and $100

A few days before the Murwillumbah christmas services a request was made to make a Santa chair. For anyone who has ever attempted to make a chair, it takes time, and good materials. Not an impossible task to achieve, but definately a challenge

 The brief was that:

• It had to be made using materials that would be cost effective(cheap)
• It had to support a Santa that was over six foot tall plus the possibility of two or more adults and children at the same time
• Needed to be easily transported in a regular car

I had freedom with aesthetic choice on this project which allowed for a bit of creativity

My execution

The chair was made in two section for ease of transport, the back and base could be separated and transported in a regular car.

material/media: 2x  MDF panels,  6x 2 x 4in  2.4m  pine lengths , spray paint,  red doona cover, screws

scale: H170cm x W100cm x D90cm

installation: located at the entrance of the murwillumbah civic center, at the Christmas celebration

What research did I engage with ? 

Due to time limitations I simply searched for visual inspiration, "thankyou google image search". I used the following images as inspiration for the design, borrowing visual elements.

Snow flake design

General shape

The following is a discussion on the planning of your project , including experimentation , technique selection, overcoming technical problems and determining limitations and constraints

 Day 1

The start of the first day was spent researching images as seen above. 

Once I had decided on a general design and shape of the chair a trip to the local Bunnings hardware store was made to purchase the timber. MDF panels are cheap and strong enough for a project like this. A single large panel (1.2 x 0.9 cm, the maxiumum I could fit in my car) costs around $10 AUD as opposed to the $50+ for plywood. If you can afford it plywood is the better option. Also non-structural pine lengths (2.4m in length) cost around $3 each. Making the general timber costs around the $50 mark for all the timber used in this project.

As the snowflake is the central focus of this chair it was the first part of the chair to be  designed. A bit of maths helps here. To mark out the circles of this design I simply attached a pencil to a piece of string. The design was based of the image above but a few changes were made towards the center to make this one unique. If your making your own draw it on paper first, its harder once you are working at full scale.

 ABOVE: Before I move onto the next step heres a short list of the tools you will need for this project:
Clamps
Set square
Jig saw
Sander
Table saw
Hammers
Protective equipment(eyes ears etc)
Screw driver (recommend electic)
Power drill
Paint roller
Paint tray
Masking tape

Just a quick shoutout to my wife and kids, they bought me an early Christmas present to complete this project, a Ozito table saw.

ABOVE: Now to cutting out the snow flake. You will notice that in this picture the snowflake panel is suspended between two tables. This will give you a firm surface to cut and drill on. Use saw horses for this if you have them(recommended). 

 ABOVE: Now drill at least one hole in every section of the design that you wish to have cut out. This will allow you to easily insert the Jigsaw blade and to be able to cut all of them out without stopping. 
NOTE that this is the most time consuming portion of the project

ABOVE: the finished back of the chair. Now use sandpaper to remove any burrs from the cut edges, there will likely be alot especially if you are using MDF.

Next cut the panels out for the base of the chair. 

sides of chair  two(2) panels  45 x 60 cm

front of chair  one(1) panel     45 x 90 cm

BELOW: the design for the base of the chair was based on the research image. A simple and effective aesthetic element.

 BELOW: these panels were then tacked together to see if the would be large enough. Also not that two timber lengths 170cm in length were added to the snowflake panel. The idea here is to sort out any aesthetic issues and structural issues. 

Day two

Only having a few hours on day 2  the focus was spent on completing the base. You may have noticed that in the panel list from the previous day that there was no back panel. The reason is to keep weight and cost down to a minimum. a single strip of timber is placed along the back and front horizontally to provide maximum strength for the base of the chair. This two lengths of timber sit ontop of four (4) vertically standing timber lengths. Keeping in mind that a solid panel will be sitting ontop of these slats they provide more than enough strength to support two large adults. The arms of the chair are purely aesthetic. They are not weight bearing in the design but could hold 100kg+ if needed.

BELOW: The two chair elements together ready for painting, Note there are end caps on the top of the snowflake panel lengths. These are aesthetic choices which will be painted a different color and can be removed for transport.

The rest of day two was spend painting the chair white. Three coats of acrylic white paint were applied allow 2 hours between each coat. After the third coat masking tape was used to mark out the highlights which were applied using gold spray paint.

Day 3

The masking tape was removed, and any over spray was painted over with white paint. The upholstery (an old red doona) was cut to size, making sure there was plenty to overlap under the arm wrests and seat panel . The seat panel was padded using an old bed pillow. The upholstery was attached to the chair using 2cm upholstery nails that you can get at any hardware store. When doing a project like this you will need to hammer them in, but not too far as you will be putting them in on the under side of the seat.  

The chair was now complete and delivered that day, ready for the Christmas celebration  

Im glad that my youngest daughters first santa photo was taken in a santa chair made by her dad

If you ever get the chance, especially at christmas time, to be able to bless others with your skills. Do it. Seeing the joy in children and putting a smile on someones face makes it all worth it. 

Hope you have a very merry christmas and an prosperous and creative new year.