Catch up!

So I know it has been a while....there is no excuse
But for the few people who do look at this, I am going to try to recap the last 2 1/2 months in pictures via as many pictures of Dochas as possible!
So...here we go!

Christmas was good...it was pretty laid back, and quiet...and nice. (Dochas enjoyed her Christmas collar with all the bells on it)

I went to Savannah to visit my boyfriend, and all my wonderful friends still down there. It was great--too short. But then again, it's nice to know I don't have to do homework anymore

I turned 23 and my dad baked me a cake with teal icing with purple, white, and yellow polka dots on it. It was pretty cool, even though it looked like the cake belonged to a 5 year old. (p.s. the colors were my choosing)

Oh yeah...and in December I did my first freelance gig (YAY!!!), helping to paint scenery for "Pee Wee's Playhouse"...yeah, it's kinda nuts. And by nuts, I mean great!

More to come!

Website is FINALLY up!

Wooohoo!

Ch-ch-check it out!!

www.lorynariana.com

Quilt for a cause

I don't know her, and I probably never will, but when my step-mother came home a few weeks ago with a piece of paper about this woman that's friends with one of the woman whose in her exercise class, I knew I had to help out.

The woman is 37, is a mother of a 3, 5 and 7 year old, and has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Colin Cancer.

Someone was asking people to make 6"x6" patches that would be sewn together on a quilt that they were going to make for her, and give to her and her family during this difficult time, and something that the children could cuddle up to later on.

They asked for positive messages, I chose "Feed your faith and your fears will starve"




I did all the stitching by hand, and it took me about 2 days to finish it.

My step-mom made one too, with a daffodil with some inspirational words on it as well.

Apparently they ended up with about 100 squares and have made a decent sized quilt.

I haven't heard anything more about it, but I like to think I helped make this stranger's life and her family's lives a little easier during this difficult time.

Oh Lee Savage....

Your color pallet excites and frightens me.

All at the same time.

Ode to Juilliard

I am about to begin week 4 at Juilliard. It's pretty crazy. I'm almost completely adjusted to waking up at 5 am, catching the 6:15 train, getting into Grand Central at 7:45, jump on 2 subways, and get to Juilliard by 8--1 hour before I technically need to be to work, but in order for me to get parking back home, I need to take the early train.

I'm okay with it though, because I have about an hour to putz around the shop, get all the lights on, and lay on the stage with the ghost light looking up at the ridiculous grid system that's in the theatre right next to the paint deck.

The paint deck is pretty large. This is about 85% of the deck--I couldn't fit it all on my camera. The show that we have on the deck in that picture one of the first shows of the season called "Arms & the Man", which is designed by Lee Savage, who I worked with at BTF in '08. It's a pretty interesting set. 10 gallons of joint compound to stucco the walls. Good times, good times. Upstairs is the Charge and the Assistant Charge's offices.



Below in 'the cage' is the other intern's and mine's computer tables, and a bunch of paint storage.



I think it's pretty awesome that they gave us our own computers and desks and personal areas. We also get out own little lockers. Even though my computer is a tad outdated and circa 1999, it runs okay. I just need to BFF the IT guys at Juilliard and convince them to update my Java and Flash so I can actually see what's on the internet.

These two super wicked drops are behind my bosses desk. When you look at them closer, they look like mosaic tiles, and they are BEAUTIFUL! Most of the face work and thin black lines are done with Sharpie---another reason why I LOVE Sharpie! =] That lovely sign is infront of my boss's desk--occasionally he will break out into a German accent and yell that phrase at the other Intern and I. I'm not sure if he's trying to be funny, or being serious, or both. So, I just awkwardly laugh and pick up the pace on whatever I'm working on.



This is only about 1/4 of the paint storage area.

I about passed out when I saw all this Super Sat. I'm pretty sure there is enough Super Sat here for the next 8 years at Juilliard. I back up this statement with the fact that I used some Kelly Green from 1995. Yikes. See the older Rosco labels up there too? Yah...it's pretty ridiculous. And by ridiculous I mean AWESOME!!!

There is ALSO a full supply of Super Sats in the mixing area.

I'm in Heaven. =]

Stencils! Stencils! Stencils!

In a long overdue post, and as promised, I wanted to put up a blog about how I made these stencils for the megalithic walls I had to do while at my internship this summer up in Vermont. The show was "The Hallow", a play by the oh so famous Agatha Christie.

So here we go!

When I met with the designer, he handed me a 11"x14" piece of paper that had the image on the left on it.

For the record, I personally think the hole in the top left is oh so classy, but I digress. Turning this into a stencil, I had to think about it all in layers. Like it's a photoshop image, and you're piling and piecing the whole thing together. How would you paint this? How would you collage this? This is how I had to step back and look at this. I had to break it down to layers, each layer being a different stencil, and another step. Now, I could have easily turned this into a 10 step stencil, but I realized that me and 2 others would be mostly doing all of it, so I had to simplify: basic shapes, base color, low light and highlight. That's how I did this.

Since we fell short of tracing paper (and a lot of other things), the TD gave me a roll of this ancient paper, that's on the right. We had no lightbox either, so I ended up taping the piece of paper ontop of the elevation, layed on the picnic table, and held it to the sun: the world's largest lightbox!

After I had it all drawn out, I figured out that I could do the whole thing in 5 stencils, so I grabbed 5 highlighters and broke it down that way.

I went to the local art supply store and bought sheets of 18" x 24" acetate (large pieces of transparent paper), which I have used before and they have worked brilliantly. (Also, if you can't find that, sneak down to the gel storage or bff an electrician and see if they'll give you an old sheet (or 5) of gel. Since I knew these poor stencils were going to be through hell and back with the amount of work I would have to get out of it, I decided to invest in some stencil paper too. It's like a super heavyweight yellow-ish colored cardstock (it kind of looks like a manila envelope color) which has an almost plastic film on it so it doesn't get ruined when wet. The only downside of this is that you can't see through it, which I found really difficult. Also, they were much harder to cut out and the acetate stencils pulled through ten times better then the stencil paper. I think the stencil paper would be good if you're doing a one step stencil, but for multiple step stencils, I would say go for the acetate, hands down.

I also taped out the size of the stencil on each one with gaff tape because I have learned that just drawing it out with sharpie, it will eventually disappear, and make your soul hurt.


The leaf stencil was the first step (mind you I took all these stencil pictures AFTER the project was over). All I did to transfer all these layers to the acetate was to lay it over the drawing I did and draw it out with a sharpie, and cut then out with my good friend Mr. Exacto.

After we did the first step (a 2 color scumble with 2 different colored greens, trying to pull the depth in the elevation without doing another stencil), we put the highlight green leaf color on. The paint smelt TERRIBLE! It was awful, but that's old paint for you. For this step we sponged it on because I thought it gave it more texture and depth to it like real leaves have.



Then, after the leaves came the base of the flowers, blocked out in their shapes. I learned that the blue flower on the middle right and the top yellow flower ended up being my favorite flowers to stencil. I have no idea why.

For this step and steps 3 and 4, I went to Michaels and bought a bunch of cheap stencil brushes at various sizes, and they worked great! I was able to get a bunch so when I had a couple of people helping me, we were able to have all the steps of the stencils going and have enough brushes.


Finally, Step 3 and 4 were the high lights and low lights. This step went the fastest, and I'm really happy it did because by the time this step came around we were all pretty tired!

The final product came out really well! I am really happy with the way it came out. I'm hoping to get some more final shots up soon. A lot quicker then it took for this one to come up--promise!

Dear SCAD--

Yesterday, the recent JobWire e-mail that was sent out listed a bunch of jobs and internships that recent graduates had landed. At the end of the list it said if we wanted to share with the school we could send them an e-mail and let them know.

Well...I did.

To whom it may concern:

My name is Loryn Williams (BFA Production Design, 2009) and saw in the recent JobWire Newsletter that you had listed some internships and jobs landed by recent SCAD Graduates like myself.

I just wanted to share with everyone in the SCAD community that I have received an internship as a Scenic Painter under the Professional Intern Program at The Juilliard School in New York City for their 2009-2010 year.

I found the internship on the career services page the summer after my Freshmen year at SCAD. I contacted the program director and visited the school that summer to learn more about the program they offered. I instantly knew that this was where I wanted to be but was told that I didn't have enough experience and skillset behind me at that time in order to receive such an internship. The remaining 3 years of my time at SCAD helped me to develop that experience and skillset and ultimately work my way towards landing this wonderful internship.

I am very thankful for the education I have received with SCAD and hope that others will benefit just as much as I have from this college and the programs they offer.

Thank you,
Loryn Williams
(BFA, Production Design, 2009)


And this morning I got this e-mail....


Hello Loryn,
We are just thrilled to hear about your internship with the Julliard. We are SO proud of you and wish you every success there. Keep us posted on how it goes & enjoy NYC.
All the best--
Sue Hinkin




"....with the Juilliard."
??????????????????
hehehehehe =]

My new love...

Mark Ryden

Oh. My. God.

http://www.markryden.com/index.html

Happy Sigh.

The Makings of a Vermont Tech Week

I have come to realize that as a theatre person, I have found myself getting into these crazy habits. Crazy tendencies, and the slight beginnings of a potentially Obsessive Compulsive Disorder--for my paint kitchen.

Yes, my paint kitchen. (See the OCD kicking in?)

I say my partially because I am the only one who has any form of paint in my staff title. I also say my because I put it to some order and figured out the local of everything in this area. I say my because I am the only one that cleans the space and feels the need for it to be kept orderly. Specifically because it's so tiny here.

Unfortunately with all this in mind, I am the only one that cares about the situation of this area. The designer who is the only other one who mixes any kind of color or is in there for remotely as long as I am.

With this being said, I have come into the shop early all week to work on the paintings that are on the walls, and to re-clean, re-organize, and re-wash buckets, brushes and whatever else the designer has laid his hands on. So, the other day, a few days before we got into tech, I took some pictures after I newly re-cleaned my itty-bitty paint kitchen.


It's not much, but I have to keep it clean or else its impossible to try to do anything in it. (It's virtually impossible to try to do anything in it when it's clean!)

By the end of day the same day I took this picture:


Le sigh. The other side is equally as messy. Everyday this is what I go through. It drives me crazy, but what's a girl to do. Poor Samsung and Mittens get to listen to me complain about it day in and day out. Bless them.

I decided that tracing the images from a projector of these interesting Indian inspired erotica, and then pouncing them out on the walls would be the easiest method of transferring these 8' images onto the wallpaper walls. Below is the MonkeyMan ripping open his chest. He lives on the far SR wall.



The designer, or rather, the Director wanted the images to be translucent, so to make it look like they are coming from within the walls. A pretty cool though, a choice to say the least. But it made it a lot easier and quicker to paint with this all in mind. So, this is it mid process:



Load-in was...interesting. And terrifying, but all in all, all the walls got loaded in. It looks pretty snazzy. This is from yesterday before we did a lot of the paint notes. So here is that:



Until next time....

Finishing up everything related to mega portraits

I felt the need to finish up/add these few things that I am fairly satisfied with given the time I had to work on them.

And so we begin!

Painting elevation for the General Store scene for "Merton of the Movies".

Finished product. It's 6' wide and 9' tall. Basically did it in one day...not too shabby. It obviously needs to be edited before it goes into the portfolio. Samsung got in the way doing a wavey thing with her hands.

These are the infamous painting elevations for the two huge mega portraits: The ''Rosacea Lady" was a pieced together elevation and the woman was a famous actress in the 20's. The designer didin't want the font, so it was fun to try to figure out how to do all of this.

The designer is a fanatic of Photoshop. Sometimes it works for him, sometimes it doesn't. This was a black and white image that he found that he colorized on the famous photoshop. This one was a little easier to work from.

And I give you, THE FINAL RESULT!

I'm pretty happy with them if I do say so myself.