Set Design Project
The Tempest - William Shakespeare
SYNOPSIS OF THE PLAY
The ship crashes near a lonely island where the magician Prospero lives with his daughter Miranda. The passengers of the ship are rich and famous persons. This is the Neapolitan king Alonzo, his brother and son. The magician arranged the crash on purpose, he tells the story of their arrival on this island. This happened partly though the fault of this Neapolitan king, Prospero was overthrown by his brother Antonio. And Prospero and his daughter were allowed to sail an a decommissioned ship. Prospero has a slave, Ariel, who helps Prospero with his idea. He makes it so that Prince Ferdinand finds himself in a cave, which is inhabited by the magician and his daughter. Ferdinand meets Miranda and is taken aback with her beauty. He dreams of making her a queen of Neapolitan, as he is sure that his father sank in the sea. The old wizard is glad that the young people have become close to each other, but still opposes the prince and turns him into slavery. The Prince is happy about this, because he will see his beloved more often.
It turns out that Ferdinand's father is alive and is mourning his son on the other side of the island.
Ariel rages and proves to Alonzo that he is guilty before Prospero. The king and brother are going crazy.
Prospero finally announces to the prince that he has passed all the tests. The magician feels sorry for the king.
The magician decides to leave his magical experiments, break the wand and destroy the books. He appears in ducal regalia before the insane Alonzo and his brother, removes the spell of madness from them and the king asks his forgiveness. Prospero hurries to inform Alonzo that his son is alive and has befriended his daughter. The magician releases Ariel, and he flies away after a little sad.
Moodboards
The design includes...
- crashed ship (folding wooden parts with folding mast, pieces of drape)
- a seaside (lighting effects) and coast (folding force looking like sand)
- palms (folding tree trunks and leaves)
- a piece of island (a wooden piece of mountain painted in grey)
- plants (fake plants like vine or shrubs)
Concept art of the design
Scale drawing
Creating process
Boat:
- Styrofoam
- Wooden sticks
- Scotch
- Paint
- Glue
I made parts from foam plastic with measurements that I made on the drawing. Using sticks and glue, I built the shape and added tape for strength. Covered with brown and gold paint.
Rocks:
- Styrofoam
- Glue
- Paint
I made two identical detailed foam plastics with a height and width that I measured on the drawing. Glued them at a 90° angle and covered them with silver paint
Sea:
- Wooden plastic
- Paint
I took a round wooden plate and cut off the edge so that it ended in the same place as the beach. Blue and turquoise paint covered it with a wave of smooth surface for effect.
Beach:
- Styrofoam
- Paper tape
- Shells
- Glue
- Artificial plants
I cut out a part of the foam according to the dimensions that I measured for the drawing. Glued the foam plastic with paper tape to give the color and texture of the sand. Glued the seashells to the water surface with glue and added artificial plants in the background.
Palms:
- Green fabric
- Clay
- Wire
- Glue
- Paints
Using fabric wire and glue, I make palm leaves, cut them out in the form of petals and make cuts around the perimeter. for tree trunks, I take thicker wire and wrap clay around it, also making a small platform for stability
I insert leaves with wire into the tops of the trunks and leave to dry so that later I can cover the trunks with brown paint and golden platforms.
Practicing wood painting
Before that, my classmates and I prepared wooden boards, painted them black and white. When they were dry, those who had already finished their model boxes could choose one texture in their project and try it out on the board. Since I have a boat in my model box, I thought it would be a good idea to have aged wood. For this I needed several techniques for painting and special stamps for restoring the relief of wood.
1. Scumble: To wet-blend two or more colours together using multiple brushes.
For the main colors, I took several shades of brown, which I had previously prepared, gold and light green paint.
The main goal of the technique is to cover the entire canvas with an even layer of the shades that you have chosen. With the help of several brushes, you can gradually alternate colors and paint over the surface, as shown in the attached photos.
2. Paint layers (coats): Applying multiple layers of paint are applied to a surface
Texture coat: A thick coat of paint, plaster or other medium applied to add a three-dimensional texture to a surface.
To make a wood texture, you need to prepare a solution of paint and water so that it is not so thick and lays in a thin layer on an already prepared base. When the base dries, you need to gradually apply the solution to the board and, taking the stamps, draw them along slightly tilting away from you and towards you to recreate the pattern inherent in wooden boards. In this way, I covered the entire board. Also for a more aged look, you can add a solution of a different color, I made it greener and applied it to some parts of the board.
Set Design Evaluation
I have completed my project of creating a set model box for William Shakespeare's The Tempest. It includes creating early design, material selection, scale drawing, model building and recreating one of the textures for the set. It was a very useful experience in working not only as a designer, but also as an artist and builder to some extent.
I would like to summarize how I spent the time creating the project. I found the early set design and model making quite easy. As for a rather creative person, these processes brought me a lot of pleasure and new experience. I am sure that in the future I will use the acquired knowledge. Also the process of recreating the texture of the wood was fascinating and I am pleased with the result.
But despite the fact that the creative part of the project came out quite well, it is also worth taking time for the technical part. First of all, I realized how important it is to do CAD and scale drawing. I think that my knowledge in IT and mathematics is still not enough to master computer design and drafting. It seems to me that the final model turned out to be better than what I drew in the early design. I added more greenery and small details, and also made a semblance of stones with the help of artificial shells. Such changes are very important for the final result, because when you see your shortcomings, you can easily correct them. I can add that I encountered difficulties in creating the boat. the design that I tried to stick to turned out to be more difficult than I thought, so when I started connecting the parts of the boat together, I had to spend a lot of time with glue and tape in my hands. Nevertheless, I find the experience useful for me.
If I decide to connect my life with the theater and scenery, then I should go deeper into the technical components. If you devote enough time to this, you can learn a lot of useful experience for future projects.