With less than a week until opening night, crew of All Shook Up is working hard at getting the sets build and painted. Getting the look and feel of a small town in America’s mid-west involves quite a lot of paint. Featured here is one of the Ivoryton Playhouse interns, Gaylen Ferstand, painting on wood texture to an interior wall. This process gives the illusion of wood grain without there actually being any.
Typically there would be a dark shade applied evenly on the wall first, this is the color that will show through in the end product. This color doesn’t have to be brown like it is here. It could be a deep plum or a green, this would create something a little funkier than what we are looking for.
Next, a lighter shade is applied. Before it dries, a wood grained stencil is run along the paint in a single stroke. This creates the effect. The painter has to be sure to use even strokes with the stencil, otherwise the grain will look blotched. This process has to be repeated until the whole desired area is covered.
Once it’s dry, the wall will have a neat texture to it. Depending on your color choices it can be more natural, or as mentioned before, really funky.
To see all the different techniques used on the sets, check out All Shook Up, running through the month of July at the Ivoryton Playhouse.
