Originally posted in Rosco's Spectrum Blog:Renderings for Penumbra Theatre’s “SPUNK” – Designed by C. Lance BrockmanAs fall approaches, many theaters and scene shops are beginning to put together the list of supplies they’ll need for the coming season. Unfortunately for scenic artists, drama teachers and technical directors around the world, this is also the season for the time-honored explanation to “management” of why they need to spend the extra money on scenic paint instead of less-expensive alternatives found at the big orange store across town. Angelique Powers is the Charge Scenic at the historic Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, MN. Like every arts organization, Penumbra is always searching for ways to do more with less. So, Angelique is familiar with working under heavily scrutinized budgets. She shared a recent experience with us that demonstrates the vibrancy of Rosco Scenic Paints (even when they’re heavily diluted) and an example of how the inexpensive paint from the hardware store didn’t live up to her scenic expectations.I am often asked “why can’t you use cheaper ‘House Paints’ for painting sets?” I admit, sometimes I can, but for most shows it’s just not the right product – usually because I can’t always get the color punch I want. I’ve also found that if I need to work with the paint super thin, house paint can actually cause more headaches, and worse – more labor hours - to fix than if I had used scenic paints to begin with. A great example of this problem presented itself on a show I recently painted at Penumbra Theatre.When presented with the design for “SPUNK,” my main directive was to use a lot of color, but not to over-saturate the wood and lose all of its great character, texture, and natural wood grain. To fulfill that directive, I chose various Rosco Supersats & Off Broadways because I knew that, even after I diluted them heavily with water, they would deliver just what I needed: a huge amount of color impact that would allow the natural character of the wood to shine through. More importantly, by watering the paints down I could make them fit into my ever-scrutinized paint and labor budget.Vibrant Colors on the upstage mural thanks to Rosco Supersaturated PaintsThe upstage mural was created from steel frames and lathe wood strips. We laid foam underneath so that I could walk on it to paint. I back painted and based everything using very thinned Supersaturated Velour Black - it gave me a great base to work with and I didn't have to worry about "paint holidays" as I did my color work.Angelique painting the upstage mural.All of the colors were Rosco Supersats, and I used very little actual paint – sometimes only a couple of tablespoons that I thinned to the consistency of skim milk. The Supersats gave me the ability to do some subtle blends that still had a huge impact.Angelique’s palette of dilutedSupersaturated paints produced the vibrant colors she needed.The walls for the set were faced with wood from shipping pallets, so a lot of the hard work was done for me. All I needed to do was tone the wood planks and add additional accent colors and graining.The raw wood walls before their color-wash & wood-grain accents.I began with 3/4 gallon each of Rosco Off Broadway Raw Sienna and Earth Umber and, after mixing and diluting with water, created about 7 gallons of various browns that I used on everything from the walls to the floor. Once my base-coat of beiges and browns had dried, I used some of the left over paints from the upstage mural (that I thinned with water even more) to add the accent color washes to the wood walls.The finished, color-washed walls.After the color dried, we added shadows, cut lines and cartooned a wood grain effect into the scenery using Supersaturated Payne’s Grey thinned to a 1:20 ratio. It was a very cool effect that accentuated the wood’s natural features and gave the set a great sense of character on stage.As you can tell, I maximized my scenic paint budget by diluting my paints heavily with water. This also included the brown paint that I used to back paint the walls (I chose brown so that when it dripped through the slats, the back paint wouldn’t ruin things on the front). I chose to use traditional house paint for this back painting project. To speed up the process, and to help me cover all of the nooks and crannies, I decided to use a hudson sprayer to apply the back paint. It was a huge time saver, and yes we saved money by using paint from the paint store down the street. However, here is where the house paint failed me. The watered-down, brown paint ended up turning into green puddles because the tints in the house paint went all haywire and separated themselves when I added the amount of water I needed.This is supposed to be brown – not green.Thank goodness this was the back painting! If this had happened to the front my scenery, I would have cried. Plus, it would have cost the production much more to buy the proper paints and pay the labor to correct it than it would have to use the proper scenic paint in the first place. I have seen house paint perform this way in the past, which is one of the many reasons I choose scenic paint like Rosco Off Broadway and Supersaturated for creating my scenery.A stage shot of the "Color Punch" Angelique created for Penumbra Theatre's "Spunk"“SPUNK” - Penumbra Theatre Scenic Designer: C. Lance Brockman Scenic Charge: Angelique Powers Lead Scenic: Molly Kern. Photo Credit: Allen WeeksSee More

Originally posted in Rosco's Spectrum Blog:Renderings for Penumbra Theatre’s “SPUNK” – Designed by C. Lance BrockmanAs fall approaches, many theaters and scene shops are beginning to put together the list of supplies they’ll need for the coming season. Unfortunately for scenic artists, drama teachers and technical directors around the world, this is also the season for the time-honored explanation to “management” of why they need to spend the extra money on scenic paint instead of less-expensive alternatives found at the big orange store across town. Angelique Powers is the Charge Scenic at the historic Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, MN. Like every arts organization, Penumbra is always searching for ways to do more with less. So, Angelique is familiar with working under heavily scrutinized budgets. She shared a recent experience with us that demonstrates the vibrancy of Rosco Scenic Paints (even when they’re heavily diluted) and an example of how the inexpensive paint from the hardware store didn’t live up to her scenic expectations.I am often asked “why can’t you use cheaper ‘House Paints’ for painting sets?” I admit, sometimes I can, but for most shows it’s just not the right product – usually because I can’t always get the color punch I want. I’ve also found that if I need to work with the paint super thin, house paint can actually cause more headaches, and worse – more labor hours - to fix than if I had used scenic paints to begin with. A great example of this problem presented itself on a show I recently painted at Penumbra Theatre.When presented with the design for “SPUNK,” my main directive was to use a lot of color, but not to over-saturate the wood and lose all of its great character, texture, and natural wood grain. To fulfill that directive, I chose various Rosco Supersats & Off Broadways because I knew that, even after I diluted them heavily with water, they would deliver just what I needed: a huge amount of color impact that would allow the natural character of the wood to shine through. More importantly, by watering the paints down I could make them fit into my ever-scrutinized paint and labor budget.Vibrant Colors on the upstage mural thanks to Rosco Supersaturated PaintsThe upstage mural was created from steel frames and lathe wood strips. We laid foam underneath so that I could walk on it to paint. I back painted and based everything using very thinned Supersaturated Velour Black - it gave me a great base to work with and I didn't have to worry about "paint holidays" as I did my color work.Angelique painting the upstage mural.All of the colors were Rosco Supersats, and I used very little actual paint – sometimes only a couple of tablespoons that I thinned to the consistency of skim milk. The Supersats gave me the ability to do some subtle blends that still had a huge impact.Angelique’s palette of dilutedSupersaturated paints produced the vibrant colors she needed.The walls for the set were faced with wood from shipping pallets, so a lot of the hard work was done for me. All I needed to do was tone the wood planks and add additional accent colors and graining.The raw wood walls before their color-wash & wood-grain accents.I began with 3/4 gallon each of Rosco Off Broadway Raw Sienna and Earth Umber and, after mixing and diluting with water, created about 7 gallons of various browns that I used on everything from the walls to the floor. Once my base-coat of beiges and browns had dried, I used some of the left over paints from the upstage mural (that I thinned with water even more) to add the accent color washes to the wood walls.The finished, color-washed walls.After the color dried, we added shadows, cut lines and cartooned a wood grain effect into the scenery using Supersaturated Payne’s Grey thinned to a 1:20 ratio. It was a very cool effect that accentuated the wood’s natural features and gave the set a great sense of character on stage.As you can tell, I maximized my scenic paint budget by diluting my paints heavily with water. This also included the brown paint that I used to back paint the walls (I chose brown so that when it dripped through the slats, the back paint wouldn’t ruin things on the front). I chose to use traditional house paint for this back painting project. To speed up the process, and to help me cover all of the nooks and crannies, I decided to use a hudson sprayer to apply the back paint. It was a huge time saver, and yes we saved money by using paint from the paint store down the street. However, here is where the house paint failed me. The watered-down, brown paint ended up turning into green puddles because the tints in the house paint went all haywire and separated themselves when I added the amount of water I needed.This is supposed to be brown – not green.Thank goodness this was the back painting! If this had happened to the front my scenery, I would have cried. Plus, it would have cost the production much more to buy the proper paints and pay the labor to correct it than it would have to use the proper scenic paint in the first place. I have seen house paint perform this way in the past, which is one of the many reasons I choose scenic paint like Rosco Off Broadway and Supersaturated for creating my scenery.A stage shot of the "Color Punch" Angelique created for Penumbra Theatre's "Spunk"“SPUNK” - Penumbra Theatre Scenic Designer: C. Lance Brockman Scenic Charge: Angelique Powers Lead Scenic: Molly Kern. Photo Credit: Allen WeeksSee More

Good stage lighting work should be shared ... especially if you get some great swag in return!Did you ever go to a performance and think to yourself “what a great lighting effect – I wish I knew how the designer did it. What colors were used? Which gobos? What does a director ask of the designer to get an effect like that?"Of course you did, it happens to me all the time. It’s why we think sharing those ideas with the lighting design community is so important and why we prepare and archive a lot of the really great work on the Rosco web site:But we know a lot of great stage pictures are created around the country and they deserve to be seen, but they don’t always get to us or to the magazines that serve our industry. That’s why we’re launching “Share The Work — And Get The Swag” program.Share The Work - And Get The SwagProduction photo: Medea, Orange County High School of the Arts' Symphony Hall, lighting design: Daphne Mir. Colors used: R74, R54, R348. Gobo R77912.It works like this: You submit a photo of a production in which you used a Roscolux or Supergel color to achieve a specific purpose or goal. (An example of a production shot shown above.) You’ll need to tell us, in a couple of sentences, why you chose the Roscolux/Supergel color you used and what you or the director or the design team wanted to convey with the color choice. If you need more than one picture to tell the story, you can send up to five! You’ll also have to fill out an online form giving us permission to share your work along with providing some of the detail of the production as well as all the credits.In return, we’ll send you one of most interesting pieces of swag we’ve ever created. It’s a coffee mug, artfully colored in a Roscolux color, complete with the SED curve. (You'll receive one of the 10 different Roscolux colors we've chosen to be represented on a mug.) This is not a contest, no one will judge your work and there are no winners or losers. Everyone who submits at least one stage picture and the required text will get a Roscolux mug. Any kind of production is eligible: play, opera, dance, concert, etc. The text describing the picture needs to be at least three or four sentences and needs to include the Roscolux/Supergel color number. This program will end on July 30th, 2011 or while supplies last. We are limiting the submissions to one entry per person.Let us hear from you. In some cases, we’ll share the work on our Facebook page. In others, we may use it as part of a tutorial or in digital media. Send us your best work – and get some great swag in return. You can submit your photo(s) through the online submission form at www.rosco.com/sharingforswag/See More

This Wavelengths post turns its attention to the color Blue and its current influence on Rosco and the world around us. Keep reading to learn about the 'Light it up Blue' campaign seen earlier this month in cities all over the world, one Roscolux color that is helping shape tomorrow's lighting designers today, how Rosco's Wendy Luedtke uses the SED curve to determine which blue she is going to use in her lighting designs, and an introduction to a new, yet borrowed, paint color in our Off Broadway line of paints.April 2nd was World Autism Awareness Day and in a collective, global effort, cities across the country lit up some of their best known landmarks in blue as a part of their 'Light It Up Blue' campaign to draw attention to people within the Autism Spectrum. If you visit their homepage lightitupblue.org you can see some wonderful photos featuring azure buildings in Milwaukee, Chicago and Toronto and landmarks like Niagara Falls, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Sao Paulo, Brazil and the Great Buddha at Hyogo in Kobe, Japan. The two images I thought made the biggest impact were the Colpatria Tower in Bogata Columbia and Australia's Sydney Opera House. Those two examples really showed how the city's commitment to this cobalt-themed campaign ended up adding a sapphire jem to their skyline and drew extra attention to the event. There are several campaigns throughout the year that include lighting buildings and landmarks in their own significant colors. The 'Light It Up Blue' campaign seems most successful to me - especially on a global scale. Perhaps it's because the lighting portion is the primary focus of the event, where other foundations seem to focus primarily on organized walks & runs or other fund-raising events while using the lighting aspect to promote those events. With the 'Light It Up Blue' campaign - the lighting IS the event and it seems to have captured the support of cities all over the world, including individuals' porch lights at home, because of it.Another cause with blue at its core is the Gilbert Hemsley Lighting Programs. Gilbert Hemsley was a respected and loved artisan who designed lighting for numerous high profile performance groups around the country. Gilbert received instruction from the likes of Jean Rosenthal and Tharon Musser, which gave him a profound understanding of the importance of real-world, on-stage training for students in the lighting design field. Throughout his career, Gilbert often brought students with him, mostly at his own expense, to venues all over the country ranging from The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis to The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.To continue his legacy of educating students, the Hemsley Lighting Programs were created to offer master classes, portfolio reviews and, most importantly, a nine-month internship with professional lighting designers at the Lincoln Center Festival, New York City Opera and New York City Ballet. The intern is surrounded by theatrical professionals and immersed in all aspects of the lighting design process, including concept meetings, design presentations and technical rehearsals leading up to the live performances. The Gilbert V. Hemsley, Jr. Internship In Lighting is open to BFA & MFA graduates in lighting design. The deadline has passed for applicants this year, but for those who are graduating with their BFA or MFA in lighting design in 2012, it's a wonderful opportunity to immerse yourself in the professional world of theatre design.Rosco CEO Mark Engel presenting Rosco's contribution to the Hemsley Lighting Program from funds generated from sales of R361 Hemsley Blue, to Mark Stanley, at the Hemsley Portfolio Review.Rosco has been supporting the Hemsley Lighting Program for several years with its Rosco Gives Back campain, by donating a portion of the profits from Roscolux #361 Hemsley Blue to the foundation. To date, the proceeds from R361 have generated nearly $16,000 for the program. The color was designed to the specifications of lighting designer Mark Stanley, who worked with Rosco to design a blue that he and Gil used to use on LEKO's but updated the color for use on modern ellipsoidals. R361 is not only a great blue that doesn't muddy as the light dims, but choosing to use it also helps support the future lighting designers of our industry.It would be great if R361 were the perfect blue for all stage performances, but the reality is all color is relative, and blue is a great example. Blue comes in all sorts of different flavors and helps convey so many messages. Call it simply "blue" if you like, but it can make the world appear red or green or even white. Blue can be luscious, electric, and trust this Minnesotan when I say it can be cold.When Rosco's Color & Lighting Product Manager Wendy Luedtke shines light through the multiple shades & hues of blue in her Roscolux swatch book, searching out the perfect blues for specific moments in the production she is designing, she considers the entire range of the blue spectrum. Where does lavender or cyan end and blue begin? Some blues have a lot more red or green content than others. Wendy compares the SED curves of colors she's considering because "knowing the 'ingredients' in a particular blue helps me anticipate how it will render costumes and scenery, how it will play both high and low on a dimmer and how it will interact with the other colors in my palette. It's wonderful to imagine the possibilities these differences allow and to find the most resonant blue for each design."Wendy's observations above deal with the saturation and hue in one spectral direction or the other with regard to lighting. Rosco recently borrowed a blue color from its Iddings line of scenic paints to fully flesh out our line of Off Broadway Paints. Introducing Off Broadway #5375 Navy, which doesn't so much address a need for a certain hue in the line, but rather, fills a need for a darker shade of blue.Off Broadway's blue line included a light Sky Blue, a clean Pthalo Blue and a bright Ultramarine Blue, all of which are intended to give a scenic artist vibrant, eye-popping color. What the line lacked was a darker shade of blue to create subdued scenery like Iddings #5573 Navy did.The dark Navy blue allows a scenic artist to formulate moody shade colors, neutralize the color intensity of other blues without mixing in the complement and create darker scenic effects like thunderstorm clouds and gloaming night scenes.Look for other color-themed Wavelength posts at Rosco SpectrumSee More