Make it Snappy!


We are still very busy at work. The stage floor of our upcoming show has hundreds and hundreds of painted parallel lines on it. So we have to first figure out where each line is located on the floor, then mark those lines, and then paint them in by hand.



We use a "snap line" embedded with charcoal to draw the lines on the floor.



Each line must be measured and snapped by the scenic artists. To get the line taut enough to leave a really straight line, the scenic artists wrap the string around their fingers. I suggested that they wear bandaids as a form of finger-protecting padding.



Painting scenery can be messy work.

Comments

Gina said…
Scrims and snaplines!

My FAVORITE forms of theater magic! The kiddos actually almost bought me my own snapline this year, because my glee at their use and existence was so obvious. Yep. I'm unapologetic in my geekiness.

Alas, though, like that other wonder of beautiful simplicity, the Chinese Jumprope, true fun with a snapline requires three people, so it not an option for home use. One day, one day. . .

Thanks for the bandaid tip.

snap!
Anonymous said…
it is the exact same tool that carpenter use....but their chalk has dye in it, and we can't afford to stain bright blue or red lines down the middle of our painting.
Anonymous said…
Hey there- have fun with the lines. It's 25 beow zero here this week, it would be hard to paint straight lines as we would be shivering our butts off.

Enjoy the lines- I bet you will be dreaming a type of "Beatlejuice" dream, with lines squiggling all over the place.

Annalisa
Lisa said…
Shiloh, we are stretching over sixty-five feet, and you've got to really haul on the string to get proper tension. We find that if we don't wrap the string around *something* we tend to lose out grip.

Every scenic artist I've done a snapping project does this finger wrapping trick. It seems to work for us!

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