EVENT INDUSTRY WORK
All scenery and signs are property of Exclusive Events, Inc.
While much of my work for Exclusive Events Inc was comprised of painting objects solid colors, maintaining stock furniture and staining wood, sometimes we got to do more painterly projects. All projects are done with the knowledge that clients and guest at events are very close to the scenery, so we emphasis subtle textures and contrast combined with crisp lettering and linework.
Scroll down to see progress photos and process descriptions from special projects.
Foam Chinese Dragon Entrance
Charge Artist: Elena Cauthen
Painted and carved with Rachel Yanna and Annie Davis
We started with the structure of the entry: steel structure with plywood skinning. The back panel on the jaw pieces is removable to allow counter weight to be placed in the jaws. From there, we used eight blocks of 4'x8'3' white bead foam.
We used full pieces for the head and 1/2 blocks (4'x8'x1.5) for the jaws (sliced in half by our very industrious carpenters). The head had to be lifted by a fork lift, so we designed a front teeth plug that would fill the space for the forks once everything was installed onsite.
Carved and painted from start to finish in 12 days.
Carving tools: Grinder with wire brush, rasps, hand saws, chainsaw, and pry bars. Paint supplies: Rosco Foamcoat, Gripper primer, Valspar Interior (housepaint), and exterior sealer.
The Polar Express Book Cover Entry
This was my dream project. I loved recreating the beautiful illustrations of Chris Van Allsburg at an 12' x 8' scale. These flats were the entrance image for The Polar Express Experience at Union Station. After projecting the image onto the flats, I painted down on the ground. Roller texture on the flats allowed me to capture some of the same texture as the original pastel on paper.
