Christmas School Play "Verve" and Backdrop

For St Stephen's International School's annual school production called Verve, the Art Department i.e me, was assigned to paint the backdrop for the schools play "There is no such thing". The overall theme for this play was Christmas and we wanted to paint something simple in order for the students to have their own input on the design.

During the design process it was decided that the scene should be similar to Santa's grotto and to give an illusion of a big place. The doors gives the audience an idea that they lead you to different departments. 

As you can see from these photos this is no small task and the canvas is 14 metres by 5 metres squared. So it required a lot of planning for the smooth running of this very large painting job which involved a lot of the students. 

The process to paint a base layer, grid the canvas, draw the design, paint, tape and add detail took about 4 weeks with the help of the students and other members of the teaching staff. 

Once we got into the full swing of things more teachers got involved and we ended up having a dedicated team who were willing to work into the night after a long day of teaching. It ended being very much like a giant paint by numbers.

A lot of the work came from the Art club and the students of Year 10 when the deadline was drawing closer and I had to bribe other members of staff and students with Pizza to get this completed. 

The scale of the backdrop as you can see from the pictures below was quite sizeable and I was surprised to see how affective the whole piece looked.

I will have to say that this was one of the most challenging task I've ever done. Bearing in mind that it was my first term where I was a teaching my own primary art classes myself and planning and preparing became more difficult with this big canvas job looming over me. However it was a great learning experience for me and the results came out on top and I pulled it of. The students were amazing and coordinating them was a very fun process. Would I do it again next year?....No Did I have fun? Yes! :)