Set Design and Construction: Stone Wall

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Stone Wall

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Set Design and Construction
Forum Discription: Post your questions or suggestions about designing or building a set here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4090
Printed Date: 11/24/24 at 6:00am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Stone Wall

Posted By: thrillwill
Subject: Stone Wall
Date Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:18am

Oh I am not a scene painter so forgive my ignorance.

But how does one paint a faux stone wall on a lauan covered flat? I found this online:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4856186_paint-wall-look-like-stone.html

But by my estimates it'll cost something like 50 to 75 bucks for all that paint and glaze. It sounds like a killer project to master but I just don't have the time and money for it right now. So is there some other, cheaper way of doing it?

I'm just looking for grey bricks laid on top of each other to form the wall of a church scene. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Will Leamon
http://www.classiccityarts.com

Replies:

Posted By: sartori92
Date Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:20pm

use a sponge as a stamp to make the brick shape. you will probably need five or so sponges. for the paint, mix black paint with white paint in varying amounts to make three or four different "shades" of gray paint for the color of the bricks. dab with a brush onto the sponge two or three of the four or so colors you mix and then just stamp away! depending on the "grout" color, just use a small paint brush and paint in between the stamped on bricks what ever color you want it to be, probably a dark dark grey color since the bricks would be gray. or if you are making them red bricks, follow the same method with mixing the paints but use a liter color gray/black for the grout. hope that was simple enough. and you could probably get away with using acrylic craft store paint if you do the black/white and same with the red but you would probably need black/red/white, but still all easy and cheap to find in a craft store. hope this was of some help. good luck! please post pictures if this works out for you!

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"All the world is a stage"

Posted By: thrillwill
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 9:53am

Thanks for the tip Sartori! Just a question on the sponges... do you mean any old brick sized sponge or are we talking about a paint-specific sponge?

Here's what I am thinking of using:
http://images.lowes.com/product/converted/019736/019736980913md.jpg

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Will Leamon
http://www.classiccityarts.com

Posted By: sartori92
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 2:10pm

i believe that any sponge would work. usually the cheaper, the better cause you will probably dispose of them after you are done anyway (i usually purchase mine in the dollar store.

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"All the world is a stage"

Posted By: sartori92
Date Posted: 6/23/09 at 6:58pm

also, depending on the size of the bricks you want, the size of the sponge you would need. you could always cut the sponge if it is too big. and sometimes bigger sponges are on sale and i buy those and just cut them up. good luck!

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"All the world is a stage"

Posted By: SamD
Date Posted: 6/26/09 at 9:46pm

There are plenty of sites online for faux painting. Just type faux stone into your search engine and you should get some great examples.

I prefer the tape and brush method. First put the desired grout color on your surface as your first coat. Let dry and tape out the size stones/bricks you desire. Use the 1/4 inch blue painter's tape. (If you buy the more expensive tape it is reusable). Then paint the base color of the stone. After the base coat is painted and dried, water down (and mix) small amounts of white paint mixed with your base color, and any other color you think will fit (splashes of black look good, too), then have fun slapping the brush against your hand to spatter on your taped stones. When that dries, remove the tape - and depending on the look you want, add highlights (base color plus white) to the top/side where you figure the light is shining, and low lights (black and base color) for shadow.

The effect is stunning. People will be tempted to reach out and touch the surface.

Have fun!

Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 6/26/09 at 11:05pm

Sea sponges are traditional for texturing, but most kids and actors have to leave before the sponges get cleaned out (which is not easy. Guess who gets to clean them?

I've taken to using bunched up plastic shopping bags from Home Depot or the grocery store and chucking them when they get too saturated and messy.

I highly recommend wearing latex gloves. The key to any "natural" texture like wood or stone is to change your hand position with EVERY stroke. You can save some time and get a more subtle effect by putting 2 to 4 different globs of paint in the tray and blend them on the sponge or whatever as you apply the texture.

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David M

Posted By: bmiller025
Date Posted: 6/27/09 at 11:35am

All good suggestions.

I also suggest sea sponges, and just be sure to wash them thoroughly before the paint sets in them! The plastic bag approach works really well too. You want something that will not give you a repetitive pattern from a distance. The cheap throw-away synthetic sponges tend to do this more often than natural ones.

A good painter can make a faux stone wall that is incredibly realistic. However, ask yourself if you really need to create a totally realistic stone wall. If the rest of the set is not going to be broadway quality, don't fret if your wall is more representational than realistic. The audience will get it. You don't want the wall to upstage the performance, unless you really need to.

The best thing about latex paint is that it doesn't take very long to dry. If the results don't work, just try it again.

A good rule of thumb in scene painting is that it takes three or four distinct layers of color to create a realistic result. In essence, I think that is what SamD told you.

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http://www.brianmiller.biz/BrianDesign.htm

Posted By: george
Date Posted: 6/27/09 at 1:48pm

A variation of the tape method I use is to paint the flat the grout color, then cut or buy a template. It saves from doing the verticle taping that varies from one line to the next. Pencil in horizontal lines. I then use several different sea sponges (I tear the big on in to smaller ones), and start dapping, adding different shades with different sponges...and when they pick up paint from the previous dabs, it just creates more and different shades. I keep a piece of scrap luan with blops of the different colors, and white and black, and just mix as I go. Have fun with it.

Posted By: peacock
Date Posted: 7/23/09 at 10:38pm

Here is how we painted a very good looking stone wall using inexperienced teens as painters. It was fast and cheap. First, paint the entire surface the color you want the stones to be. We painted a solid light sand color, than sponged two darker colors over that lightly. Than we cut about 10 different stone shapes from heavy poster board. We would lay two or three rows of posterboard stones out on the flat, and then sponge painted a darker color between them as mortar. You need about four people to hold the posterboard stones down while one or two sponge on the color. It went very fast and looked quite good from the audience. And no special paint.