Seussical The Musical

Design #1:

Design #2:

Final Design:

Final Set:

The Director (Rob Guy) for the Seussical wanted the set to feel like it was a page ripped from a Dr Seuss Book. We wanted to capture the beautiful colours and wonderful shapes found in his illustrations. The sketchy, story-book style was a heavy influence while designs.

Design #1:

This was a rough sketch I created to bring to the first production meeting.

Design #2:

This was the design I created initially created and used before some details changed then I created the Final Design... seen below.

Final Design:

Final Set:

This was my first set design role ever, looking back there are many things I would change and wish I did differently. However I am still very proud of this set and how I achieved it.

Props and Scenery:

Making The Truffula Trees:

To Create the Truffula trees I created a sketch to work from which we then drew out onto an 8'4 sheet and cut out using a jigsaw.

Painting the bush- The base

I started by painting the base of the bush a pale green, we had left over from "Mrs Beeton Says". I felt this colour represented the pale greens Dr Seuss would often use in his drawings.

Untitled video - Made with Clipchamp.mp4

Time Lapse: Painting:

This is a timelapse of me painting the bush, as seen in the video I am doing the black line art, I am doing clean strokes to achieve this. I also am taking steps back a lot to see how it would look from far away, as I tend to get focused and distracted by the details.

Trunks/ Leaves:

The rest of the painting went very smoothly, the trunks I decided to change to white as I felt it would stand out more on the yellow arch. And the Pink leaves I repeated the same steps of the line art as I did for the bush.

Overall I am very happy with the way the trees turned out.

Back Flats:

The Backflats went through many concepts and changes. I wanted to make sure they left an impact and felt very "Seuss" as they framed the back of the set.

First Design:

This Design was Inspired by "I had trouble getting to solla Sollew" but I wasn't too fond of the colours and overall design so I changed directon.

Final Design:

This was my final design, It was inspired by a book cover of "Horton Hears a Who" I found while researching the source material.

Drawing the design:

Initially I struggled to get an idea of the proportions and how large I wanted the flowers. So my tutor, Chris, Suggested that we project the design onto the flat and adjust the size to what I liked.

This made it easier for me to understand the proportions of the big flower, so I traced the design onto the Flat!

Painting:

I started by painting the sketch a base coat of white, trying to leave enough room for the black outlines so I could keep my proportions all the same/ correct.

I then Painted the outlines, and added details to it, like sketch marks. And Finished it by painting the centre our "Royal Blue".

The Camera:

The Director requested a cardboard camera to be used for the cat in the hat. I created this design, being inspired by vintage 1930s cameras. I also liked the odd, uneven shapes as a focal point of the design.

The base

I initially had the idea to make it a grey. So I mixed some paint and started to paint. While It was drying I took a look back and decided I did not like the colour. I felt it would look out of place incomparrison to the bright and colourful set.

Make it.. Red!

So I changed it to red! I felt it would add some much needed colour and intrigue to the design. I also felt it seemed more "Seuss-y" this way. I initially considered yellow but due to the limited supply of the colour I opted for Red.

Final Product:

I made sure to add the sketchy details we have used on other props & the set. I also made sure the colours were vibrant and stood out against the set/ the grinch

PillsBury Bush:

I did some sketches of ideas we could do, one being closer to the books depiction and one being more closely resembling real Pills. Rob liked the more "Tree like" design more, he also told me the pills would need to be removeable. Additionally the Pillsbury bush would need to be light enough to carry on/ off stage.

I decided I would use carboard for the actual tree/ bush part and the pills so it would be easily moved and the pills sterdy enough as to not break.

Drawing/ Cutting the base shape:

I started by sketching the design on scrap cardboard we had in the workshop. I then used an craft Knife to cut out the details. I based the general shape on the Truffula tree designs so make the general stage design consistant.

Pills/ Base Tree:

Once all three layers of the tree were cut out. I moved onto the pills. I decided to do two different types of pills. One being small and circular and the other being two toned and bigger. I thought the variety would add a nice detail to the design.

The Final Product:

Once Everything was cut I painted everything with colours I had mixed myself.

I added the Black sketch lines and details to tie it into the rest of the set.

The Boxes:

The sky box and the circus box were made so the cast could stand and perform on them. We kept to the sketchy style used throughout the rest of the set.

The Clover Field:

Rob Pitched the idea for a long clover field to go at the front of the stage. He wanted it very long and filled with pink fluffy "clovers". This is the sketch I came up with.

I looked into the "Horton hears a who" appearance of it and the possible inspiration behind the original.

Making the field:

I started by measuring how big I wanted the field to be. I then cut it and then began slicing block to shape the hills/ landscape.

I then changed the design to be painted Green.

Final Result:

I decided it didn't look full enough so to pad it out with the little budget we had, I found some small Christmas bulbuls in the prop store, painted them pink and attached them to the field. I also dabbed the same pink paint on the field to add more colour to it.

The Railings:

This is where I decided that I wanted to make 2D flowers, and leaves to add to the vinery we already have. I thought the mix of the "realistic" vines with the 2D leaves/ flowers would look really nice.

After settling on the design, I took home some cardboard and began drawing and cutting out the leaves and flowers. I based some on the Daisies on the back flat and a couple on the flowers from the book "I had trouble getting to Solla Sollew".

Paper Props:

Volume 1:

I wanted to make the pamphlet colour really pop and just feel like the "Whos". So the characters I drew on here are in style of how the "Whos" appeared in the 1966 film "How the grinch stole Christmas".

Volume 2:

For the second volume, to save time, I copied the design of the first with altered colours to make it pop against the other.

Pamphlet:

I was inspired by the "I want YOU" war propaganda poster for the other side of the pamphlet, as it is a recruitment for the Military. The character featured is "General Genghis Kahn Schmitz", as he appears in the book "I had trouble getting to Solla Sollew".

Circus Mgurkus Poster #1:

This was a design I made that ended up being rejected. I gave Rob 2 options of what design he preferred and he said he preferred the second design (which I did too).

This design would be repurposed into the small leaflet that is given to Mayzie in "How luck you are reprise".

The Design

Not Only did I want to to match the circus box we made, I also wanted it to look good from a distance. It had to be understood and recognisable from far away even without the words!

Making it:

So After I designed it I got my tutor, Chris, to print it out on A3 paper. I then cut out a bit of cardboard out into A3, and used "Spray adhesive". I then found a bit of scrap wood and hot glued it to the cardboard.

Suit Case signs:

While speaking to Rob during a production meeting he gave me a list of names for signs to be put on suit cases. When I drew these I wanted to give them a clearly "Dr Seuss" style and to make them stand out against the browns and blacks of the suitcases.

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