Week 9 - Building the Set

Building the Set for Goldilocks:

I began designing the set for Goldilocks after experimenting with the Foam boards in last weeks session. I visited Homebase and B&Q to get an idea of wooden flooring for the set. I decided on buying a packet of lollipop sticks to lay down and dry brush them with different textures such as cardboard or foam in-between to attain the ‘layering effect’ that most wooden floors have.

The main theme within the set was that it was going to be a ‘cabin’ theme as it’s the bears home in the woods for ‘Goldilocks’. 

This was one of the effects I wanted to achieve from the sample at the hardware store. I wanted the gaps to be visible so I could then screw in the foot movement for the character in the scene. This would allow the characters foot position to be directly on top of the wooden slats without looking as though she was ’tilting’ into the floor.

I began using the lollipop sticks as stencils to make sure that I had the same size shape throughout the flooring.

I then began aligning them in straight lines and glueing them to the board for the floor. I then made sure the gaps in between were similar throughout to make sure certain lollipop sticks didn’t look too raised or too far apart.

Once I’d finished the whole floor, I began to fill in the necessary gaps that would absorb the majority of the paint throughout the painting process.

I wanted to apply a base colour to the floor and then dry brush the remainder with a lighter colour to give the illusion of ‘strokes’ on the wood.

There were certain parts of the flooring that began to absorb too much of the paint, this was down to the fact that it was cardboard and a hardened lollipop stick. The lollipop sticks worked really well and gave the appeal that wood would usually give in a home usually. However, I did find I had to apply more paint on the cardboard areas to achieve the same effect.

Once I’d got an idea of how I wanted the set to look on the bottom, I began gathering materials. I used foam boards to create the walls and glued kitchen towels to them to make it seem as though the wallpaper was ‘cracked’ and give it a true cabin feel.