BOX seT This is an example of a walled “box” set on a 40" proscenium stage. However, the technique will also work if there are no walls and no proscenium In that case, you should draw imaginary walls and an imagi- nary proscenium where real ones might be. This part of the drawing is erased (or not transferred) after the drawing is “built.” STEP 1 A Drawa line down the length of the center of your paper. B__ Draw the proscenium opening. To do this you will need a scale ruler to measure the opening, or you can simply draw people lying head to toe across the proscenium. This latter method allows you to pro- ceed without bothering with scale and scale rulers, If you already have a scale floor plan, then using a scale rule is your best option. If you don’t have such a plan yet, draw as many same-sized people as you need to determine the opening. In this case we are drawing a 40" opening, so it requires roughly 62 people who are all 6" tall, Both methods yield the same results. You really don’t need a scale to do this. Just make sure your people aren’t too big to fit on the page, © Indicate the edge of the stage. In this example, it is 6” from the proscenium—or the height of one person,Drong Scone for Peer, Fn end Tl STEP 2 ‘This next step establishes the position for the set on the stage. ‘A Draw a line that is roughly 20' from the edge of the stage and parallel to it, This is an upstage set position guide line. Twenty feet from the edge of the stage is about the limit ofthe usable acting area. The area upstage of this is too far from the audience for important staging. B Draw in the extreme audience sight-line seats. If you are not working with « scale floor plan, this can be approximated without too much problem. © Next, draw the two extreme sight lines from each seat. One line should just touch the stage right pro- scenium and the other should just touch the stage left proscenium. ‘The pentagon-shaped area, which was created by the borders ofthe sight lines and the upstage set position guide line, is usually the best acting area, and therefore the place to position the set,39 Conace Det Meo ster 3 Draw in the Moor plan, Now you will begin to develop the sketch itself. This step establishes the prosce- nium opening from the audience's perspective.34 Droning Soy for Test, Fm nd Tels STEP 4 the number of people you need to determine the A Draw a horizontal line near the bottom of the height three in this ease. Make sure your people page, This will be the edge of the stage. are the same size as the ones you ereated for the plan, 5 Draw two vertical lines from the onstage edges of the opening to the bottom of the paper. These will become the right and left sides of the opening, © _Draw the two bottoms of the proscenium open- ing. Start them at the vertical line you just drew and then trail off. To place them vertically, draw them above the edge of the stage offset at half the distance of their relationship in the plan above, D_ Draw the top of the proscenium opening. The proscenium opening in this example is 18" from the stage floor. If you are not using a scale rule, drawster s A. Draw the horizon line, Place it at balf th niurn height. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, how- ever. The horizon line can be placed virtually any- where, As I said earlier, placing it higher results in a halcony views placing it lower heightens the dre- matic quality. Halfway between the horizon line and the bottom of the proscenium, draw another line that does not g0 outside the proscenium opening lines. This repre- sents the back of the stage and helps you visualize the placement of set elements in 3-D. | | Sec | |STEP 6 Now you will begin to transfer the set elements from the plan to the sketch. Identify key set elements in the plan above and draw their equivalent positions in the sketch. In this case, draw the walls. Dots num- bered 1 to 6 in the plan are at the ends of each wall and highlight this part of the explanation. ‘A Draw vertical lines from each of the key dots in the plan down to the sketch. B Estimate the upstage/downstage position for each of these dots in the skeich, This distance will be less than itis in the plan because sketches fore shorten, To gauge the dots’ positions, determine the plan position in relation ¢o the distance of the dots from the back wall or proscenium. (The edge of the page represents the back wall.) For example, dot #3 in the plan is about halfway between the back wall tnd the proscenium, On the sketch place the dots in the same relation. © The lefi/right positions of the dots in the plan appear misaligned. However, they are in the correct position for this connect-the-dots method. In general, the dots #1, 4 and 6 should line up with the vertical guidelines that you drew in step A. Dots #2, 3 and 5 are onstage of where you think they should be. For this method to work, the further upstage the dots axe, the more you need to cheat them onstage. How much ‘onstage? More if they are way upstage, and less if they aren't as far; more if they are offstage, and less if they are near center: a7 STEP 7 Draw vertical lines up from the dots in the plan. ‘These represent the edges of the walls.STEP @ With this step you begin drawing the tops of the walls. Remember that each plane must have its own vanishing point and that elements in parallel planes, or elements in the same plane, share a vanishing point. Both rules will now come into play. Start by establishing the vanishing point for the A wall and then work your way around the set. ‘A__Drave a line that continues the angle of the A wall base until it interseets with the horizon line. This intersection is the vanishing point for the A wall and for everything on the wall that is parallel to the bot- tom of the wall. 8 Establish the height of the set. In this cas 15’ high. If you are using the “people meter,” mark the stage right side of the A wall at the appropriate person. In this case, it’s 214 people high. © Draw a line from the height of the set to the A vanishing point, You should now have the A wall drawn at the correct height and angles. D_ The B wall is parallel to the picture plane. Re- member from the one-point perspective discussion that it has no vanishing point. In cases such as this, draw a horizontal line between the two sides of the wall that connects with the top of the previous wall. E Repeat step 8A for each of the remaining walls. You can see the completed C wall and its vanishing point in this example.STEP 9 This step completes the process you began in the previous step. Notice that vanishing points can be far away from the sketch. It's a good idea to tape extra pieces of paper to the sketch to accommodate vanishing points such as these.THE FINAL SKETCH Other elements have been added to complete the sketch. The floorboards are converging on a c vanishing point much like the railroad tracks do. An edge of the apron adds a finishing touch to the bottom somposition. The black shading around the set ants masking and places the sketch in a theat- vical setting.