Process of a Drop: Start to Finish

This season I thought I'd document the process behind my biggest project:
the painting of a 35-foot wide drop (that's short for backdrop) of the New York skyline at night for Saks window 3.

This drop needed to be unusually large because it would be hung as a scrolling background, the two ends sewn together.  The carpenters had to install a special frame down the middle of the paint shop to hang this thing, which took over the room for the week.

After the canvas is stretched, Rachel and I gesso (prime) the canvas using the base colors.

From there, we painted in the scene using spray guns, airbrushes, brushes, stenciling, and a projector. 

 

Here's the finished drop. Ta-da!

The finished drop is then taken down, grommeted, and installed on the conveyor belt in the Saks window. 

Finally, it gets installed on site along with the rest of the window. It sure looks great scrolling behind the Yeti's boat! The end.