Behind the Dragon Family Portrait

We had been working on the new dragon Family Album for months, and it needed an 'ending'. I thought it could end after the little dragon's first year, and that they'd commission a family portrait to mark the occasion.  I decided the painting would take place in the great hall of the castle, where there was more room, and where Narin was in the middle of working on a portrait of the King. So I went about setting up the scene. But I decided against using the same blue tapestries in the background since they were the same colours as the dragons, so went with red wallhangings instead so the dragons would stand out...

 I slipped black Bristol board behind the glass to hide everything inside, and taped the wallhangings to the china cabinet doors. ​The dining room table was pushed up against the China cabinet so it could add architectural detail to the background.

I thought it would be interesting if the baby dragons would get bored and make a giant mess with all the paint.  But I couldn't put any paint on the dragons because they are cloth, and I didn't want to ruin the under construction paintings either. And I couldn't spill any paint on the floor since I wouldn't be able to wash the HUGE table cloth, plus there was a fancy wooden table top underneath, so it couldn't get wet either. 

​So what to do?  I knew my sister would peel the dried acrylic paint off of her palette from time to time, so thought maybe I could make some dry paint splotches the same way.  I covered the two under construction paintings and another board with plastic wrap, and proceeded to squirt and pour acrylic paint all over them. The next day all the paint was dry, and I could peel it off of the plastic wrap.  But how to stick the paint on everything?   I used a tiny bit of UHU glue to stick the paint everywhere. It wasn't as flat on the surfaces as real wet paint would be, but I didn't have a choice...

After taking all the photos, I removed all the bits of dried paint off of everything....

That was back in mid November, and my sister added four pages about the portrait painting story to the dragon book. 

In January we finished adding all the captions, and the book was finally done, and waiting in line for a sale at Mixbook so we could get the first test copy printed.

But then on February 1st I started posting the story on my website Blog. I'd done two posts and was looking ahead at the rest of the photos when it dawned on me that the story wasn't really complete as it was. It really could have used a more satisfying ending. But if I wanted to take additional photos I'd have to set the entire scene up again, and I'd want the new photos in the book as well. But it was already done and waiting to get printed. So would I take the photos and let it bother me that they weren't in the book, or did I try resist the idea?  But it kept eating at me all day, so I called up my sister.  First she laughed, and then said it was actually a good idea. Apparently she'd thought the story didn't end properly either. So I could go ahead, and the book could wait.

Well, then the race was on!  I was already two posts into the portrait story, and would need some of the new photos the very next day. So I started gathering everything for the scene and started setting it all up. I was going to need new paint splatters since I'd thrown out the first ones after I though I was done. And they needed to be dry by the next day. So I covered the under construction paintings with plastic wrap again, and started squirting paint on them.  ​

I wasn't particularly concerned about making them all identical to the ones in November, except for the crown and moustache on Lawrence's painting. They had to look reasonably similar...

The next morning I printed out two photos from the November session so I could duplicate the scene as closely as possible...

 I placed all the paint tubes and jars in the same places. but it didn't have to be perfect since the first new scene was going to be after Saphira had managed to grab all the kids...so some things would have moved...

I spent the entire day taking the new photos. I was in a mad rush, so didn't take any behind the scenes shots until just before the final scene the next day....

Jan had brought my two photography lights up from the basement studio. The big one was aimed at the white ceiling to bounce ambient lighting onto the entire scene. And the smaller spotlight was to counter the light coming in from the window, and create a more even lighting.

The last photo taken in the great hall set.....

....and it all had to come down, so I could set up the dragon's lair for the bath scenes...

It was a lot of work to create the additional photos, but I think it was worth it.  I just hope I'm never in the same situation again where I come up with a new photo idea for a story I've already started posting, and on the day before I need them.