Theatre Green Book PRODUCTIONS Toolkit – Designing and Making
Scenic Art
With thanks to the National Theatre Scenic Art Department
Easy Wins
• Use the 3-bucket washing system to clean brushes. This involves setting up three buckets and washing your brushes in each on in order. This avoids running a tap for ages and reduces the amount of paint going down your sink. (see a video of the Green Captains using the system below)
• Reuse or recycle paint tins/pots. They can be reused for mixing colour, storage containers, or some supliers will take back old paint tins.
• Use eco rollers, trays and brushes wherever possible. Bamboo paintbrushes and rollers are now readily available (see here and here).
• Use water-based paints with lowest possible carbon footprint (see links below).
• Avoid using chemicals wherever possible.
• See Scenic Art Guild of America on water- and time-effective guidance on cleaning roller sleeves.
• Swap polystyrene for Composta Blok: a biodegradable, recyclable, compostable polystyrene alternative.
• Use Dekozell for textures – a by-product of wood fibre production only using wood from sustainable sources.
• Use cork crumb instead of rubber crumb for texturing – made from waste materials from the production of wine corks!
• Swap out real glitter for Flint’s bio-glitter, made from plant materials.
• Where possible, use screws/nails/tacks to apply canvases or coverings (not glue), so they can be easily removed and both the frame behind and the canvas/covering can be reused.
• Use ‘Peel‘ releasing agent before applying wallpaper to flats so it can be removed at the end of a run, and the original flattage/frames can be reused (see link below).
• Use reusable cable ties when securing or fixing foliage etc.
Products
• Use natural varnishes, dyes and lacquers, raw oils, petroleum-free wax, PVA adhesives, bio paints with low VOC content, biodegradable or paper-based tapes and chalk.
• Try eco clay paints (though they can be more expensive). Makers include:
• Try lime-based paints such as Graphenstone. Flints UK are now a stockist of these products and, along with Graphenstone, have developed a range called GrafClean which gives a saturated colour palette.
Avoid
• PVA (polyvinyl acetate) paints
• Chemical glazes
• Two-part fillers
• Glitter
• Harmful plastics and chemicals, including parabens, triclosan and PVC.
• Spray paint/aerosols
• Single-use fixings
• Plastic vac form (when possible)
