Materials and Craft of the Scenic Model

This is the first full-length textbook devoted totally to the craft and materials involved in preparing one of the stage designer’s most important presentations ―the scenic model.

Though scenic models are not a new development in the theatre―Leonardo da Vinci used them for the spectacles he was commissioned to design―it has been only recently that they have all but superseded scenic sketches, prima­rily because the three-dimensional model more closely resembles the image realized on the actual stage.

Materials and Craft of the Scenic Model thus fills a distinct and major need for teaching the art and craftsmanship a designer must have to make scenic models. Through diagrams, sketches, and models, along with explications of the essential tools and materials re­quired, Payne defines and delineates the precise step-by-step procedures of sce­nic-model making: the basic prepara­tions of construction, the process of making the model, and the experimen­tal aspects of model making. Because designers must sometimes show their work by way of photographs, the author has included instructions on how a scenic model should be photographed.

Darwin Reid Payne is Associate Pro­fessor of Theatre and Designer for the University Theatre, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He is the au­thor of Design for the Stage:  First Steps.