Building a Showman's Caravan Part 9

As we draw closer to completion, the next big step is to add the detailing and age the painting on the Caravan. One of the things I wanted to make sure was, if you got reeeeal close to the Caravan, it would still look like it was over a 100 years old.

Lower Trim on sides of Caravan

Everything was well thought out months before we got to the final lap, so that nothing would be left to chance. I had studied aging and fauxing paint for many years and wanted to make sure that everything was as perfect as possible to my sensibilities.

I have studied film and how they aged props and sets for period style movies, and I have always been fascinated in how the people in Bali and Indonesia create furniture and sculptures that look 100's of years old.... yet were made in the past year.

My signs, my paintings... everything had to feel old, worn and archaic.

wooden lettering aged

One of the things I felt was needed for Prof. Crookshank, was a Oval framed portrait of the character on the side of the Caravan. So, the first thing we did was design a oval frame to work with.

wooden frame designed and cut out

Next I kicked back in my studio and began painting my self portrait. I wanted the painting to be whimsical and wreak of the Victorian mysticism that permeated my past work.

painting half finished

Once the painting was finished, I brought it back to the ranch and we attached it to the Caravan. Once again, I spent time re-working the frame and adding some aging process to the whole piece once it was permanently attached in its place.

Prof. Crookshank portrait in place

Even more details are being added this week as we prepare to finally add the top portion of the Caravan to the lower wheel portion. The last Showman's Caravan in Canada is almost complete!

The Story continues in Part 10