Panic

Haven't had time (or energy) to blog lately as the studio and the boys have sapped all of both out of me. The last five days have been unbelievably hectic as I found out that my buddy had gotten the go-ahead to shoot a cover for Lowrider magazine, and they wanted it ... yesterday. When I got the news, I only had one wall of my cyclorama framed, and still had a TON of work to do to get it even remotely usable. Steph (my wife) put out the call on Facebook and got me a couple of guys to come in and help me. The original intent was to have them work for two days. Well, two turned into three, and we are ALMOST there. I still have some finish work to do tomorrow, but I have until 8 pm or so to get a couple of more thin coats of drywall on some areas and at least two more coats of paint on by then. I'm using primer, so it dries pretty quickly. I'm pretty sure I'll be painting (and sanding a little) all day. But the payoff will come when we get the car and model in the studio, and turn on the lights... Oh, and shoot a little.

I've learned much about construction along with way. Next time, I will absolutely plan a lot better rather than flying by the seat of my pants. I had to do quite a bit of re-work because I got to points where there just wasn't anywhere to connect studs, or stretchers or plywood edges. I probably lost a good day (or two) just fixing problems I'd created myself. Live and learn...

The corner of the cyc was the biggest challenge. I searched and searched, but couldn't find any really good information. We finally ended up making some pseudo-geometric curves and laying them in to more or less fit. Even quarter-inch plywood isn't really that flexible, especially in short lengths, so I bought a couple of cans of fiberglass resin and fiberglass mesh and slathered that in to make a roughly even surface over the plywood. We filled in the rest with drywall compound, and it is surprisingly smooth. I'll spend some time coming up to add a little more compound and do some more sanding and painting. It should be perfect in a couple of weeks, but needs to be workable by tomorrow night. Photoshop will definitely be our friend for this shoot...:-)