Ghosts in the Wall(paper)
Materials List:
Thin paper (like tracing
paper) for the original artwork
Stencil paper or railroad
board (available at art supply stores)
X-Acto knife
Two cans of urethane: spray
and brush-on
One-inch foam brush
Fine netting or lace,
available at fabric shops
Chalk line, or long straight
edge and pencil
Flame-retardant wood
treatment
Paint for the background
color
Spray paint for the stencil
pattern
Aluminum foil and masking
tape
There is something about entering
an old Victorian house at night that just gives me the creeps. Especially if
the house is dark and there is only a bit of moonlight coming through the
window. Something about the repeating design decorated in wallpaper, the dark
wood trim, the paintings on the walls, and the blue cast created by the
moonlight, conjure up an aura of mystery and makes me wonder if that statue on
the newel post really moved… or if it was just my imagination.
Wallpaper is a good choice as a decorative element in a
haunted attraction because it is authentic for old houses, and because there is
a wide range of ready-made materials to choose from. Some of the patterns and
colors from the 19th century seem tailor-made for a haunted house, and can help
establish a mood. Using existing patterns for inspiration, we can take it up a
notch and make our own wallpaper with unlimited possibilities.
Suppose we were to design a
room with a painting of a character (let us call him Sir Hugo de Ravenswood)
hanging over the fireplace. He has a very distinctive haircut and moustache,
and deep piercing eyes looking straight at us. The rest of the room is
decorated with a Victorian-style wallpaper with a repeating medallion pattern.
All very nice, but if we look at the wallpaper closely, we will see Sir Hugo’s
face in each of the medallions, blending right into the design; his haircut and
moustache are unmistakable, and those piercing eyes are right in the center of
each medallion. Suddenly our perspective changes, this is not just any room, or
any house. This is his room and his house.
Step One: Design The Wallpaper
This is the fun part and
begins with doing some research. There are hundreds of sample books in paint
and wallpaper stores, as well as reference materials available at the local
library, bookstores, and the Web (where you can find patterns used in the Disney
haunts). Decoration books and magazines, catalogs, collections of period
designs, books on old houses, and even designs for pumpkin carving could all be
used for the wallpaper pattern. Use this reference material to generate ideas
or provide actual patterns for your wallpaper. I used books on Victorian
architecture and house restoration, because I find that looking at pictures of
entire rooms gives me more to work with than just looking at swatches or
samples.
My intention was to create
wallpaper that would give an eerie effect in a room illuminated by faint
moonlight, achieved by lighting the room with a low-wattage bulb with a blue
color filter. The wallpaper itself is very straightforward: a single repeating
motif in a diagonal pattern, in front of a horizontally striated background. At
first glance, in a dark room, it just looks like faded wallpaper. It is only
when we look at the wall closely that we notice that the motif is a ghost, and
that the open spaces formed by two adjacent ghosts are shaped like a Gothic
arch with a suggestion of rolling clouds beyond. To reinforce the feeling of
moonlight, I painted the background in shades of blue, which visually recedes
behind the lighter colored ghosts.
My design is based on a 12”
grid, which works well for Haunted House interiors made from four-by-eight
panels. This way, the joints in the sheets coincide with the pattern, and could
even be integrated into the wallpaper by including vertical lines in the
design. My ghosts fit just inside a 12” square, which makes them easy to align
on the plywood when spraying.
Once I settled on the design
concept it was time to draw it. After a few hand sketches at a small scale, I
did a mockup on the computer to see how the design would look when repeated.
Photoshop or a similar graphics program works well for this, as you can
actually draw the design in color. Back in the old days, I would have simply
used tracing paper and laid out the sample by hand.
To draw the ghost at actual
size, I took a sheet of thin paper and drew a one-foot square on it, subdivided
that into a 3” grid, and then, since my ghost motif was symmetrical, I folded the
sheet in half, along the middle grid line. I drew the right half of the design
on it, aligned with the crease. Then I turned the folded paper over and traced
the design onto the other half of the paper. When I opened the paper again, I
had the complete design, with the crease running down the middle. I wanted the
ghost’s head to be slightly asymmetrical, so I adjusted it by hand.
Step Two: Make A Stencil
Making the stencil is the
most time-consuming part of the process, but well worth the time as it will
result in a clean, sharp pattern and make the painting go much faster. There
are different materials available for this purpose, including stencil paper,
railroad board, (similar to poster board but stiffer), 1/8” lauan (a plywood
type material used for tile underlayment), and plastic sheets. The choice of
material will be dictated by the complexity of your design. For instance, lauan
can be cut with a scroll saw into intricate patterns, but floating objects
(such as the cut-out eyes in my ghost design) would have to be held in place
with a thin “bridge,” (like in those old lettering stencils). The lighter
materials, such as stencil paper, are good if you have floating objects,
because you can use thin polyester or nylon netting to hold it all together (do
not use cotton netting, it can shrink and pull the stencil out of shape). For
my stencil, I used a 22” x 28” sheet of railroad board, large enough for two
side-by-side ghosts. To stiffen and waterproof the material, I first sprayed a
few thin coats of urethane on each side, letting it dry on a flat surface
between coats.
To transfer the design to the
stencil, I drew a 6” grid on it, beginning at the center of the material. Since
my design is basically a 12” square repeated on the diagonal, the 6” grid would
help line it up when painting. The outside edge of one ghost lines up with the
center of a ghost on the row above. Transfer the pattern with a “carbon paper”
technique, by tracing over the entire original artwork again with a very soft
lead pencil. Then turn the artwork over onto the stencil material, align it
with the grid, and trace it again from the back, using moderately heavy
pressure and a harder lead pencil. This will transfer some of the graphite on
the front onto the stencil.
I used an X-Acto knife with a
fresh blade to cut the stencil, taking my time around all the curves and
details. If there are any floating pieces, you will want to be careful to keep
the “waste” sections intact, as they will be used to align the floating pieces
in the next step. While you are at it, cut out a series of small V-shaped
notches all around the stencil where the grid lines hit the edges. This will
simplify aligning the stencil on the wall panels. If you are doing a large
room, you can make two stencils at the same time. This will allow for a second
painter to work with you, or to allow you to use one stencil while the other
one is drying.
To finish the stencil, cover
a flat work surface with aluminum foil and place the stencil on it. Spread out
the netting over the stencil, overlapping it on all sides, and tape it down to
the work surface to make sure it is flat: you want it taut but not stretched.
To give my ghost some additional texture and movement, I used polyester lace
instead of netting.
Using a disposable foam
brush, paint the solid areas with urethane, right over the netting, to seal it
onto the stencil paper. White glue can be used for this, but there is a danger
that the paper will absorb the water in the glue and wrinkle. An oil-based
urethane will not do this. Be careful around the edges, you do not want the
urethane to spread onto the netting or to get under the paper.
Once the urethane is dry (a
couple of hours), you can remove the tape and trim the netting, and you will
end up with a fairly stiff, flat stencil. If necessary, touch up the urethane
here and there. Now, if you have floating pieces, you can assemble them under
the netting and urethane them in place. When it is all dry, spray the netting
with one or two light coats of urethane, especially at the cut edges, to
stiffen it.
Step Three: Prepare The
Wall Surface
To prepare the wall panels,
first treat them with a flame retardant, then lay in the background paint
according to your design. This can be a solid color, a texture, a sponge
treatment, or any combination of things. For my design, I base-coated the panel
in white, and then painted it in thin watery coats of two shades of blue, using
an almost-dry brush, to create the horizontal striated effect.
When the base coat is dry,
and with the panel flat on the floor, lay out a one-foot grid using a long
straight edge and pencil, or a chalk line. A word of caution: the pigment that
comes in off-the-shelf chalk lines is very strong, so you will want to snap
very light lines and dust off most of the chalk on the panel before you paint.
Theatrical scenic artists generally dump the chalk that comes in the device and
replace it with powdered charcoal, which is available in art supply stores and
is much easier to remove.
Step Four: Spray The
Design Using The Stencil
The final step is to spray
the design onto the wall panels.
Starting at one corner, and
using the grid lines as guides, lay the stencil down on the panel and spray
through it. Thin coats work much better than thick ones, so, if you want the
paint to be opaque, spray two or three thin coats to build it up, rather than
spraying a thick coat. This will also prevent the paint from running under the
stencil or puddle under the net. Try it out on a scrap first to get the hang of
it, especially the angle at which you spray. If you are doing a two-color spray
on one stencil, like I did with the ghosts, you can spray one color right over
the other, but keep the coats light. Since my design was intended to be seen in
a dark room, I turned off the lights often and checked the paint job under a
flashlight with a blue filter to make sure I was on track and that the effect
looked the way I intended it to before I got too far. Before long the room
starts to take shape and provides that eerie feel that I was looking for!
Now you have a custom-made
wallpaper effect that will make your haunt stand out, and in only four steps.
Design it, cut the stencil, prepare the background, and spray it. Now you can
give your patrons that extra little something as they enter your Haunted
Attraction and realize that this is a very scary place indeed.
George Ledo is a designer and project manager specializing
in the themed entertainment industry. He lives in Clifton Park, NY with his
other half and partner in crime Donna. You can reach him at
georgefl@capital.net.
