"The Husband who was to Mind the House" - New Set Designs

After completing the first version of my model box, I have gone back and created some more designs for my set. These designs are based upon the work I created while building my first model box, and reference natural and manmade materials you may have found within a European farming environment within the 18th Century. If created as a full size set I would want most of what appears on stage to look as if it is made of wood, rough fabric, straw, clay, mud, copper and tin.

The farm house in my design makes reference to a barn or farmhouse that has yet to be completed, with all it's beams exposed. This is to allow more light to fill in from behind, and also to see more of the action and set towards the back of the stage.

Samples of some of the materials that should be used within the finished set.

The new set design is quite similar to the model box I created, but with more detail. The farm house is at the front of the set, and it the focus of most of the action. It is open, and features detail such as bowls, tools, and cutlery that could have been found in an 18th Century farm house. The baby's cot, the butter churn, and chimney all feature within the farmhouse and are used by the characters at different points during the play. A trapdoor opens with a barrel raising from it to reference the cellar from the original text (Shown in my later storyboards).

The layered 'crops' behind the farm house should be made out of different piers of hessian and give the impression of a horizon made up of a sprawling corn field. Behind the farm house is the steep slope' referenced in the text. In my set this is intact two flat surfaces next to each other with a raising platform between them. When the Husband Leads the Cow up the roof, it is intact this platform which will place the two characters onto the roof. 

I have created three coloured versions of my designs. My favourite of the three is the bottom one. This one reflects the naturalistic and earthy colours I wish to reflect in my design, while not being too bright and vivid. I like the use of washed out colours as I think it makes the whole set look a bit worn and lived in by the characters.  This is the colour scheme I will be working towards in my final finished models.

I have only painted a coloured version of my plan view twice, with the second version only changing the colour of the farm house. This is because within each of my design drawings the ground mainly stays the same colour; a rich, earthy brown.