Base Painting Techniques 283 is frequently true because when designing soft goods, the scenic designer has been liberated from adherence to structural reality and can create the illusion of very complex structural arrangements. The most complex imagery is frequently painted on soft goods. Also, because of computer imaging and collage, the designer can create visual images of exceeding complexity that require a masterful array of skills to reproduce. It is sometimes necessary to put as much thought into the selection and arrangements of techniques for a backdrop as for a full stage of hard scenery. In this statement is one of the keys to approaching backdrops: if the image is complex, divide it up into applications or groups of applications. Plot out these applications in an order that has a logical progression and involves as little backtracking as possible. Compartmentalization is also valuable in working out the order and processes of paint techniques. Whereas in cartooning you should work front to back, when painting you should work back to front, isolating and toning areas of depth as you move forward in the composition. For instance, if you are painting a cityscape against a night sky, it would not make sense to paint the buildings in the foreground before spraying in the sky. If you are creating the illusion of vaulted depths in a cathedral, you would begin with the surfaces of greatest depth in the picture plane.