PROP & SETUP CARD — "The Canvas" Encore

LIGHTING
Warm and low-angled, never overhead. A single lamp with a warm bulb, string lights, or candles to mimic late-afternoon studio light. If you can time it for real golden hour with the blinds open, even better. Avoid anything cool-toned or clinical.

MUSIC
Sparse, mostly silence. If you want a track, pick something instrumental and slow — solo piano, ambient strings — low enough that it never competes with breath or voice. The letter's power beat runs on quiet; don't fill it.

SCENT
Something warm and a little resinous — a cedar or sandalwood candle, a dab of woody cologne, or a bar of soap left out beforehand. The letter's world runs on linseed oil and turpentine and warm skin; you're not recreating a hardware smell, just the "warm, slightly worked-in" note under it.

WARDROBE
- Her: something easy to arrange and shed — a robe over whatever she wants underneath. Underwear only, or nothing, both work.
- Partner: stays fully dressed through the "Looking" beat — a shirt with sleeves that can be shoved to the elbow is ideal. Staying clothed while she isn't is part of the charge; don't undress early.

PROP CHECKLIST
- A robe (hers, on a hook or chair — the "before" layer)
- A soft-textured throw, sheet, or linen blanket to drape over a bed, chaise, or floor cushions as the "platform"
- One pillow or bolster
- A warm lamp or candles
- Optional: a paint-adjacent stand-in for the smear-and-mark moment — body-safe washable paint, edible chocolate/honey, or simply skip the pigment and let hands and mouth do the marking
- Optional: a timer or playlist to mark the passage of "hours" during the Looking beat
- A safe surface — bed or wide chaise, not an actual hard studio floor

SETUP NOTE
Arrange the "platform" near the room's best light source before you start, exactly the way Ruben arranges the dais near the window. Walking into a space that's already staged does real work — it signals this isn't spontaneous, it's been anticipated.