Set Design and Stage Lighting
By W. Oren Parker and R. Craig Wolf

Our very best ever light designer Andy Hansen bequeathed this textbook to our theatre library and it has been a sort of bible ever since, an excellent reference when designing a show. Includes actual procedures for accomplishing such tasks as drop painting:

"Foliage - The designing and painting of trees and foliage requires practice and a study of natural forms. The designer should first study trees in their natural state, perhaps painting them in watercolors."

Stage Scenery Its Construction and Rigging
By A.S. Gillette and J. Michael Gillette

Could be titled "How to Run a Scene Shop". An eminently practical technical guide explaining how to organize your production staff (read this first), designer/technician relationships, and then such topics as:

The scene shop, building materials, mechanical drawing, two-dimensional scenery, three dimensional scenery, plastics, metals, paint, stage properties, scene painting, The Stage, moving and joining scenery, rigging, and the essential Backstage Organization and Management.

This book has prevented us from making a lot of mistakes, we are certain.