Tuesday, May 17, 2011

My Future Niece's Mural



So I finally started the mural for my brother and his first daughter. My brother and wife wanted dinosaurs, so dinosaurs are what I gave them. It took me about 2 and a half hours to sketch the image on the wall, using a basic graphing method and a lot of stepping back to make sure things were in the right place. I woke up the morning after feeling ready to start painting and with a short trip to the hardware store was able to procure thirteen 2 oz. sample containers of different colored paints, thirteen of foam brushes (for zero cleaning) and some rags for the occasional drip. I was surprised at the number of colors available in those sample selections and found all the colors I needed with no problem. I then went back to my brother's house and got to work.

Here is the first layer of paint where I found out that the yellow and the darker colors (deep green, browns and blue in this case) would take 3 or more coats to look decent. I worked in a way that made it possible to hit those areas as soon as they dried so as not to lose momentum. I still haven't finished but here is the mural as it stands with most of the big areas of color blocked in.