Anatomy of a Mural – Day Two

Are you enjoying this little behind-the-scenes look at painting a mural step-by-step? (aka – my weekend project.) (aka – my-body-hurts-all-over-this morning-and-I-can-barely-move-project.)

In case you were wondering, how do you start to paint a mural – we started with this simple sketch.

Then I added some color to the sample mural rendering.

I started painting the actual wall mural Saturday.  Sunday – yesterday – was a lot of detail work. My favorite.

I love detailing because each little feature adds so much more to the entire mural.

I started with these rocks on the shoreline. To paint rocks, I mixed brown and dark blue paint for the underpainting.

 

Really! Just brown + blue.

 

Then I highlighted with a light grey and some white. I know – they look like blobs up close, but take a look at them from a distance . . .

 

Rocks!

I think that’s the hardest thing about painting a mural – painting something that looks like blobs up close and knowing it’ll look okay when you stand back.

If you’re up on a ladder painting, that’s a lot of up-and-down to look at the mural from a good distance.

Which is why my knees are talkin’ this morning.

One request the client had after seeing the rendering was more tules (toolies).

 

More blobs – this time a light taupe and a little dark brown.

Details, details. It’s all in the details. Like painting water ripples around each clump of tules.

I realized I should’ve taken the taupe clumps a little higher to get some height.

 

Add some dark brown and the clumps start to have a little shape.

Add a little white to the taupe paint and then you have tules.

You might be wondering why the client wanted tules.

‘Cause that’s where you find egrets – in the tules.

 

He, or maybe it’s a she – I haven’t decided yet, not that it matters, I’m just rambling, as usual – will look a lot less WHITE when I paint the tules around him.

One last picture – of my helper, Medusa.

She’s formed a strong bond with one of my dropcloths. Just one. The one on the table, not the one on the floor.

So far she hasn’t jumped up there when I have all my paints and water out.

Stay tuned. The mural may take a decidedly feline turn pretty soon.