Wednesday, October 24, 2007

what I'm working on now

I still have not been able to settle down into book work, but I am attempting to use my artistic skills. Right now, I am painting a mural for some good friends who are going to have a baby. When I offered to do this, I realized that I had never painted a mural before but I thought, "Hey, I'm a professional illustrator, right? How hard can it be?" With my confidence in overabundance, I assured them that I could get the wall done in a few days, maybe a week.

So I drew up some sketches and got the okay for this one:



And calmly began painting in the background.


Then the snags began. My oh-so-smart idea of projecting the image onto the wall failed miserably. The room was too shallow for the image to project accurately and I spent the day wrestling with it.



Finally, I just gave up and drew everything freehand. Which was quite time-consuming.


And of course my pencil marks were so messy, I had to outline in paint just to see what I had drawn.


It was quite a relief to actually start painting color. But to get to this stage took about twice the amount of time anticipated.


And at this point, I just hope I get the mural done before the baby gets here!



to be continued...

11 comments:

Anna Alter said...

The mural looks so great!!

Elaine Magliaro said...

Grace,

I can't wait to see the mural when it's completed. It looks so great...so colorful and bright!

Linda S. Wingerter said...

ummm... do you want to come help me paint some stage backdrops??? This is beautiful.

Anonymous said...

that is one lucky baby!

Abigail

Mary Beth said...

OH but the time is so worth it! I'd love to have a mural like that!

tumbletell said...

wow! what an amazing room to grow up in!
- alissa

Meghan McCarthy said...

Wow, it looks great! I can't wait to see the finished product. Gee, I wish I had a baby so that I could have a mural...

meghan

Helen/Spike and Drusilla OK Citizens said...

That is one lucky baby. I can't wait to see the finished product.

MotherReader said...

What a beautiful, happy room that will be!

Anonymous said...

BEAUTIFUL!


~~~Laura

gail said...

What a wonderful gift! And a lot of work!! Can't wait to see the finish.

gail