Walls, Paint & Imagination

As many of you who have been following me on Facebook have seen that I have been pretty busy with projects and private commissions for clients. Having just wrapped up a large scale project, I thought I would share what I've been up to. 

Back in January I was contacted by (at the time) a potential client who heard of my work by word of mouth from another client who happened to work with her. At the time she inquired about possibly doing murals in her childrens' rooms to personalize their spaces and reflect their personalities. Having a couple of meetings with her, I got to meet her husband and their two children so that I could get a better idea of what they were wanting. Their daughter was prepared with a couple of small sketches, torn between the idea of having either a jungle scene or the arctic for her room. Their son was a little more at ease over the whole situation and expressed his enjoyment of nature and the game Minecraft, especially the biomes known as the Extreme Hills. 

There was a bit of time between our brainstorming meetings and our confirmation meeting partially because she ended up getting a promotion at work and my mother passed in February so we were a bit busy getting our personal lives reorganized and settled. Eventually  the designs were chosen and I got started with this large scale project as soon as I was given the date to go ahead and battle the paints. 

First up was the daughter's room. Soft blues, pinks, and purples were the main colors for the subject - an arctic scene. As per the requirements, there needed to be a killer whale and a polar bear in the work since the young girl was an animal lover. The sky was relatively easy to do but the icebergs were a little more entertaining to do. As I was blending the colors, I realized that the paintbrush was making the shading too crisp and angular for what I wanted to achieve. So what did I decide to do? Yup, I ended up blending things with my fingers to give the ice a more textured affect. 

Second was the son's mural. Familiar with what he was looking for, I designed his to be natural landscape scene which had mountains, plenty of trees and a large lake. The water was a bit tricky since there were so many different colors being reflected in it. Once I had the base colors of the water then the initial reflections in place, I had noticed that the reflections themselves were too vibrant in color for what I wanted. Instead of just starting over, I ended up watering down the base color I used for the water and did a wash over the reflections then used my hand to soften the appearance of everything. 

Another little hitch which I dealt with was the lighting in the rooms (which you can see by the photos). All I had to work with was what light that was coming through their windows and the single light each room which was fairly dim and slightly towards the yellowish side. I ended up getting into the habit of looking at the wall up close and at an angle to make sure on the true hues of the colors I was using. Other then that and a few other little things, I was fairly successful in representing what the children were looking for.

Note: For those wondering- from start to finish, each room took 3 days (6 in total) to paint, 4 and a half pots (the pot I have holds 10 cups), 1 grande Iced Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks, 6 bottles of water (hey need to keep hydrated), and 27 different colors (total) to complete this 2 room project.