2009

Here are the beginnings of my final mural in Omaha.

I finally get to do my Dr. Seuss room! Because we adopted a wondefully cute little baby boy!

Just some more sketches, just to show the process. First we draw, then we erase, then we draw again 'til it's right, then we perfect those lines, then comes the fun part! Painting! And lastly the outlines. (which is also fun)

Here is another great shot of me. From behind. Thanks husband. In the process, as before. This time with some life to it. I had to change the colors a couple of times. What looked good in the book I was trying to match (color-wise) didn't look so great on the wall to me. I was also changed the pink in the picture to purple, slightly less feminine for our little tike.

Let's take a break from Dr. S for a while...I did. Twice while doing that mural I took a break and worked on a couple of murals for neighbors. This was was for a minister of a different faith who wanted a scripture in the spaces between some family photos. The scripture is appropriately enough about raising children. (Great family!). We went over layout, came up with several possibilities, and then decided on this. The father borrowed a projector screan and printed out the words how they would fit between the pictures for me. I'm not sure it was the best way, but it was the fastest to be sure. It cut out a lot of time sketching out letters. The only problem I ran into was that the projection screen stretching things out around the edges. I tried fixing it the best I could, and though not perfect, it worked out alright.

Here is a close up of the lettering. (Yes it is supposed to be bumpy like that =) This was a calligraphy font that I really loved because of the inperfectness of it. It also worked with the texture of the walls which is always 'fun' to work over and get straight lines to look straight.

These two closeup shots are showing that the owner of the house wanted some words BOLD to stand out, bringing out their meaning.

Back to Dr. Seuss. This is a sketch on the opposite wall. Click on the pictures and hopefully they all will allow you to zoom in to see the detail.

The best thing about doing murals at home: My kids love to watch! (and help) =)

Those stripy fields on the bottom sure made me dizzy every time I looked at them, even out of the corner of my eyes! Gave me a great idea, though, for a teenage room. Wouldn't it be totally phsycadelic to do a whole room of crazy (straight) stripes like that, intersecting at different geometrical angles?

I think so. =)

The other side of the room.

This room had two very large walls. The other two were filled with closet and window. This other wall I joined several Dr. Seuss stories, making up my own make-believe place and architecture.

I had to put this in. The paint was smiling at me! Often ,while I am working, the paint starts to get too thick to work with, so I add a little water to get the right texture. This is what happened one of those times.

This part completed! Yeah! I love Dr. Seuss architecture. It is so fun, so off the wall, and yet it reminds you of European settlements.

The whole thing. (well, mostly)

Black outlining was so essential in this project. You could leave out all the color and I would still be happy. They add so much character, and even demension, all their own.

Boy were these words a pain! Don't get me wrong. I love them, but being up that high on a latter, looking straight, with my arm up in the air for hours, was not my idea of fun. You wouldn't believe how much hotter it is up there. It really must be at least five degrees hotter. But anywho. It worked out great and I am glad I went through the pain to add this in. It sort of represents the journey of our adopted baby. His birth mother helped in the room a little at the beginning and she like the idea that her baby would go great places, including being in our home. This was very special to me. And even after we moved from this house, I wouldn't paint over this mural (the others from our first home I did.)

This boy was a little tricky. I had it done, same way it was in the book, and my husband thought it looked wierd. I agreed, so I looked at several pages with the same character, and then at other stories with a different boy and came up with this face. I like the result. And so did my husband.

This was fun to do. I wanted to put in a lot of details for my baby, so that as he grew he would discover new things here and there. I expecially like the rooms in the houses. I always wished as a child I could have a secret place where little people lived and I could see all their little furniture and how they lived. I also like the steps that lead no where at all. It's fun.

This mural was so massive that I took several pictures.

I love the plants, dripping like liquid over the edges. That was one of my favorite parts as well.

Close up of the 'moose'. Not sure Dr. Seuss would approve of such a commonplace name, but he didn't give me an alternative.

I like this little guy. Amidst the caos in his town, he sits calmly and plays.

I was silly and added cheap blinds to this architecturally significant building. I think Dr. S would approve. I hope =)

And here you see it with furnishings. I ended up turning the crib so that it wouldn't cover as much mural work, but I also kept in mind, while designing this room, the furniture placement and kept the detailed parts on this wall up higher.

I also added my own monstery touches to the room with some more homemade stuff.

More monsters, inspired by other dolls I've seen online.

More of the same.

My sister liked the Monster dolls so much that I made one for her own little (sweet)  monster =).

The back-side. I can't resist a star on the bummy.

My own design. I know, fabulous, righ? =) jk

Here are some pictures of a room I did for another neighbor. This was in her baby's room. She liked the Noah's Arc/Precious Moments theme. Again, I changed it up (don't want to run into copyrighting issues, right?)

This one took some time to figure out. It is harder than you think finding suitable pics online to work from. And since neither of us had any Precious Moments art on hand, that's where I had to look. I was a bit nervous doing something like this, because, well Precious moments has its own unique style, not one that I am used to portraying. That mixed with the fact that it was for someone else (and not my own home), made me want to get it just right. Hopefully I pulled it off. You be the judge =).

The gal I did this for also really wanted specific colors, so we worked it out where we talked about the mural before hand, chosing which animals/characters to use, decided what colors and how much paint we would use for each, and then she went shopping for the paint supplies (which brought down the cost for her quite a bit.) I don't ever talk bids online. Each project is unique and of course at first I wouldn't charge as much until I got a system going and more experience under my belt.

I wasn't a huge Precious Moments fan before this, but ain't they cute? I also changed the eyes, partially for the owner who wanted them a little different, and partly because I needed more to change on it. (again with the copyright).

Another Critter found his way into the room.

Sorry about the glare.

Well, that's it for 2009. I have several pics missing. No idea where they are (mostly non-mural items paintings and some dolls). If I find them I will post later.