mural update and completion!

update!

4/22 :

i added more highlights to the bottom half, and touched up some shadows. and i outlined the remainder of the mural in black.

4/23 :

quick critique of my (near finished) octopus! said shadows on octopus are too muddy. possibly blended orange with blue too much. go back with blue glaze maybe.

4/24:

• i went back after that and added some blue to the shadows.
• put gromits around all edges, about 1-1.5 feet apart.
• finished and signed it!

4/25 :

installation!!

completed mural in its new habitat:

my only regret! is that it doesn't take up the entire wall space, since there wasn't enough tyvek. but i love it! it's my baby.

horray

top half

i finished the top half of my mural.. flipped it upside down and painted it while upside down. finishing the rest this week

bottom half done

3 1/2 hours total: yesterday i finished shading the tree and touched up the octopus in certain places. the bottom half is done. i'm going to to do the top half this weekend. once all of the shading is done, i'm going to finish by outlining everything in black.

mural in progress!

i started my mural! i spent literally the entire weekend working on it.

day 1! friday 4/11 :

i finally got the exact measurements. it comes out to 7' x 14' 1''. close enough to my original 8' x 18'. my parents and i went to home depot and bought lots of paint. they are outdoor house paint: volcanic blast (a darker orange), kumquat (lighter orange), glorious gold (darker yellow), cinnamon brandy (brown), cathedral (blue), black and white. came out to about $115. i also had at home a lighter yellow, white (i'm taking back the one we bought), and beige. afterwards we hung the tyvek in the painting studio and projected my mini painting onto it and traced the outline.

day 2! saturday 4/12 :

about 5 1/2 hours total. my mom and i spent 2 hours filling in the mural with solid colors. she painted the top half, i painted the bottom half. then my dad and tim went to get milkshakes and burgers from five guys and we pigged out. when we finished that, i spent the next 3 1/2 hours shading the octopus. i finished the orange part of the octopus of the bottom half.

day 3! sunday 4/13 :

4 1/2 hours total. tim brought my tv and dvd player and we watched lilo and stitch, arrested development, and ate chips and dip... while i shaded the rest of the bottom (excluding the tree). some time this week, i will finish the bottom half of the tree. and this weekend i will work on the top half.

tyvek preparation

on wednesday after the senior crits, kim and jeff helped me prepare the tyvek for close to 2 hours. after searching for a ruler for probably a half hour, we (and by we, i mean not me at all) measured the length of the tyvek to 18 feet. i needed another piece that length to take together to get the right height, and when we rolled out the 2nd time, it stopped short. there wasn't enough tyvek. so now my mural is about 14 or 15 feet long. and i think 6ish feet tall. i'll get the exact measurements this weekend when i work on it.

so we taped the two pieces together, one on top of the other, with 2 way tape. and then taped the edges over an inch on every side for the gromits. we put the gromits on the top two corners and one in the middle to hold it up during painting. the rest will be put on when the mural's completed.

it was really frustrating to not be able to help. so mucho grasias to kim and jeff.

mural mini

i finished the mural mini earlier. and i photoshopped an unfinished version onto the wall that it's going on.

here's the finished mini:

i altered the colors in this one, i think i prefer a more yellowy palette like this, especially with the darkness on the left and the blues on the right. so i'll probably paint the mural more like this:

and here are two pictures with the mural photoshopped on the wall (this was before i finished the mini):

tyvek update

my parents weren't happy about the price of the tyvek so they went looking for something cheaper for me. my uncle has a roll, 5 feet tall and as wide as i want. i'd have to piece it together and everything would be grand because instead of paying $160, it'd be FREE! what a glorious word.

i did a test on the material and of course it doesn't work. it scrapes off with just my finger nails. i tried gessoing it and the gesso even scrapes off. i'm going to do test tonight again, with maybe another layer of gesso and then paint on top of the gesso. i doubt it will work, but we'll see. i'm also going to test on the piece ruane gave me.

if the tyvek doesn't work out, i'm most likely going to masonite. four panels across.

what a pain.