Monday, November 7, 2011

Mural!

Last weekend I started on a mural overlooking our pool, based on an illustration from BILLY TWITTERS AND HIS BLUE WHALE PROBLEM. An illustration that is available as a t-shirt design in the Zazzle sidebar on this blog. (cough)
Here's the wall "before." The pool didn't actually have to be green to get this process started, but I found the brackish smell and the heady vapors of a hundred dollars worth of algaecide put me in the seafaring mood.
My wife, seen here, had an idea that may seem like old hat to regular mural-painters, but which I found ingenious: tape the design up in sixty or so pieces, then take one piece down at a time and reproduce it in paint underneath. That way I can look at the enlarged design on paper in my hand, and the surrounding paper pieces will guide my lines and ensure everything connects. Like those grid-drawings everyone did when they were younger.
This is as far as I got in one afternoon. Should take another to finish up–I'll post the whole wall when it's done.

9 comments:

Nina Crittenden said...

Holy Cow! That is so fantastic and you haven't even finished it yet... *wow*

Kelly Polark said...

You did all that in one afternoon? WOW! It looks amazing!

Will Strong said...

That's rocking. I'll have to remember your technique for transferring the drawing to the wall.

Nice work.

Matt Phelan said...

Hey, I have that shirt!

Zach Franzen said...

That's a great idea beautifully executed. Are you just using regular exterior latex, or is it special mural paint?

Catherine LaPointe said...

That squid is quite handsome! It's gonna look great.

Laura C. said...

Awesome, Rex! That's a lot to get done in one afternoon. And aren't you lucky to have a wife that is smart and beautiful?!

Timothy Dumpleton said...

This is awesome! I love that this is something that you and you're wife can share the creation of. That is very inspiring

Chris Geer said...

Fantastic Work. Can't Wait To See More.