Church Mural

I started a new mural yesterday. It is going to be an island/ocean theme. Here are some photos of the blank walls and my first day's progress.

This is the nursery. It will have trees and birds along the sand colored area. Sky above and a dock with kids fishing and a dolphin along the ocean wall. I have chalked out the dock and some trees but it is hard to see in the photos.

Below is one wall in the large auditorium. It will have trees/island along this wall and a pelican standing on a post with ocean waves and sky on the rest.

The last photo is the progress made in the main hallway leading into the kid's area. It will have a large sailing ship and some seagulls (you can just see the chalk sketches). It is almost done. The church wants a cartoon feel to the artwork.

Day 2: I got the other side of the hallway done today and added some seagulls. I got called away before I could finish the ship and the other two seagulls. It is coming along nicely though, I think.

Day 3: I started work on the check-in desk area. There will be a small island painted on the wall behind the wave

I finished the seagulls and the ship (below). The hall is finished.


Here is the finished ship. It's so interesting how the sails look different depending on which side of the ship you are looking at. See how the two front sails look large below but above they look narrow.

Day 4: I finished the wave on the check-in desk and the island on the wall behind it.  Also got started in the large auditorium and the nursery.

Below is the wall in the auditorium that will have real posts and ropes.   It looks really cool.  They have to varnish and sand the posts before installing them.  I am going to paint a pelican standing on the middle post.  I did all the island sketches on both the nursery and auditorium but you can't really see the chalk in the photos so I didn't post them.

Below are photos of the nursery progress.  I finished all the clouds, the dolphin & ocean waves.  The dock is coming along nicely.  There are sketches of two kids sitting at the end of the dock fishing.  I'm not sure if you can see them in the photo.   The last photo shows part of the island which will have large palm trees and lots of detail.

Day 5:  I focused on the Nursery again today.  Most of the island is completed.  I will be adding another parrot and some flowers and more greenery.  The children on the dock are still needing to be finished also.

Day 6: FINISHED the Nursery!!!! There will be a hammock hung between the large palm trees in the back corner.  I think my favorite thing in this room is the parrots.  They are so cute.  Tomorrow I will start on the Auditorium.  It will probably be another day or two of painting before I'm all done.

Day 7: Had to stop work on the island in the auditorium a bit early today.  They were laying carpet.  I got most of the ocean wall finished and a lot of the island done too.

Day 8: Finished Island Wall and Pelican.

Day 9: Painted flowers and fish in the bathroom and did some finishing details in the ocean wall in the auditorium.

FINISHED!!!  Whew!
This has been such a fun project.  I think children's murals are one of my favorite things to paint. 

New Shirts and Merchandise Available!

I just opened a store on Cafe Press so that folks can purchase my designs on shirts and other stuff. I am really excited about it. The prices are really reasonable. Just click the link above to check out all the new stuff that is available!

Family Tree Project

This is my newest commission. I am working on it with my friend Ginger. We've collaborated on special projects like this for the past 5 years or so. We design and paint the basics together and I do the finishing touches. This set of paintings is for a nursery.

This is the design for the family tree paintings. They will hang side by side with the mother's side on one canvas and the father's side on the other canvas.

This canvas is almost finished. I need to add the baby's monogram initials to the center and do a bit of outlining on the border.


More progress made on the tree and the monogram paintings. The picture below makes the hill behind the tree look brown but it is actually a red, it just needs another coat of paint.


This one still needs another coat or two on the letters, but otherwise it's finished.

I added detail to the leaves of the tree today. I also changed a few of the leaves to a light phthalo green blend to liven up the colors. Now all that is left to do is to outline the leaves (not sure yet, but probably in a dark brown), add some dots around the tree and add the names. I will also add some details to the birds and clean up the ground lines a bit. I'm really liking the fun, sort of retro feel to the tree so far.

Finished Monogram Painting.


Finished Family Tree.