Project Projection...

Panels are primed and ready for the design.  Luckily, I have use of a nice projector recently donated to Town Center Gallery to make this process go A LOT quicker than drawing freehand.

I cut a photo copy of the design into 5 equal parts, enlarged it to fit the panel, and sketched the basic shapes with a pencil.  I'm mainly interested in basic shapes, placement and proportion - I'll worry about details as I paint.  I was able to tansfer the design onto 3 out of 5 panels (so far) in a short amount of time. 

Saves sooooooooo much time!

I'll do the rest tomorrow.  After that, I'll be ready to start painting...but I won't start that until next week (State Cup Soccer Tournament this weekend with oldest daughter).  So, no updates for at least a week.  Check back, though, and see how it all comes together.  Posts may not be daily as the painting begins, but I'll try to keep the pictures coming.

So, How Do You Fit a 20 Foot Mural in a 1-Car Garage...

...very carefully (and you park the car on the driveway)!

The panels are really heavy, so I won't be able to move them around without help.  I've disabled the garage door opener and lined most of them up along the garage door.  The 2 end panels are angled or turned along the side walls.  Not the ideal, but I'll make it work.

Almost ready for the fun stuff!

Ready to transfer the design, but until then, it will serve double-duty as a stage (show's over for her once the paints come out)!

The Harvest Mural Begins

Lots of wonderful things have been happening lately on my travels toward an illustration/art career: my art classes have been going well, I now have some prints available for sale on Etsy and soon-to-be at Town Center Gallery, and I was selected to do an 8' x 20' mural by the Town Center Gallery.  It will eventually go somewhere in Santa Maria, but the location is still be determined.  My plan is to keep everyone updated on the progress...

Celebrate the Harvest - Santa Maria Valley (proposed mural)

Bathing Beauty is one of my prints now
available

The five 4'x8' MDO panels were delivered a week ago (they look a lot bigger in my garage than I imagined).  I spent the past few days using a latex wood filler to fill gaps in the layered edges, and then today, 4 delightful helpers from Town Center Gallery came by to help me with the primer.  Thanks to Hattie Stoddard, Beverly Johnson, and Tom and Rella Heslop - it would have taken me a long time to get it done.  Also, thanks to Home Depot here in Santa Maria for donating the primer and rollers!

Daughter Ariel organizes paints for me

Revisiting the Old, Tweaking and Refining

Current Work in Progress

I've reached a new and exciting milestone on my path to actually being more of a participant in the art field!  I've finally had some work made into giclee prints that I hope to be able to sell!  In fact, I will go and pick them up today!  Can't wait to post them...

Anyway, while I was going through what I had to choose from, a couple of issues came to mind.  One was that illustration doesn't just fit in any house, so my selections were limited.  Of course,most of my work would probably work best in a child's room.  The other thing was that, upon closer inspection,  many of the things I had considered "done" really weren't up to the "DONE and ready to present to people" level. 

As a result, I started to consider some redo's on some of my favorites.  I'll post some of these upgrades as they happen starting with this one:

Original "doodle" from the sketchbook

Actually, the original of this one had been a doodle and nothing I would have thought to be portfolio worthy.  I guess I always new that if this drawing were to go anywhere, it would be redone - the doodle was just a "brainstorm."  But, redoing this one sparked an idea to make a series of it - all 4 seasons that I would release as a print on the first day of that season.