Entering the Home Stretch...

It's kind of hard to believe, but now that I've put in the trees, I feel like I'm nearing the end.  I still have work to do in each panel, but at this point, it's details, fine tuning, and fairly minor adjustments.  If all goes well, I'd say that I have about a week of additions and "fixings".   I'll have to move the panels around in order to finish some parts - to make sure that the continuity from one panel to the next is accurate. Then, I'd give myself another week of obsessively staring, analyzing, and more fixing.  After that, I guess it will be time to put the protective top varnish on and seal it.

Yesterday, I put in several more trees and shrubs and extended some of the yellow flowers.  I may add a few more in, but probably not much.

I also started to put in the pumpkin stems, although I think I'll switch them to the browner side.  But, as you can see, this panel has really come together!

Them Thar Hills...

Finally got to spend a larger chunk of time on the mural again today.  I've started building up the landscape in the first couple panels, particularly the hills.  As you can see, I started by laying in some yellow to capture the flowers that come around every spring (and have gone at this point).

I'm so glad that I spent the time to work out the tree colors - it soooooo helped.  And, as expected, I'm reworking the hill colors, or at least the brushwork.  I'm using a more textured approach in the areas closer to the viewer.  I still have a lot to do on them thar hills, but I like how it's started.  Some I like, some needs to be adjusted.  Our hills have such variety - many are bare, some have the occassional shrub or tree, while others seem to have a blanket of shrubbery.

Moving On...

Woohoo!  I think I've done enough grape leaves for now and I'm ready to move on.

I even worked on the giant leaves behind the figures, but I started to run out of the "highlight" mixture.  So, I may still go back to it...but probably on my last pass through of "final touches." 

Darn flash glare!  Notice that I added a couple of leaves to
overlap the grapes.

For now, I think I'll move on to the rest of the panel - giant grape touch up, the female figure's dress, the tabletop (remember, there's supposed to be a bottle of wine there), and I need to fill their glasses.  Then, on to the architecture around the chef, floor touch-up, a few more veggies and the splash.  It may seem like just a little bit left, but there's still a lot to do in the first couple panels - there are supposed to be trees, details on the pumpkins (more leaves, and stems), and crops growing on the rows under the wave - things like that.  But, after that, it's all touch up detailing.  There's light at the end of the tunnel.

Still toasting with empty glasses - hmmmm, white or red?

Lots coming together.  It took a couple days to detail the sky.  Last time, I had used a combo of Cerulean and white for the clouds (see photo in last post).  But, the clouds were too "blue." Afterwards, I went in with a fairly dry brush and added white on it's own to poof the clouds.

Doing the sky in the last couple panels took a while because I had already brought the figures and grape clusters to a greater degree of completion.  Since I really don't want to rework them, I needed to be extra careful going around them.

I also opted to not put clouds behind the figures themselves.  There's already a lot going on in that panel and it would be too busy overall.

After the sky, I went back over the mountains.  It's time for the camera to do it's talking - to make clear any problems (as it always does).  Of course, they are not "done."  There will be layers of shrubbery, trees, and flowers that are so common to the Santa Maria hillsides.  But, those are a top layer and will happen after the lower layers are completed.