Spring Garden Porch Banner Mural

Here it is, the 40-foot banner mural I've been working on for the last few weeks! :)  The clients who commissioned this piece have a second story balcony running along the entire length of their house.  This banner was made to be hung over the railing on special occasions, for when guests come over, or just on sunny Spring days :)  The idea was to have a mural that could go up when they were in the mood to celebrate, for whatever reason.  The client and his partner love to garden, and mentioned Zinnias and Nasturtium flowers....and they are NOT afraid of bright color.  Perfect for me!  Even with a crazy month, I was able to pull this one off in time for them to use it to welcome guests to their big upcoming potluck :) It was a tight deadline, but I took the challenge, and feel good that with some strategic planning, was able to pull it off. 

I had a lot of fun painting this one.  This opens up a lot of possibilities for me and clients, too.  It makes for a mural that people can take down and put up as they please, if they're not ready for the commitment of a mural directly on the wall, or if they want to have a mural on an area that would be un-paintable.  It also opens up the possibility for me to work with clients out of my local area.  As long as I can get the measurements and concept ideas, we can work together over a distance!

I can think of no mural more Spring-appropriate than this one, and it was a nice way to ring in the season :)

Yachats Beach House Mural

This last mural project had some serious perks.  I got to stay at a beach house in Yachats, OR. with an ocean view for 2 nights, while I worked on the mural for their mud porch!  I brought my Dad along, who is a watercolor artist, so he could paint too!  It was great to have him there... good company and also another artistic eye to bounce things off of.  Love you Dad! (I know you're reading this.) At the end of the weekend, here's what it looked like:

BEFORE:

The approved digital collage/sketch done in photoshop.... 

And AFTER:

Painted shadows for all the objects for the beach...

REAL shells, driftwood, beach glass, agates glued onto the wall!!!

A few painted "shells" in the background to blend into the real ones glued on.

This one was really a lot of fun to do.  Not only was it fun to paint, but figuring out the 3-d and textural elements for the mural was exciting for me.  After sketching the design on the wall, I brushed a bunch of granular acrylic gel (basically just clear paint with sand and chunky stuff in it) onto the sand and beach area.  This stuff dried to a bumpy, sandy finish. Then I painted the sand colors over it, and added the shells and rocks and driftwood at the very end.  The mural is so much fun to touch!! Loving the idea of blending 2-d with 3-d.  

The vacation rental owners had a very positive reaction to seeing the mural. The honor and pleasure of turning someone's vision into reality, and transforming their space, is what gets me excited about painting murals for clients.  It can be really difficult to get inside a client's head, and try to filter their feelings, thoughts and words through my own brain, to still get an image they want in the end.  It's what unique, custom, tailored-to-you murals are all about - asking the right questions to find out what the client wants, and then giving it to them.

Murals Soon To Be

Well, happy to report that I'm getting pretty freaking crazy busy with work for the near future!  I'll be teaching on the weekdays, mural-ing in the afternoon and weekends, and trying to squeeze in some other life stuff in between.  This is the life of an artist trying to make it their full-time job: trying to perfect the art of "The Hustle".   It's piecing together things to make up a steady job.... for me that means teaching contracts, mural and illustration commissions, and random odd jobs make a living. Making your dreams come true is hard work! 

Anyway, just thought I would share with you a bit of the design process I go through for mural commissions.  It starts with a discussion with the client.... me picking their brains for anything that will translate into images. It's like a game trying to piece together what's in someone else's brain and come up with an image for it.  For the beach house mural below, the clients had a hard time nailing down a style or direction they might want, for fear of "disrupting my creative process" with too many requirements.  I did know they wanted it "beach-y", and they liked pelicans and blue herons. So I did this:

Design #1 was waaaaay "out there". I kinda figured it would be too much, but you never know what people will respond to. 

This one was less crazy, but still bright and somewhat whimsical, not super realistic.

And this one was the most realistic.  This is what the clients chose.  The cool part of this one though, is that it will include bits of actual shells and rocks and things, glued onto the painted "beach" on the wall.  It will have a nice 3-d effect that I'm pretty excited about. 

They wanted the pelican more "stout" looking, so this was the final design they settled on.

I like to super-impose my sketches (or sometimes just photoshop collages) onto pictures of the clients' actual wall spaces. This way they can see what it will look like. The next mural I'm planning, is a big 40' banner for a client's fenced in porch.  I knew they liked Zinnias, and that they wanted it bright and celebratory.  Here's the progression of their designs:

The final design: add nasturtiums, pond background, keep the hummingbird. 

I'm SOOOO excited to paint this one.  This is right up my alley, and is something that I would paint for myself... if I had a 40' porch railing that needed a banner mural ;)

I'll keep you updated!

Corie

Sneak Peek: A Tree of Life Mural

My current work in progress is a gigantic "tree of life" in a guest bedroom.  I'm loving working with the style and colors of this piece!  I think my favorite part of this mural is the fact that it's going to be a 3-d/mixed media mural when it's all finished!  In between the branches and flowers of this tree will be framed old black and white family photos!  I can't wait to show you how this looks when it's all painted and the photos go up.  How would YOU spice up a family photo wall?

The "tree of life" is ubiquitous and meaningful to cultures and religions all over the world.  I love all the different meanings.  Check it out:

"The concept of a tree of life has been used in science, religion, philosophy, and mythology. A tree of life is a common motif in various world theologies, mythologies, and philosophies. It alludes to the interconnection of all life on our planet and serves as a metaphor for common descent in theevolutionary sense. The term tree of life may also be used as a synonym for sacred tree.^[1]

The tree of knowledge, connecting to heaven and the underworld, and the tree of life, connecting all forms of creation, are both forms of the world tree or cosmic tree, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica,^[2] and are portrayed in various religions and philosophies as the same tree."

(Wikipedia)