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The sign that I am committed to this project: the work table is set up!. Already being filled with stuff, I have my collection of images and paint supplies. Very important to leave a little bit of room left for a cup of coffee.

During the painting process I discovered a trick that helped me work through some difficult parts. Whenever I found myself having to paint something that felt really challenging and stretched my skills outside of the comfort zone I would switch to painting with one of my smallest brushes. There was something about forcing me to make lots and lots of little marks that made the work look better. The little marks created more texture and forced me to make minute little details that can only be really seen up close. From a distance though they translated to highlights and shadows that overall made the painting look better. Changing brush sizes also made me change gears mentally; instead of trying to make the part fit into the whole painting perfectly, which became overwhelming, I just worked out that one little part. Once the fairy's face was working I could move on to making their body work. And then the wings, and then scenery around them, and so on.

One of my major concerns when paint the murals was to make the colors seem cohesive over the entire painting. I have the tendency to use color directly from the tube and that can make the images very jarring as one color clashes with another. A trick I picked up in art classes years ago is to use a base color that all other colors of the painting are mixed with. The color from the tubes are then treated as pigments, tinting the base color into various shades. With Madeline's mural I used two colors as a base, a beige and a turquoise. Arianna's mural used mostly a beige and just a little bit of a gray blue.

For Madeline's mural I created contact sheets of images that I used as inspiration. It was time consuming to collect the images from the web, compile them into pages, and then print them out. I tried collecting the images into to Flickr and Picasa and that too was time consuming requiring downloading and uploading images. I finally figured out creating a Pinterest board and then viewing the images with my tablet was the best option.

Covering the screen of the tablet with cling wrap worked to protect the screen from paint.

The plan is to mimic the arches in Madeline's room but not devote the whole wall to them. I decided that the perspective in this room is going to be from the boat floating out on the sea in Maddie's room. These windows are the portholes on the boat and we will be looking up at the castle. First step is to tape off the windows before painting in the background.

Unlike Madeline's mural, these images are all night themed. So I painted in the background sky shades of dark blue and black. I will add clouds on top of this, then later stars and other stuff that is still to be determined. The rest of the mural will look like map drawings on the wall. The overall theme is star charts so I plan to select specific constellations to put up

Unlike Madeline's mural, these images are all night themed. So I painted in the background sky shades of dark blue and black. I will add clouds on top of this, then later stars and other stuff that is still to be determined. The rest of the mural will look like map drawings on the wall. The overall theme is star charts so I plan to select specific constellations to put up

Wall sketches of Virgo, Lupus, Leo, Pavo, Cetus, Argo and Hydra. Sketches on paper are done, now it's time to put them on the wall. I used a couple of different sky map apps on my phone to place the constellations in the room. One of the apps allowed you to set a date and time in the future so I picked Arianna's due date and used that as my reference. A little fudging had to be done in order to get some of the constellations to fit up on the wall (the app showed their placement on the floor). More artistic license was taken with Cetus, Argo and Hydra. While doing research I had seen an old star map where the sea monster Cetus was drawn as a whale. As this mural is for a baby's room, I didn't want scary, monsters images on the walls so the interpretation of a whale was perfect. Argo Navis is an ancient constellation of the southern hemisphere that has since been broken up into three separate constellations (Carnia, Vela and Puppis). As Madeline's room has a ship, I wanted one in Arianna's room too. I'm also enamored with the story/poem of "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" which mixes aspects of the stars with the sea. Argo seemed like an excellent constellation to add and made a nice way to interpret a nearby constellation Hydra. Again, I didn't want to add a multi-headed monster to a child's room so an octopus seemed like a good compromise. If she ever asks we planned to tell her the giant octopus is giving the ship a hug.

Wall sketches of Virgo, Lupus, Leo, Pavo, Cetus, Argo and Hydra. Sketches on paper are done, now it's time to put them on the wall. I used a couple of different sky map apps on my phone to place the constellations in the room. One of the apps allowed you to set a date and time in the future so I picked Arianna's due date and used that as my reference. A little fudging had to be done in order to get some of the constellations to fit up on the wall (the app showed their placement on the floor). More artistic license was taken with Cetus, Argo and Hydra. While doing research I had seen an old star map where the sea monster Cetus was drawn as a whale. As this mural is for a baby's room, I didn't want scary, monsters images on the walls so the interpretation of a whale was perfect. Argo Navis is an ancient constellation of the southern hemisphere that has since been broken up into three separate constellations (Carnia, Vela and Puppis). As Madeline's room has a ship, I wanted one in Arianna's room too. I'm also enamored with the story/poem of "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" which mixes aspects of the stars with the sea. Argo seemed like an excellent constellation to add and made a nice way to interpret a nearby constellation Hydra. Again, I didn't want to add a multi-headed monster to a child's room so an octopus seemed like a good compromise. If she ever asks we planned to tell her the giant octopus is giving the ship a hug.

Wall sketches of Virgo, Lupus, Leo, Pavo, Cetus, Argo and Hydra. Sketches on paper are done, now it's time to put them on the wall. I used a couple of different sky map apps on my phone to place the constellations in the room. One of the apps allowed you to set a date and time in the future so I picked Arianna's due date and used that as my reference. A little fudging had to be done in order to get some of the constellations to fit up on the wall (the app showed their placement on the floor). More artistic license was taken with Cetus, Argo and Hydra. While doing research I had seen an old star map where the sea monster Cetus was drawn as a whale. As this mural is for a baby's room, I didn't want scary, monsters images on the walls so the interpretation of a whale was perfect. Argo Navis is an ancient constellation of the southern hemisphere that has since been broken up into three separate constellations (Carnia, Vela and Puppis). As Madeline's room has a ship, I wanted one in Arianna's room too. I'm also enamored with the story/poem of "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" which mixes aspects of the stars with the sea. Argo seemed like an excellent constellation to add and made a nice way to interpret a nearby constellation Hydra. Again, I didn't want to add a multi-headed monster to a child's room so an octopus seemed like a good compromise. If she ever asks we planned to tell her the giant octopus is giving the ship a hug.

Wall sketches of Virgo, Lupus, Leo, Pavo, Cetus, Argo and Hydra. Sketches on paper are done, now it's time to put them on the wall. I used a couple of different sky map apps on my phone to place the constellations in the room. One of the apps allowed you to set a date and time in the future so I picked Arianna's due date and used that as my reference. A little fudging had to be done in order to get some of the constellations to fit up on the wall (the app showed their placement on the floor). More artistic license was taken with Cetus, Argo and Hydra. While doing research I had seen an old star map where the sea monster Cetus was drawn as a whale. As this mural is for a baby's room, I didn't want scary, monsters images on the walls so the interpretation of a whale was perfect. Argo Navis is an ancient constellation of the southern hemisphere that has since been broken up into three separate constellations (Carnia, Vela and Puppis). As Madeline's room has a ship, I wanted one in Arianna's room too. I'm also enamored with the story/poem of "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" which mixes aspects of the stars with the sea. Argo seemed like an excellent constellation to add and made a nice way to interpret a nearby constellation Hydra. Again, I didn't want to add a multi-headed monster to a child's room so an octopus seemed like a good compromise. If she ever asks we planned to tell her the giant octopus is giving the ship a hug.

Wall sketches of Virgo, Lupus, Leo, Pavo, Cetus, Argo and Hydra. Sketches on paper are done, now it's time to put them on the wall. I used a couple of different sky map apps on my phone to place the constellations in the room. One of the apps allowed you to set a date and time in the future so I picked Arianna's due date and used that as my reference. A little fudging had to be done in order to get some of the constellations to fit up on the wall (the app showed their placement on the floor). More artistic license was taken with Cetus, Argo and Hydra. While doing research I had seen an old star map where the sea monster Cetus was drawn as a whale. As this mural is for a baby's room, I didn't want scary, monsters images on the walls so the interpretation of a whale was perfect. Argo Navis is an ancient constellation of the southern hemisphere that has since been broken up into three separate constellations (Carnia, Vela and Puppis). As Madeline's room has a ship, I wanted one in Arianna's room too. I'm also enamored with the story/poem of "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" which mixes aspects of the stars with the sea. Argo seemed like an excellent constellation to add and made a nice way to interpret a nearby constellation Hydra. Again, I didn't want to add a multi-headed monster to a child's room so an octopus seemed like a good compromise. If she ever asks we planned to tell her the giant octopus is giving the ship a hug.

Wall sketches of Virgo, Lupus, Leo, Pavo, Cetus, Argo and Hydra. Sketches on paper are done, now it's time to put them on the wall. I used a couple of different sky map apps on my phone to place the constellations in the room. One of the apps allowed you to set a date and time in the future so I picked Arianna's due date and used that as my reference. A little fudging had to be done in order to get some of the constellations to fit up on the wall (the app showed their placement on the floor). For next step I applied the feedback I was given by friends and I made some edits to the positioning and orientation of the images so that they flowed together. Because Virgo, Lupus, Leo, and Pavo (the peacock) were all so close together I felt they could be placed together so that they all interacted in some way. In my rendition of these constellations, Virgo is a Mother Earth like character watching over wolf and lion as they play. Instead of just adding a peacock to the pair of animals Virgo is wearing a gown of peacock feathers which also adds to the "of the Earth" feeling to her.

Wall sketches of Virgo, Lupus, Leo, Pavo, Cetus, Argo and Hydra. Sketches on paper are done, now it's time to put them on the wall. I used a couple of different sky map apps on my phone to place the constellations in the room. One of the apps allowed you to set a date and time in the future so I picked Arianna's due date and used that as my reference. A little fudging had to be done in order to get some of the constellations to fit up on the wall (the app showed their placement on the floor). For next step I applied the feedback I was given by friends and I made some edits to the positioning and orientation of the images so that they flowed together. Because Virgo, Lupus, Leo, and Pavo (the peacock) were all so close together I felt they could be placed together so that they all interacted in some way. In my rendition of these constellations, Virgo is a Mother Earth like character watching over wolf and lion as they play. Instead of just adding a peacock to the pair of animals Virgo is wearing a gown of peacock feathers which also adds to the "of the Earth" feeling to her.

Wall sketches of Virgo, Lupus, Leo, Pavo, Cetus, Argo and Hydra. Sketches on paper are done, now it's time to put them on the wall. I used a couple of different sky map apps on my phone to place the constellations in the room. One of the apps allowed you to set a date and time in the future so I picked Arianna's due date and used that as my reference. A little fudging had to be done in order to get some of the constellations to fit up on the wall (the app showed their placement on the floor). For next step I applied the feedback I was given by friends and I made some edits to the positioning and orientation of the images so that they flowed together. Because Virgo, Lupus, Leo, and Pavo (the peacock) were all so close together I felt they could be placed together so that they all interacted in some way. In my rendition of these constellations, Virgo is a Mother Earth like character watching over wolf and lion as they play. Instead of just adding a peacock to the pair of animals Virgo is wearing a gown of peacock feathers which also adds to the "of the Earth" feeling to her.

Wall sketches of Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, and Hercules. I was starting to get tired late that night so drawings got more sloppy. I'll have to go back and fix them. Some of the constellations have stories about how they relate to each other and I wanted the images to be like an illustration of those stories. I also made some changes to the traditional interpretation of how those images are represented in relation to the placement of the stars. For example, Ursa Minor is usually drawn as a bear with a very long tail. I've never understood that look and found if I drew the bear cub sitting with it's nose pointed up, it would match the shape of the stars and not have a ridiculous tail. I also positioned the bears much closer together than they appear in the night sky, but did make Draco's tail curve between them to represent that another constellation does in fact separate them. The story of Hercules' constellation is that he slayed Draco in order to take the golden apples. In the night sky, Hercules' is facing away from Draco. Again, I wanted these two characters to relate to each other so I flipped Hercules to be facing Draco so that it looked like they are interacting with each other.

There! Now I am committed. The first paint on the walls commits Cetus the Whales to the mural.

Got to work on Ari's mural this last weekend. I'll have to take new pictures in the daylight. The process is to paint over the chalk, wash the chalk off, then touch up the lines where the paint washed off too. This makes for lots of bouncing around while stuff dries. I also found I had to go back and forth between working high and low. Painting the high stuff is really hard on my neck so if I keep moving around my neck gets a needed break.

Got to work on Ari's mural this last weekend. I'll have to take new pictures in the daylight. The process is to paint over the chalk, wash the chalk off, then touch up the lines where the paint washed off too. This makes for lots of bouncing around while stuff dries. I also found I had to go back and forth between working high and low. Painting the high stuff is really hard on my neck so if I keep moving around my neck gets a needed break.

Got to work on Ari's mural this last weekend. I'll have to take new pictures in the daylight. The process is to paint over the chalk, wash the chalk off, then touch up the lines where the paint washed off too. This makes for lots of bouncing around while stuff dries. I also found I had to go back and forth between working high and low. Painting the high stuff is really hard on my neck so if I keep moving around my neck gets a needed break.

Got to work on Ari's mural this last weekend. I'll have to take new pictures in the daylight. The process is to paint over the chalk, wash the chalk off, then touch up the lines where the paint washed off too. This makes for lots of bouncing around while stuff dries. I also found I had to go back and forth between working high and low. Painting the high stuff is really hard on my neck so if I keep moving around my neck gets a needed break.

Started applying some color. My first attempt at adding color didn't work out very well. The orange color seemed waaaay too vibrant to me. The first paint on Virgo's dress also just didn't work out. I had everything with an even application of orange and blue and that made nothing stand out. I went back over the dress and made it much more blue and that made a huge difference. It also helped me decide how to approach color on the other characters too. Some are more blue or more orange to make them stand out from the other characters around them. I think that is working out.

Started applying some color. My first attempt at adding color didn't work out very well. The orange color seemed waaaay too vibrant to me. The first paint on Virgo's dress also just didn't work out. I had everything with an even application of orange and blue and that made nothing stand out. I went back over the dress and made it much more blue and that made a huge difference. It also helped me decide how to approach color on the other characters too. Some are more blue or more orange to make them stand out from the other characters around them. I think that is working out.

Started applying some color. My first attempt at adding color didn't work out very well. The orange color seemed waaaay too vibrant to me. The first paint on Virgo's dress also just didn't work out. I had everything with an even application of orange and blue and that made nothing stand out. I went back over the dress and made it much more blue and that made a huge difference. It also helped me decide how to approach color on the other characters too. Some are more blue or more orange to make them stand out from the other characters around them. I think that is working out.

Started applying some color. My first attempt at adding color didn't work out very well. The orange color seemed waaaay too vibrant to me. The first paint on Virgo's dress also just didn't work out. I had everything with an even application of orange and blue and that made nothing stand out. I went back over the dress and made it much more blue and that made a huge difference. It also helped me decide how to approach color on the other characters too. Some are more blue or more orange to make them stand out from the other characters around them. I think that is working out.

Started applying some color. My first attempt at adding color didn't work out very well. The orange color seemed waaaay too vibrant to me. The first paint on Virgo's dress also just didn't work out. I had everything with an even application of orange and blue and that made nothing stand out. I went back over the dress and made it much more blue and that made a huge difference. It also helped me decide how to approach color on the other characters too. Some are more blue or more orange to make them stand out from the other characters around them. I think that is working out.

Latest progress: Virgo, Leo and Pavo are done for this stage. I think Hercules is done too. Worked on Arianna's mural until midnight last night. Made some good progress. I'll post a picture once I get some coffee. There are still more layers of work that need to be done (like the stars) but I think there might be several characters that are now "done." I need to look at things in the daylight and when I'm not so tired to be certain of their finished state. Again, just need that coffee. Come on coffee pot hurry up, the children are stirring...

Latest progress: Virgo, Leo and Pavo are done for this stage. I think Hercules is done too. Worked on Arianna's mural until midnight last night. Made some good progress. I'll post a picture once I get some coffee. There are still more layers of work that need to be done (like the stars) but I think there might be several characters that are now "done." I need to look at things in the daylight and when I'm not so tired to be certain of their finished state. Again, just need that coffee. Come on coffee pot hurry up, the children are stirring...

Latest progress: Virgo, Leo and Pavo are done for this stage. I think Hercules is done too. Worked on Arianna's mural until midnight last night. Made some good progress. I'll post a picture once I get some coffee. There are still more layers of work that need to be done (like the stars) but I think there might be several characters that are now "done." I need to look at things in the daylight and when I'm not so tired to be certain of their finished state. Again, just need that coffee. Come on coffee pot hurry up, the children are stirring...

Latest progress: Virgo, Leo and Pavo are done for this stage. I think Hercules is done too. Worked on Arianna's mural until midnight last night. Made some good progress. I'll post a picture once I get some coffee. There are still more layers of work that need to be done (like the stars) but I think there might be several characters that are now "done." I need to look at things in the daylight and when I'm not so tired to be certain of their finished state. Again, just need that coffee. Come on coffee pot hurry up, the children are stirring...

Latest progress: Virgo, Leo and Pavo are done for this stage. I think Hercules is done too. Worked on Arianna's mural until midnight last night. Made some good progress. I'll post a picture once I get some coffee. There are still more layers of work that need to be done (like the stars) but I think there might be several characters that are now "done." I need to look at things in the daylight and when I'm not so tired to be certain of their finished state. Again, just need that coffee. Come on coffee pot hurry up, the children are stirring...

I spent a good 8hrs painting navigation lines on Arianna's walls today. Now everywhere I look and whenever I close my eyes I see grids.

I spent a good 8hrs painting navigation lines on Arianna's walls today. Now everywhere I look and whenever I close my eyes I see grids.

I spent a good 8hrs painting navigation lines on Arianna's walls today. Now everywhere I look and whenever I close my eyes I see grids.

stickers-argo-hydra.jpg

stickers-argo.jpg

stickers-hydra.jpg

stickers-monoceros-orion.jpg

stickers-taurus.jpg

The characters are done and now it is time to add the stars. I'm using poka-dot stickers as place holders for stars. It is working out really well because I can peel them off the wall and move them around until I get it right. I'm also using two different sizes to denote major and minor stars.

The characters are done and now it is time to add the stars. I'm using poka-dot stickers as place holders for stars. It is working out really well because I can peel them off the wall and move them around until I get it right. I'm also using two different sizes to denote major and minor stars.

The characters are done and now it is time to add the stars. I'm using poka-dot stickers as place holders for stars. It is working out really well because I can peel them off the wall and move them around until I get it right. I'm also using two different sizes to denote major and minor stars.

stickerThe characters are done and now it is time to add the stars. I'm using poka-dot stickers as place holders for stars. It is working out really well because I can peel them off the wall and move them around until I get it right. I'm also using two different sizes to denote major and minor stars.s-ursa.jpg

The characters are done and now it is time to add the stars. I'm using poka-dot stickers as place holders for stars. It is working out really well because I can peel them off the wall and move them around until I get it right. I'm also using two different sizes to denote major and minor stars.

The characters are done and now it is time to add the stars. I'm using poka-dot stickers as place holders for stars. It is working out really well because I can peel them off the wall and move them around until I get it right. I'm also using two different sizes to denote major and minor stars.

stickers-hurcuThe characters are done and now it is time to add the stars. I'm using poka-dot stickers as place holders for stars. It is working out really well because I can peel them off the wall and move them around until I get it right. I'm also using two different sizes to denote major and minor stars.les.jpg

The characters are done and now it is time to add the stars. I'm using poka-dot stickers as place holders for stars. It is working out really well because I can peel them off the wall and move them around until I get it right. I'm also using two different sizes to denote major and minor stars.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

stars-t...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.aurus.jpg

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

...All the stars are glowing tonight! Got all the stars painted yesterday and put two coats of glow in the dark paint on them. They glow great once your eyes adjust to the dark. Tulip Glow in the Dark fabric paint is the best glowing stuff I have found do far. The Rustoleum stuff didn't work well at all.

The castle in Arianna's room is the opposite side of the castle in Madeline's room. I used tracing paper and sketched Maddie's castle, flipped the paper and then added the sketch to the wall in Ari's room. I then made up what the rest of the castle should look like. First steps is to sketch, paint outlines, then fill in with color. I've also painted a moon in one of the windows. /howl

The castle in Arianna's room is the opposite side of the castle in Madeline's room. I used tracing paper and sketched Maddie's castle, flipped the paper and then added the sketch to the wall in Ari's room. I then made up what the rest of the castle should look like. First steps is to sketch, paint outlines, then fill in with color. I've also painted a moon in one of the windows. /howl

The castle in Arianna's room is the opposite side of the castle in Madeline's room. I used tracing paper and sketched Maddie's castle, flipped the paper and then added the sketch to the wall in Ari's room. I then made up what the rest of the castle should look like. First steps is to sketch, paint outlines, then fill in with color. I've also painted a moon in one of the windows. /howl

The castle in Arianna's room is the opposite side of the castle in Madeline's room. I used tracing paper and sketched Maddie's castle, flipped the paper and then added the sketch to the wall in Ari's room. I then made up what the rest of the castle should look like. First steps is to sketch, paint outlines, then fill in with color. I've also painted a moon in one of the windows. /howl

The castle in Arianna's room is the opposite side of the castle in Madeline's room. I used tracing paper and sketched Maddie's castle, flipped the paper and then added the sketch to the wall in Ari's room. I then made up what the rest of the castle should look like. First steps is to sketch, paint outlines, then fill in with color. I've also painted a moon in one of the windows. /howl

The castle in Arianna's room is the opposite side of the castle in Madeline's room. I used tracing paper and sketched Maddie's castle, flipped the paper and then added the sketch to the wall in Ari's room. I then made up what the rest of the castle should look like. First steps is to sketch, paint outlines, then fill in with color. I've also painted a moon in one of the windows. /howl

The castle in Arianna's room is the opposite side of the castle in Madeline's room. I used tracing paper and sketched Maddie's castle, flipped the paper and then added the sketch to the wall in Ari's room. I then made up what the rest of the castle should look like. First steps is to sketch, paint outlines, then fill in with color. I've also painted a moon in one of the windows. /howl

Long day today but I got much needed work done. Some house cleaning (which never ends) and work on Arianna's mural were highlights. Fairies are done, castle is almost done. I pulled the tape off so I can start the borders. Brian Froud is a huge inspiration for my fairy paintings. All of the fae have been inspired from his sketches and I've tried to add little touches that make them mine. Like in Madeline's room I wanted a touch of music added to the mural. In the window the little guy is playing a fae guitar and the girl fairy is dancing to his music. Because it is night time they needed a little lamp to illuminate their dalliance. Girl Fairy's dress was painted to correlate to the phoenix that will be painted on the other wall. The castle is nearly completed (still need to work out the stained glass window design). Painting this castle has been a real challenge. I have no idea what direction the light needs to be coming from. Typically objects in the night get darker as they recede into the background, but atmosphere can make objects appear lighter. There are multiple light sources with the moon, torches, and windows. I'm hoping that my choices make sense and the castle looks as if it is sitting on a bluff at night.

windows-fairy-dancing.jpgLong day today but I got much needed work done. Some house cleaning (which never ends) and work on Arianna's mural were highlights. Fairies are done, castle is almost done. I pulled the tape off so I can start the borders. Brian Froud is a huge inspiration for my fairy paintings. All of the fae have been inspired from his sketches and I've tried to add little touches that make them mine. Like in Madeline's room I wanted a touch of music added to the mural. In the window the little guy is playing a fae guitar and the girl fairy is dancing to his music. Because it is night time they needed a little lamp to illuminate their dalliance. Girl Fairy's dress was painted to correlate to the phoenix that will be painted on the other wall. The castle is nearly completed (still need to work out the stained glass window design). Painting this castle has been a real challenge. I have no idea what direction the light needs to be coming from. Typically objects in the night get darker as they recede into the background, but atmosphere can make objects appear lighter. There are multiple light sources with the moon, torches, and windows. I'm hoping that my choices make sense and the castle looks as if it is sitting on a bluff at night.

Long day today but I got much needed work done. Some house cleaning (which never ends) and work on Arianna's mural were highlights. Fairies are done, castle is almost done. I pulled the tape off so I can start the borders. Brian Froud is a huge inspiration for my fairy paintings. All of the fae have been inspired from his sketches and I've tried to add little touches that make them mine. Like in Madeline's room I wanted a touch of music added to the mural. In the window the little guy is playing a fae guitar and the girl fairy is dancing to his music. Because it is night time they needed a little lamp to illuminate their dalliance. Girl Fairy's dress was painted to correlate to the phoenix that will be painted on the other wall. The castle is nearly completed (still need to work out the stained glass window design). Painting this castle has been a real challenge. I have no idea what direction the light needs to be coming from. Typically objects in the night get darker as they recede into the background, but atmosphere can make objects appear lighter. There are multiple light sources with the moon, torches, and windows. I'm hoping that my choices make sense and the castle looks as if it is sitting on a bluff at night.

Other work that was completed yesterday (and a bit from before that) is the background around Argo, Cetus, and Virgo. The guidelines are centered on Hamal, the brightest star of the Aries constellation. Aries is Arianna's zodiac sign and I just could figure out how to work a ram into the aquatic theme that was going on in that section of the mural. The consolation was to create ram's head arches around the windows, and give a little extra emphasis to the Aries constellation. Plan is to apply base paint and then cut my template apart and draw in each of the pieces for outlines. In theory, by using a template they should all turn out identical. Assuming I don't find a way to mess it up.

Other work that was completed yesterday (and a bit from before that) is the background around Argo, Cetus, and Virgo. The guidelines are centered on Hamal, the brightest star of the Aries constellation. Aries is Arianna's zodiac sign and I just could figure out how to work a ram into the aquatic theme that was going on in that section of the mural. The consolation was to create ram's head arches around the windows, and give a little extra emphasis to the Aries constellation. Plan is to apply base paint and then cut my template apart and draw in each of the pieces for outlines. In theory, by using a template they should all turn out identical. Assuming I don't find a way to mess it up.

Other work that was completed yesterday (and a bit from before that) is the background around Argo, Cetus, and Virgo. The guidelines are centered on Hamal, the brightest star of the Aries constellation. Aries is Arianna's zodiac sign and I just could figure out how to work a ram into the aquatic theme that was going on in that section of the mural. The consolation was to create ram's head arches around the windows, and give a little extra emphasis to the Aries constellation. Plan is to apply base paint and then cut my template apart and draw in each of the pieces for outlines. In theory, by using a template they should all turn out identical. Assuming I don't find a way to mess it up.

Other work that was completed yesterday (and a bit from before that) is the background around Argo, Cetus, and Virgo. The guidelines are centered on Hamal, the brightest star of the Aries constellation. Aries is Arianna's zodiac sign and I just could figure out how to work a ram into the aquatic theme that was going on in that section of the mural. The consolation was to create ram's head arches around the windows, and give a little extra emphasis to the Aries constellation. Plan is to apply base paint and then cut my template apart and draw in each of the pieces for outlines. In theory, by using a template they should all turn out identical. Assuming I don't find a way to mess it up.

Other work that was completed yesterday (and a bit from before that) is the background around Argo, Cetus, and Virgo. The guidelines are centered on Hamal, the brightest star of the Aries constellation. Aries is Arianna's zodiac sign and I just could figure out how to work a ram into the aquatic theme that was going on in that section of the mural. The consolation was to create ram's head arches around the windows, and give a little extra emphasis to the Aries constellation. Plan is to apply base paint and then cut my template apart and draw in each of the pieces for outlines. In theory, by using a template they should all turn out identical. Assuming I don't find a way to mess it up.

No epic adventure is complete without a ship. The story playing out in Madeline's murals has a ship based on the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia). The story within Arianna's murals places us out on that ship, looking up, and dreaming about the sky. Why wouldn't the next adventure take us up into the sky?

I am really, really happy with out the phoenix turned out. I was really torn during the planning stages of the mural about what was going to go in this spot. I felt in needed to be a critter (Madeline has two dragons and a bunch of birds, after all). Going with the night theme my original thought was a owl would be appropriate. While owls are cool, I just didn't think it would be exciting enough. A mythical creature sounded like a good idea and one that glowed in some way seemed like the best option. A glowing bird with long tail feathers was the perfect fit and created a balance between the two rooms.

I am really, really happy with out the phoenix turned out. I was really torn during the planning stages of the mural about what was going to go in this spot. I felt in needed to be a critter (Madeline has two dragons and a bunch of birds, after all). Going with the night theme my original thought was a owl would be appropriate. While owls are cool, I just didn't think it would be exciting enough. A mythical creature sounded like a good idea and one that glowed in some way seemed like the best option. A glowing bird with long tail feathers was the perfect fit and created a balance between the two rooms.

I needed a critical eye and husband was not around to help. This is an early version of the window.

    

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