Shiloh Christian Worship Center Mural

6 feet tall x 10 feet long

It's been a few years since I've done a mural.

This one is going to be a great way to get back into the genre. It's not very large. Just six feet tall and 10 feet wide. So the size is not really a problem. The challenge for me with murals is to work in Acrylic paint rather than in Oils. The process is totally different and I tend to get frustrated with the inability to blend the colors the way you can in oils. But I'm off and running with this one. I have this week to get the preliminary drawing done and next week to get it painted on the wall. So follow along with me.

Here's the preliminary sketch that was approved by the Pastor. At this meeting we decided on the size of the complete mural and the size of the Bible itself.

June 1, 2009 -- Because the mural isn't too large I decided to go ahead and draw it full scale and then transfer it to the wall with artist tracing paper. It'll make the process at the church a lot simpler and faster.

If this were a larger mural I would use the grid method of transfer, where you draw the mural to scale, over lay a grid, grid the wall and transfer the drawing grid to grid.

At the end of the day I had the Bible all sketched out. Even the lettering and I hate lettering. I added just enough color to the drawing to give myself a bit of help in being able to "see" the finished product.

June3, 2009 - I drew a bunch of the clouds and sun rays in and then knew that I needed to add color just to be able to see what I was doing. In retrospect, I think I would have been much better off on white paper. The wall that I'm painting on is white and it would have been much easier to see if this paper was white. I'm spending a lot of time fighting with the brown. Oh well, next time!

I've used colored pencils to put the color in. And I've kept the pencils that i've used separate. I'll use them to figure out what color wall paints to purchase.

June 4, 2009 a.m. - I worked on color and figuring style for the Bible itself. I think that I've figured out most of what I want to accomplish with this painting. The rest of the work will have to wait until I get to the actual wall.

Once I was done drawing I took my colored pencils and my house paint chips and matched the colors I would need. Then off to the local paint store to purchase the paint. I purchased 9 quarts of different colors and a gallon of Clear Glaze. The Glaze will help in the mixing and feather of colors.

June 4, 2009 p.m. - Well I guess I lied. The drawing wasn't finished. The more I sat and looked at it the more I thought that it needed some more of the clouds to help define that they WERE clouds. And I thought that I needed to add the rest of the color into the remaining clouds so I could see the results. AND ... I thought I needed to see more of how the sun rays were going to play out. SO ... I spent the day back at the drawing board. So here's the culmination of the days work.

Thought I'd add a photo with me in it to give you a better idea of the scale of the piece. It's so hard to tell that from a photo of just the artwork.

Now I just have to get all my tools packed up and ready to go. I start painting on it on Monday.

Monday, June 8, 2009 - As promised, I started the mural on the church wall today. I used the drawing - positioned it where I wanted it - put the transfer paper underneath and transferred the drawing.

That's me underneath the drawing checking on the transfer. My husband thought this was just a hysterical photo and had to take it. So I thought you'd enjoy it too.

Since the transfer of the drawing to the wall went so smoothly I was able to get a really good start on the actual painting.

Here you see the sky going in. I'm not painting the entire wall so the blue of the sky has to blend out.

I'm gonna wait to see it tomorrow to see what else it needs.

This is what I got done on Tuesday. I managed to remember to bring one of my books on tape with me. And it made the process ever so much easier and much more fun.

The book on CD gives the left side of my brain something to do all day so that the right side can do it's thing and make things beautiful. If I don't have a book going the left side of my brain over thinks things and just makes a mess.

At the end of the day I was really happy with the results.

Wednesday, June 10 th. Here's the end of the day photo for today. The bible fought me all day long until about an hour before quitting time. Then it all finally fell into place.

On days like today, when things just don't seem to be looking right, I just keep plugging along. This is where self confidence comes in. I know that I will get it to look right sooner or later. I just have to keep working at it until it will cooperate. It is however the most exhausting of days.

Monday, June 15th -- I finished the Mural on Friday. Thursday was a great painting day. Everything finally cooperated and all fell into place nicely. I did do 6 hours of work on it that day. Friday was the last day and I worked about 2 hours on the tiny things. Those things that most of the time only I see. But it was worth it and I think helped the piece to be complete.

There are more clouds, the edges of the pages in the bible now have more detail and the rays of sunlight have lots more yellow. The open pages are more refined and the lettering has more detail.

Here's a close up look.