The Great Mural Project-Creatures n’ Completion
Creatures:
This was an intimidating prospect for me as I generally paint landscapes and not creatures. It required a lot of pre-sketching and general research. On a tree I can move a limb and no one knows… you can’t exactly move a fin on a whale and not notice the difference. For each creature I looked at approximately 5-6 different images, practiced sketching them and then just went for it. I have found that once I say that the image doesn’t have to be
perfect I can enjoy the process of creating each creature. If I say it has to be perfect I stress out and don’t enjoy the process of painting a creature.
I opted to paint fewer creatures than originally planned because I ran out of steam, but also because it was getting increasingly difficult to squat/sit for hours in front of the wall. I chose to paint a belugah, a pacific northwest octopus, some cool jellyfish and a small pod of orcas.
Lessons Learned: This is definitely the time to bust out the acrylic paint and the good paintbrushes. It will be much much easier to paint these critters if you have the control and color selection offered by professional acrylics.
Completion:
At the end of the day my plan was to create a mural that I enjoyed, that my son would hopefully enjoy and I believe I have a success. This mural was a much larger project than I initially understood, however, I’m proud of the results. Maybe after I give birth I’ll add in some ocean floor and ocean floor creatures. But that part of the project will have to wait until I can bend over and paint near baseboards.
