Here comes winter storm NITA....geez...

Well, I guess there is no danger of me being distracted by wanting to be outside painting plein air! It is one snow storm after another, helping to keep me on track with this mural. It is a ton of prep work to get a panel ready for the portraits, so that might explain why I lost my assistant. Despite that, I am actually making better progress as I use my time in between coats of caulk and paint to do drawings, run get more supplies, etc.

What a treat it was to have Kathy Seitz come over to paint on her honoree, her father, Joe O'Brien! Her husband Dick joined her and watched with a wide grin on his face as he saw how much she was enjoying it! An artist at heart, I think! We had no photos for his legs, so my husband, Claude, modeled for them.

                                                        Painting in the canopy.....

                                             Three more drawn on.....the last one is the one I had a rather poor photo of. I did, however, go back and make some corrections and he looks better now. Then I chose to add the old doctor bag, for in the days when they made house calls. ( As I do remember those days!)

Alberta Shurelds daughter, Vickie, came to paint in the shoes for her mother, as she had to pose for the legs and shoes. What a memory for her! I was so touched to get a big hug from her as the tears rolled freely down her cheeks as she thanked me for capturing her mother's personality, as well as her likeness. Vickie said she would definitely be touching those folks if they were that close.

son, Jim and grandson, Brandon both took a shoe to paint

and then add their initials...

on their honoree, Wayne Gideon

                           What a joy they were to get to spend some time with in the studio!


There are 6 portraits complete now..........just 24 more to go! The last one was a real tough one, as I had the old faded photograph from the web, no less, of a shadow figure; but it was HIS stance, so I used it. I had only been given a web photo of the face and was told to just do the best I could, as that was the only one known to exist.

more transfer of the lettering

wrapped in a sheet and corner protectors added

 

Over the snow drifts and through the ice, to the 2nd floor studio we go....

Record-setting artic temps here in Ohio, along with gusting winds,  are making it impossible to heat the unattached garage sufficiently to use the caulk and paint! That meant finding room to fit 4 x 8' sheets of plywood in a horizontal position with enough space around them to allow a person to apply the necessary layers of caulk, primer, and undercoat.

I managed to make room for one in the studio upstairs and then decided the dining room was the only other option. The winds were so high we had to delay trying to haul one up to the 2nd floor stairway, with a landing and turn. My arms were already sore from helping to load the sheets in the van and then unload them into the garage. My over-stretched tendons were yelping from abuse!

After getting another snowstorm last night and drifts going a few foot deep, it was necessary to dig a path and shovel the stairwell, just to reveal a pretty thick coat of ice. I prayed the temps were high enough that the salt would provide for traction, as it was treacherous enough trying to wrangle that panel in the still blowing wind.

Most of our house is now consumed with work areas for the mural. I find myself constantly moving things so we can prepare a meal! Progress is being made and that is a wonderful feeling. I have the majority of the photos to work with or at least have promises of them coming soon.

My apprentice, Elliot, has been learning to prep the panels and we have been making mistakes together but we are managing to correct them quickly.

 

I need to buy stock in a paper towel company for sure!

 

Before I can move on, I needed to design the narrow canopy for the top edge, to finish it off, so I decided a paper template was in order. After perusing the web for samples and ideas, I settled on something simple so as not to distract from the people.

 

It was a pretty straight forward task to tape it up, after planning the placement of scallops to end at a peak where panels come together, so in a reasonable amount of time, it was completely painted in. Deciding it needed a cast shadow, I painted one in , using a mid tone grey and the pattern for the shadow edge. Long story short, I painted the shadow at least 4 different ways, each time consulting with my husband for an unbiased opinion. Each time I was unhappy with the results and had to keep repainting. Then my husband declared it looked better without a cast shadow so there you go; NO cast shadow.....move on!

 

Next order of business was to paint the honorees name in the dark area at the bottom. I already knew exactly what font I wanted to use, so sizing was the only issue here. Each name is being sized to fit the space, depending on number of letters.

 

 

CELEBRATION!  1st panel is compete and can move out....slide in another one...only about 14 or 15 more panels to go!

Switching paints and changing positions!

Progress! Yeah, it is so wonderful to have some of the prep out of the way and be able to tackle this thing. I was having difficulty with the drawing of the first person I wanted to put on the mural. I was just spinning my wheels trying to make it work, as I had a good upper shot  but the couple I had to complete it were all wrong; the pose, the clothing, the position!

So, I changed the game plan.........and selected a new person to start with that had great photo reference all in one shot! Nothing to invent..........whew! OK, so now I was ready to start.

Having changed paints also had slowed things down but I knew it was the right thing to do. I am now using Golden Acrylics along with their GAC 200 Medium.

  It is still a learning curve working with these acrylics, but they are much closer to ones I have used in the past in their workability.

Having the large glass palette to mix on and a razor to scrape with is a definite help!

Not being able to 'float' my shadows and highlights in, is making it a bit of a challenge, for now I am doing a lot of dry brushing. The murals I studied in person recently, used an almost black for the outermost lines and a dark brown narrower line for interior lines, so I am working somewhat with that in mind.

Here is number 1 model complete.........Margie Croft....as the 'storyteller' 

( a great image to start off with!)