Month: June 2014

A few weeks ago, Pastor Alex preached about complaining. It is a sin. Really? Really. The opposite of complaining is gratitude.

So, instead of telling you how difficult it is to paint this mural on Rocky Hill Antiques, I will give you a short list of things I am thankful for as I work in what are possibly the most difficult and uncomfortable circumstances yet for mural painting.

1. earplugs!

2. shade

3. accurate projection

4. Funny songs by Kathryn, who has a song for everything. When we were projecting she was singing “I’m An Indian Outlaw”, and then she moved on to “Stairway to Heaven”.

5. Ice water

6. Being able to spike a brush from 10 feet up a ladder into a bucket of water on the ground below.

When my drawing students work on a person or an animal, I usually suggest that they tackle the face first.

I usually work just from the primary colors. The yellow is the only one here that fits that description, because these are from previous mixing sessions. The tan has the mysterious name of #1 on its lid. The brown is actually burnt umber, from when I did sepia tone insets into previous murals.

Who knew that this reproduction of a painting from a bronze sculpture had so many colors? Wow, this looks rough. It is rough.

When the people working at Rocky Hill Antiques left for the day, I put the ladder away and worked on the ground. It was a relief to be able to step back and see my work and to be able to reach all my supplies.

This is how we left our Indian Outlaw when I moved to ground level.

It is photographing darker and not as yellow as real life. When the blue paint arrives, I will mix a lighter batch and redo all the blue. Maybe.

Wow, nothing like a little commute down the hill to remind me why it is REALLY GOOD to work at home. Roadwork delay, long line of traffic with slowpokes (40-ish) until the passing lanes (up to 60+), finally see clear to pass at another passing lane, and the slowpoke pulls into the left (passing) lane to block anyone from going around!

When I arrived at Rocky Hill Antiques, there wasn’t quite enough shade yet. I knew it would take about 1/2 hour to set up, so I really did arrive at the right time.

The tape was flapping in the wind. I wonder why it wouldn’t stick. . . isn’t blue masking tape was supposed to be the best?

It was hot, dusty, noisy, windy, and I was wondering why I thought it is fun to paint murals.

After fighting the tape a bit, I pulled out an old very sticky roll of normal masking tape. It was so sticky that it was hard to pull off without tearing. I remembered that the superiority of the blue tape is that it doesn’t remove the surface on the wall. I looked at the crummy old paint on the crummy old bricks and the crummy cracking mortar, and decided old masking tape was just what the situation calls for. I retaped off a little area and decided i’d just do a little paint mixing.

That’s when I remembered why I think it is fun to paint murals. The main color in this old Rocky Hill Farming packing box label is BLUE. I love blue! I mixed it up and got the right color, I thought. Then I decided it needed to be ever so slightly lighter, because this acrylic paint dries DARKER. Can you believe that? It really does dry darker!

It really looks dark here. I painted until I ran out of blue, then went into Rocky Hill Antiques to ask if they have the internet so I could look up the number of the paint company. No internet! I’ll order it tomorrow – it comes from NovaColor in Culver City, which is LA, so it won’t take long to arrive.

Then I started messing around with the colored base of the statue. That will be fun – lots of interesting colors to mix in that thing. I think it is supposed to be a painting of a bronze statue.

We projected and traced on a Sunday night.

On Monday during the daylight, I went back to see our work, and to determine when the wall is in enough shade for me to paint.

 

That is barely visible!! No worries, it shows better in person. See the cracks climbing in the bricks? Kathryn, one of the friends who helped me trace, has a song for every subject. She said, “Look – there’s a Stairway To Heaven.”

This is all the shade there is at 1 p.m. I left to work on something else and give the sun more time to move. When I’ve painted in full sun, I get hot and dizzy. Dizzy is bad on a ladder. The sun makes the paint on my palette and on my brushes dry faster than I can get them on the wall. It’s miserable, both for me and for the mural.

Okay, 2 p.m. has enough shade. Rocky Hill Antiques is open from 10-5 every single day of the week. This mural will entail a lot of driving if I can only fit in 3 hours of painting a day. So be it.

I bought one of those chalked up string things and snapped a line, which I then taped. The blue of the chalk is beautiful! And I love the blue tape on the yellow wall. (Written like a true color junkie. . .)

Wow. 1-1/2 hours to do this? And the tape isn’t sticking very well. I hope it is there when I return in 2 days! If not, I hope the chalk line is still visible.

Extra facts:

1. Should have been lifting weights in preparation for this mural – that extension ladder is heavy and unwieldy.

2. Someone named Kimberly stopped by and said, “I hope they get that done soon.” I said, ” ‘They’ is me.” She went all excited and pleased-to-meet-you and oh-wow on me. I said, “Kimberly, I’m no one. Just stop by any time to say hi and see how it is going.”

3. Why do people think that artists are Some One? She was certainly driving a better car than mine! (Maybe it wasn’t paid for. . .)

4. There was a SNAIL attached to the top of the wall. Why???

5. It was windy and a mini tornado went swirling right along the wall.

6. It is very very trafficky along Spruce. This mural will be a noisy situation.

7. Rocky Hill Antiques is a busy store.

8. My elementary school principal was there because he sells antiques. He asked where my talent was back at Ivanhoe Elementary. I told him that Tom Stroben taught me to draw in 6th grade. That pleased him and it pleases me that I don’t think he is scary any more. (Mr. Marusich looks like Mr. Fredrickson in the movie Up.)