Just a quick little mural job...

So, in Monday's post, I mentioned I had a sweet little mural job to paint this week, and promised to have pictures on here tonight. And I did work on a sweet little mural job this week, and I do have pictures to share. I just didn't exactly finish the sweet little mural job. But I can explain! See, it went like this...

My client, Jean, decided to gut her guest bath, which included blue fixtures, and do a complete redesign.  The new design includes a niche, in which her designer friend Thomas (last name in a future post), wanted me to paint a mural of Tuscany.  Maybe with a wrought iron gate.  I masked the area, and got started.

Working from several sample photos, I created a scene with the ratio of sky to land that Thomas wanted, and was pretty much ready to paint leaves on the foreground branches, when I decided to show them a sample of a trompe l'oeil (fool the eye) stone surround I could paint, rather than the wallpaper in their original plan.  Jean and Thomas both loved that, but when I explained I could go one step better and create actual dimension, Jean got positively giddy.  I love giddy clients!

So, out came the tape, and you guessed it...the joint compound.  I marked off the "stones" with chalk, cut tape into about 1/4 inch strips, masked it, and started trowelling on the mud.

The trick here is to take advantage of the air they whip into pre-mix mud, which creates lovely little pock marks in your stones.  The other trick is to remove the tape while the mud is wet, or you will be very sad...or very frustrated.

So, that's as far as I got.  Most of the mural is painted (the wrought iron gate was nixed, in favor of the focus being the scene, not the architecture), and the "stones" are drying.  Not sure what you'll find here Monday night, but do check in, and then if you want to see how this turns out, check back next Thursday, when I'm pretty sure this will be all done.  It's a small space, so there's only so much a client can add, right?

You'll find more samples of plaster and mural artistry on my website, theartofthehome.com, along with all the information on how to hire me to create something special, just for you.

If you want to try this yourself, but need more detail than I included here, don't be shy about asking.  You can leave questions in the comments below, or email me at dawnmariedelara@gmail.com.