Monday, February 08, 2010

Birds on a Branch, Pt. 2

I was able to finish up the mural last night. It was relatively easy since it was one color and a simple design. I think to finish off the room, another small mural on the wall behind the toilet. Maybe two birds flying?

These are some of my supplies. I use a large fishing box to carry around my main supplies like pencils, erasers, paint can openers, acrylic paints, and paint brushes. I started out with a smaller box, but each new one keeps getting bigger! It's very convenient and much cheaper than an artist box.

I use a mix of latex and acrylic paints. I mostly use the latex for large sections of color, but it tends to be translucent so I usually mix it with some white acrylic. When I go get a batch mixed up at Home Depot, I always check out there "reject paint" area. There tends to be some pretty interesting colors that people didn't like, or returned.

For this mural, I had a small can of brown latex paint that was almost the color I wanted. I mixed in a little of my warmer browns and oranges.

You can see it still wasn't opaque enough, so I had to paint two coats. Luckily in this case, latex and acrylic dry quickly. Once I got through with the first coat, I was able to go back to the beginning and start the second coat right away.

The finished mural! I think it turned out pretty well. I have a couple sketches of fluttering birds, I'm thinking about putting those on the opposite wall. A nice outcome for a fast mural, don't ya think?

5 comments:

CheezGirl said...

Wow, this mural looks great! How much time did the actual painting take?

Anonymous said...

Yes. I think.

Only two coats?

Valerie Krist said...

Only two coats for most of the areas, but a couple places three coats!

I think the mural probably took me about 5-7 hours, which includes sketching.

Anonymous said...

Nice outcome, Val. I have a blank bathroom wall. Interested? Mom

Valerie Krist said...

Sure, Mom! What are you looking for? And are you available for babysitting during this bathroom mural project?