Spent a good part of today kneeling and lying on the garage floor painting...and repainting...letters.
I think I already mentioned that I wasn't excited about painting letters and, yes, I did overfuss it. The more I tried to refine the letters, the less I liked them (and the more they seemed to draw attention away from the mural). In the end, I went back to fairly loose letters (sans serif). The title simply reads: Celebrate the Harvest - Santa Maria Valley (across the bottom of 3 panels)
I also worked on detailing the leaves around the pumpkins and building a little more contrast in that area.
Now, I'm a little more excited about working on the mural again. I will be moving some panels tonmorrow to (finally) detail the field beneath the wave. There'll be a little bit of greenery and some dots of red (strawberries) to pull a teensy bit more color into those first two panels.
At least I won't have to lay on the floor for the next phase!
Lots coming together. It took a couple days to detail the sky. Last time, I had used a combo of Cerulean and white for the clouds (see photo in last post). But, the clouds were too "blue." Afterwards, I went in with a fairly dry brush and added white on it's own to poof the clouds.
Doing the sky in the last couple panels took a while because I had already brought the figures and grape clusters to a greater degree of completion. Since I really don't want to rework them, I needed to be extra careful going around them.
I also opted to not put clouds behind the figures themselves. There's already a lot going on in that panel and it would be too busy overall.
After the sky, I went back over the mountains. It's time for the camera to do it's talking - to make clear any problems (as it always does). Of course, they are not "done." There will be layers of shrubbery, trees, and flowers that are so common to the Santa Maria hillsides. But, those are a top layer and will happen after the lower layers are completed.
I'm REALLY glad that the mural is being painted on panels which allows me to work in the garage around my schedule during odd hours! I don't feel rushed, yet I feel like I'm still getting things accomplished (even with daytime demands).
This evening, I played around with the grape colors, bringing them closer to what I want. I still need to build up layers and values.
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| Before |
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| After |
I also worked out a couple of issues with the figures - particularly the man. I dealt with the NCS, or Narrow Chin Syndrome, as well as the Big-Footitis that he suffered from. He really had too much heel - the heel was more profile while the front of the foot was more 3/4 view. Anyway, he's been healed - Hallelujah! (And "heeled," I guess).
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