Mural, Mural On The Wall

It came upon me that I needed to paint some murals in Sam's room. I had done a stencil in Sadie's room and I thought he just needed some sea turtles and an Octopus on his walls. So on impulse I slapped some blue circles for portholes onto his walls. (We were in the process of painting our bedroom blue and trying out different shades so I just used some of that to freehand some circles.) I spent a few hours trying to locate the perfect internet picture that I could use as a model for the sea critters. Only after I had expended that effort did I realize I had great kids' books with pictures I could use as a model. This I just started painting. I can't think about something too long before I do it or I lose interest. I think if I overanalyze it, I feel like I've already done it and there are no surprises left. I had a friend once, Roberta, who said that about writing. If you thought it out too much before you wrote it, your brain interpreted it as having already done it and it wouldn't be as good. Maybe she was right.
Anyway, I roughed in an outline and then started filling it in. I used those inexpensive paints you can buy at Michael's or JoAnne's for stenciling (little bottles for 99 cents or a buck and a half). I'm used to painting with oils and these dried incredibly fast.





This is the almost finished version. I've got to straighten out my crooked circle still.I put a porthole around the outside--because I can never wait--but I still have to fix the wopsided quality of it!


SEA TURTLES
These are the blue circles I just slapped up there. At first I thought I would do seahorses, but then I got the idea for sea turtles in both windows.
This is just the roughed in forms of the sea turtles. I still have to add the top layer.

I still have work to do on these. I'm still not finished with either of them. I've got to get a tool to make an accurate circle and fix my edges. Next time I go to the art store, I'm going to get a big compass. I tried using string and a pencil, but the string stretches when you do it on the wall and the pencil kept going out at funny angles. Oh, I might could use a yardstick like the hands of a clock and make little ticks to connect as I take it around.