Flower Murals

Hello from Alaska! I am visiting my son and his family in Alaska for an extended stay. I uploaded my pictures so I could finish this post after I arrived.  I wanted to show you what I did to get ready to go.... I have a great nephew Trace, for whom I painted a mural a couple of years ago with the help of his Mother, grandmother and aunt. I promised to paint his sisters ....my twin great nieces.... room and I just had to finish it before I left. 

They wanted flowers, lots of flowers and you know what? They were in luck because I LOVE to do flowers! Funky Flowers. It was so much fun. Kim, their mother, and their Auntie Melissa helped. Here I am just getting started on the butterfly part on Kassidy's wall.

So I did these flowers,  and it was interesting. I maybe should have done them alike, because  I had the flowers in the above picture finished when I left the first time but didn't get  done with the below picture, which is Berkley's. (No butterflies or dragonflies were there at the time on either wall when I left their house the first time.) 

I did the flowers in the first picture a little bigger, but did more smaller flowers in the picture just above this.. I did not have the butterflies done, but was coming back to do them. I still had more shading to do on this second set but there were 7 flowers. This picture below was on Kassidy's wall, and had 5 flowers but were bigger.  SO,... Berkley had 7 flowers and Kassidy had 5......but Berkley for some reason thought Kassidy had more flowers, probably because they were bigger and the shading gave them more life. After I left, Kim (their mother) said Berkley started crying because she said Kassidy had more flowers. Kim consoled her and told her that she didn't, actually she had more than Kassidy, and besides, Aunt Carolyn could put another flower on when I came back. So all was well, she put them to bed and then through the crack in the door she heard Kassidy say, " I think I DO have more flowers than you Berkley!" to which Berkley began wailing again!  They are 3 years old, their brother Trace is 7 years old and there is never a dull moment. 

Above is the finished picture on Kassidy's wall.

 

This is Berkleys finished wall.

 

The first thing I do is draw the flowers on the wall. I did these freehand, but you could also use a transfer. I like to draw with a watercolor pencil, because when you paint, it just kind of blends in  and dissolves. If you draw it in pencil, and you make a mistake.... sometimes it won't erase and it also leaves a spot on the paint where you erased it.  Also, the pencil is hard to cover. I usually draw the stems on as I paint, and then foliage is last.  Butter flies and dragonflies are always a big hit with little girls. I am partial to the dragonflies myself.

Once I get the drawings done, I just start filling in, kind of like coloring. After the base color is on, I starts shading. To learn how to shade, start looking at a small part of a painting you like and see how many colors they used to make it look like it has depth. You will be surprised at the colors they use sometimes.

In a child's room, I try to think of something to hold their attention, and something that is on the level they will be looking, for instance, when they go to bed. I put bugs, ants, caterpillars and things like that on the leaves. I will probably do more bugs on this when I get back home. I just had time to put a couple of lady bugs on for them before I had to quit.

When you are looking at how far off the floor to make them, be sure to take into account how far up the bed will come if the bed is going to be pushed up against it.

 I almost got these too low.

And this is Kim trying to keep Kassidy from running away while I was trying to take her picture ....

And this is Berkley, happy with her flowers at last! She was so funny. She was doing a happy dance in the hallway when she saw the flowers, but of course I missed the shot. Still, she looks pretty happy.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. My next post will be about my visit here in Alaska and probably be more of a scenic post as soon as I get my pictures downloaded.

If you have any questions about doing a mural, please email me at  csoconnor1@gmail.com and I will be happy to try and help.
If you haven't signed up to be notified by email when I post new things, please do. I love feed back, so let me know what you think of the murals! Thanks! Carolyn