Murals And Artwork

My Murals and Artwork

The whole time I was growing up, my grandmother encouraged my admiration for art. I've always been one to enjoy going to plays, I've enjoyed listening to classical music and most of all, I've enjoyed going to art galleries. I grew up in the right part of Florida, seeing as Palm Beach is the "Home of the arts." I've taken many art classes in school along the way, but I've grown to enjoy drawing whatever, whenever. This is how my murals came to be. My first mural was at my home in Lantana. As soon as I find the photo of it, I'll post it up here, but it was a Super Mario Bros. mural I did on the wall with poster paints. That was when I was nine or ten. The second one I did didn't come until years later, when I lived in Michigan. Those are the photos that follow.

Click on any photo for a larger version.

This is the room I decided to paint. You will notice that the walls are on at LEAST a 45-degree slant. This was an attic in the house at one time, made into a bedroom. It wasn't easy maneuvering around in here, especially when I wanted to work on the Panthers mural in particular. The ears ended up curving onto the ceiling, and the most difficult part of it was having to do those ears due to the strain my neck endured over the two years I spent here.

Mural Part #1: NHL's Florida Panthers Logo

Between whoever designed this and the wall being on the slant that it was, it created a really awesome effect when painted onto the wall. As it is with ALL of my murals, I sketched it onto the wall FIRST. As you can see, it is an extremely intricate design. This mural was estimated to be about 6 feet tall by 4.5 feet wide. The ears stretched onto the ceiling and the left-side front paw went onto the room's side wall. It was drawn from the flag you see in the frame above. In fact, this mural was so huge that I could not stand in front of it and get the entire painting into one frame. Even lying down flat on the floor, I could not get it entirely into the frame.

The photos above are from the second stage of the process. The base of the red parts is done in paint, but it was accented/glossed over with red, sparkly nail polish to give it a special shimmer. (And no, I did not like working with the nail polish with barely any ventilation in this room)

This would have been where I would have (and by all rights, SHOULD have) stopped normally, but the room was so dull in white, that this is now considered the third stage of the process. The intricacy of the design is clear in these photos, especially the one that's close-up.

These final three give you an idea of the direction I wanted to take this mural in in order to tie it all together. I was actually trying for a jungle motif. I never got to finish it because I moved back to Florida to focus on school. I would have loved to have seen this project all the way through.

The Dallas mural, part 2 of the Michigan murals was nowhere near as intricate, but proved to be just as challenging in a few different ways. I started out by drawing the banner, cup, stars logo and Texas state outline on the wall. I used a gray base paint to paint in the Stanley Cup, then, to get the shiny effect, I used clear nail polish with rainbow-colored sparkles.

I filled in the banner, the Stars logo and the Texas state with various paint in team colors. The state and the center star in the Stars' logo were painted in base forest green and then to get the shiny effect, clear nail polish with green sparkles was applied. To make give an effect of liquid coming out of the cup, I once again used the slant of the wall to my advantage and used strands of streamers and stuck them on the top of the cup with super glue.

After the main portions were complete, Other stars were painted on the wall, first stenciled in, then painted in a base forest green.

The Dallas Stars part of the mural did manage to be completed before my return to Florida.

Florida Murals

Again, I have elected to paint my room in a personal manner. This is the scene over my desk. It was to be a rainbow in the sky, made to be a memorial to various people who have passed away. With the exception of the rainbow and the words, nothing needed to be sketched out on the wall beforehand. The above photos are of the parts of the mural behind my desk.

These are the walls over the desk. Painted in simple colors.

The completed mural. The words at the top say "If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again."

Various artwork to come.

If you are a business in South Florida and are interested in a quote, please feel free to email me. Anyone who wants a drawing done (either standard or pointillism) let me know via email along with a copy of the photo you'd like done for a quote.

Thanks for looking!