Arianna's Mural: To paint or not to paint?

by Meredith 9. February 2013 05:49

I'm itching to start painting all the drawings in Arianna's room but I'm not completely finished with the sketches. My preference in painting is to put something up and then revise over and over again until I get something I finally like. It usually begins with light marks with a pencil, revision with a light colored paint, revision with a med color paint, revision with a dark paint and then start painting it in with some of the color. Then I keep fussing with it until I'm forced to move on. The process is very undisciplined and non-committal. I've had more than one art teacher over the years comment on it, wanting me to be a little bit more certain in my application.

Once I put paint on the wall in Ari's room I can't really fix it. I can do minor touch ups, but he walls are a painted texture and I don't think I have the colors any more. So it is really important that I have the majority of the editing done before I paint. I've set asside most of today to work on it, so we'll see what happens. I'm making myself finish all the character drawings first before opening a paint can.

Anyway, that's where I'm at on the mural in case y'all were wondering.

Arianna's Mural: More sketches on the wall

by Meredith 4. February 2013 14:50

Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, HerculesWall sketches of Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, and Hercules. I was starting to get tired late that night so drawings got more sloppy. I'll have to go back and fix them.

Some of the constellations have stories about how they relate to each other and I wanted the images to be like an illustration of those stories. I also made some changes to the traditional interpretation of how those images are represented in relation to the placement of the stars. For example, Ursa Minor is usually drawn as a bear with a very long tail. I've never understood that look and found if I drew the bear cub sitting with it's nose pointed up, it would match the shape of the stars and not have a ridiculous tail. I also positioned the bears much closer together than they appear in the night sky, but did make Draco's tail curve between them to represent that another constellation does in fact separate them.

The story of Hercules' constellation is that he slayed Draco in order to take the golden apples. In the night sky, Hercules' is facing away from Draco. Again, I wanted these two characters to relate to each other so I flipped Hercules to be facing Draco so that it looked like they are interacting with each other.

Arianna's Mural: Sketches on the wall

by Meredith 30. January 2013 14:41

Virgo, Lupus, Leo, PavoWall sketches of Virgo, Lupus, Leo, Pavo, Cetus, Argo and Hydra.

Sketches on paper are done, now it's time to put them on the wall. I used a couple of different sky map apps on my phone to place the constellations in the room. One of the apps allowed you to set a date and time in the future so I picked Arianna's due date and used that as my reference. A little fudging had to be done in order to get some of the constellations to fit up on the wall (the app showed their placement on the floor).

For next step I applied the feedback I was given by friends and I made some edits to the positioning and orientation of the images so that they flowed together. Because Virgo, Lupus, Leo, and Pavo (the peacock) were all so close together I felt they could be placed together so that they all interacted in some way. In my rendition of these constellations, Virgo is a Mother Earth like character watching over wolf and lion as they play. Instead of just adding a peacock to the pair of animals Virgo is wearing a gown of peacock feathers which also adds to the "of the Earth" feeling to her.

Argo and HydraMore artistic license was taken with Cetus, Argo and Hydra. While doing research I had seen an old star map where the sea monster Cetus was drawn as a whale. As this mural is for a baby's room, I didn't want scary, monsters images on the walls so the interpretation of a whale was perfect.

Argo Navis is an ancient constellation of the southern hemisphere that has since been broken up into three separate constellations (Carnia, Vela and Puppis). As Madeline's room has a ship, I wanted one in Arianna's room too. I'm also enamored with the story/poem of "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" which mixes aspects of the stars with the sea. Argo seemed like an excellent constellation to add and made a nice way to interpret a nearby constellation Hydra. Again, I didn't want to add a multi-headed monster to a child's room so an octopus seemed like a good compromise. If she ever asks we planned to tell her the giant octopus is giving the ship a hug.

 

 

 

Arianna's Mural: A question posted to FB

by Meredith 25. July 2012 15:37

Which would be better for Arianna's mural: accuracy in the placement of the constellations or an artistic representation? Both elements will be there but I have to choose to focus on one direction or the other. Can't be equal parts of both.

Here are some of the replies:
GP - I vote for artistic. I think it'll be easier for her to go from a holistic understanding of constellations and then apply accuracy, than to go the other way. You can talk to her more easily about constellations is she can grasp the concept, then refine it with accuracy later.
JM - I would lean artistic. Go whole hog one way or the other and stay out of the uncanny valley. If going artistic, make up totally new stuff and stay away from real constellations. Fantasy beats the daylights out of poor representations of reality.
JC - The feminist in me says go for realistic! We need more girls in the sciences, although I'm sure you'll inspire that in her mural or not:-)
MB - I guess I'll be the dissenting vote, I would go for accuracy, how awesome would it be to later look at the real constellations and say that's in my room. to be able to identify and find Orion in both the sky and ceiling (or wherever it would be) To follow the Big Dipper to the North Star. Though I agree with Joe if you go artistic I would totally go whole hog and make up your own constellations that would be pretty cool!
H - I feel like you can capture both! Have you ever seen the old star charts? They show the constellations and then "behind" them the fantastic image of what they are. Plus space is so much more than either fantasy or reality. Why limit yourself?
T - Artistic....they change over time anyways
JS - We have the real sky and star maps for accuracy, and I'm pretty sure it will look cooler with an artistic interpretation. Can't wait to see it!
ET - If you wanted to realistic but different an option might be to use the constellations in the southern hemisphere instead of the ones that we see in the sky at night.
JS - I'm a fan of artistic representation for most things....
TP - Given the intellect of her parents, I'll bet she'll be asking why they aren't accurate.
AV - Artistic, because imagination is what makes a child's mind grow in an awesome direction.
KS - Won't matter in a million years the stars will have moved
SS - I always go for aesthetics, but on the other hand, you wouldn't want anything too different. I can just see it: in 5 years, Arianna asking, "Mommy, why are the stars in the sky all wrong?"
BC - I’d say use the coin flip. That’s how I make all my life altering decisions

My friends are awesome! Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to chew on this and do some more sketches. I'm leaning toward artistic so that the graphics tell a sorry. But I have some ideas on how to make portions accurate. I predict there will be a conversation in Arianna's future that will explain my decisions. Oh, and glow in the dark stars are a must!

On the fence about outdoor décor

by Meredith 17. July 2012 21:40

Surfing Pinterest inspired me to make some artwork for the backyard. Hunter had recently completed a fence project and there was some scrap lumber leftover. Stapling the wood together made some nice size canvases to play with.

The project combined two popular “pins” into one finished piece. These were how to distress painted wood and to make plant silhouette artwork. I won’t go into details describing how to do these techniques because I think the other websites do a great job but here is a brief summery of my steps:

I first painted the boards (6 total) a base color; 3 yellow & 3 green. I then coated one side of some plant cuttings with spray adhesive and arranged each onto a board. Next step was to carefully paint the board a second color using the plants like a stencil. (Note: Unlike the tutorial, I used latex paint and not spray paint because it was what I had on hand in the colors I liked.) I also added some random brush strokes of a third color just to add a bit more variation. Once the painting was done, I peeled off the plants and let the boards dry thoroughly overnight. The next day I did a little bit of paint touch up, adding highlights to some of the plant images. Then I used an electric sander to distress the boards; removing some of the layers of paint and in some places I took the paint completely off exposing plain wood. The final step of distressing/aging the wood was to lightly brush on a dark wood stain with a cloth. To protect the finished artwork I added a coat of polyurethane.

The only thing I would have done differently would be making the plants more firmly attached to the boards. It was very tedious to paint around them; often the wet brush would lift the leaves as I painted and made a mess out of the stenciled image. After applying the glue I laid a piece of cardboard on top of the plants and then stacked heavy objects on top of the cardboard (like you would do to press flowers). This worked well but I should have been more patient and left them on there for more than an hour (perhaps overnight would have been better). The more firmly the plant was adhered the easier it was to paint over them.

Overall I think the project turned out great and am really happy with how they look on the fence.

The mural needs a photo shoot

by Meredith 17. May 2012 22:27

It would be nice to clean out her room and take some really nice photos with good lighting but setting that up is unlikely to happen for awhile. Until then, I have compiled all the photos we’ve taken of the finished mural into one gallery. I have also collected all the “Making of” images into its own gallery as well.

The Making Of Maddie's Mural

by Meredith 1. May 2012 22:50

I have collected all the “Making of” images into a gallery for easy browsing. I've also added captions to explain where in the process they were taken.

Arianna's Mural: Night Theme

by Meredith 2. November 2011 15:33

Painting the night skyUnlike Madeline's mural, these images are all night themed. So I painted in the background sky shades of dark blue and black. I will add clouds on top of this, then later stars and other stuff that is still to be determined. The rest of the mural will look like map drawings on the wall. The overall theme is star charts so I plan to select specific constellations to put up.

Arianna's Mural: Have work table, will paint

by Meredith 2. November 2011 13:35

Painting work tableThe sign that I am committed to this project: the work table is set up!. Already being filled with stuff, I have my collection of images and paint supplies. Very important to leave a little bit of room left for a cup of coffee.

Arianna's Mural: Windows

by Meredith 1. November 2011 15:28

Taping off the window archesThe plan is to mimic the arches in Madeline's room but not devote the whole wall to them. I decided that the perspective in this room is going to be from the boat floating out on the sea in Maddie's room. These windows are the portholes on the boat and we will be looking up at the castle. First step is to tape off the windows before painting in the background.

 

 

 

 

About Meredith Cook

Welcome to my repository of creative expression. I'm not a happy camper unless I am making something and over the years I have dabbled in quite a few different kinds of art projects. Some projects come from taking art classes, others are completely hobby driven, and projects like home decor come from a need to customize an item and make it better or unique. The overall theme behind what I do is to learn how to manipulate objects and practice what I know about visual aesthetic and good design. Oh yeah, and to have fun.

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