Although it was pouring rain on Thursday and a terrible day for gardening, it turned out to be a lovely day to work indoors, and I just happened to have this mural commission already scheduled on my calendar. To see a little more of my artwork, visit Murals and More by Lianne over at wordpress.com.

The homeowners just bought their first house and their two daughter’s finally got their very own rooms. The ten year old, Becca, has been wanting a mural for years, and she asked for a tree that would compliment her bedding that she has had for a few years and the brand new geometric curtains she just got. Although the colors of the circles in curtains and circles in the bedding don’t exactly match, the tree was designed to tie them both together.

Because the walls had a raised texture applied on them, sometimes called orange peel texture/ knockdown/ splatter/ egg shell texture, I kept the design simple. Textured walls are harder to paint fine details on than on smooth drywall.

Counting the meeting to discuss the design and color samples on Wednesday afternoon, a trip to Home Depot for a few more supplies, laying out the outline, and painting, the entire project took about 5 hours. It was an easy mural to make since I didn’t need my opaque projector. I just sketched out the lines, using a “sketch and wash” watercolor pencil, for the tree trunk and traced around a variety of circular objects for the “hanging fruit. There was no complex shading to paint so it didn’t take too long to complete.  I went back on Friday morning to wash out the few remaining sketch lines and took pictures before all the furniture got moved into the room.

On Monday, I am working on the painted details in the thirteen year old girl’s room.  That room will mainly be accented with a stripe design and some intermittent circles.  Both girls’ room had been painted the same shade of blue, but the blue doesn’t match anything out of the thirteen year old’s bedroom accessories or bedding, so I am working some of her colors in with the stripes.  Hopefully she is as happy with the results as her sister was with her tree.

This post is linked to Favorite Things at Mocking Bird Cottage blog.