St. Francis Mural Project

 

The finish line is in sight.  I'm hoping to install the mural in the next 2-3 weeks, God willing.  This project has been about a year in the making, and although I am ready to be finished, it is bittersweet to know that it will soon be over.  I won't know what to do with myself.  Believe it or not, I'm excited to get back to painting...only on a much smaller scale.

St. Francis Mural Project

Here's the latest progress on the mural.  I started washing in the color for the figures in the first row this week.  It's exciting to see how far I've come, but also overwhelming to see how much work is left.  The beginning of a painting always goes fast because you're using a big brush and blocking-in large areas...detail work on the other hand requires much more time.

 Here are some reference photos I took for the figures.  I hired a theater tech student at JD to operate the stage lights to create a theatrical mood.  I think they turned out beautifully.

St. Francis Mural Project

Check out the story Intermountain Catholic did on the mural.  I think it goes to print today. 

St. Francis Mural Project

 Here is another, slightly better pic of the sky in progress.  It looks much darker than it really is.

My assistant, Hali, leaves for Portland today to begin her first year of college.  Can you believe such a talented artist is going into nursing?  Oh well, at least she won't have to starve.  Thanks for all your hard work Hali, you will be missed!  Best of luck in Portland!

St. Francis Mural Project

I realized last week that I wasn't crazy about the color of the sky before...too purple.  I decided to tweak my photo reference by making the sky lighter and the colors warmer  So basically I re-painted the whole sky.  Here are some in-progress pics from last week...the sky is really starting to come alive. 

 

 Row 4 in progress

 Here I am getting in a few minutes of painting between classes.  If only there were more hours in a day.

Miss Molly.

St. Francis Mural Project

 This week was our first contract week of the school year, which meant faculty meetings, syllabi, orientations, lesson plans, order supplies, books, powerpoints, department meetings, seating charts, roster changes, handbook changes, asprin...oh, and I did a little painting this week too.

 Lately I've been focused mostly on the painting the sky.  To make clouds look convincing it is helpful to use thin layers of paint called glazes that are built up to create an illusion of transparency and make the clouds look more cloud-y. 

Paint cups.

 Molly takes laziness to another level.

I took my AP Art History class on a field trip to the UMFA today.  They're such good little art analyzers.  School starts next week which means I will probably not get much sleep between painting and teaching.  Oh well, I work better when I'm a little sleep deprived.  

St. Francis Mural Project

The usual spot where we set up the mural is still is use, so we were forced to find an alternative venue, the gym.  My apologies for the bright yellow floor and florescent lighting.

I started painting in the sky this week.  It is challenging to get all the subtle nuances of color and value in the clouds, also, the edges of the clouds must be very soft (blurry) so that they recede into the distance.  There's still a lot of work to be done.  More pics to come next week.