28~ Mural 2012: Children in Bay Window

Okay, I'd already finished three of my projects for the day ~ the morning glories, the library-door lettering, and the calf. Here's where any sane person would stop and say, "Job well done! Let's leave well enough alone." You don't know artists, do you. Here I was, the day before Halloween, the day before my last half-day of painting, and I start obsessing over that little idea that had struck me in the preceding week or two. The bottom window in that treat shop sure does look plain. There, on the right side. And it had occurred to me that a kid, looking at the treats from inside the treat shop, might look cool. The kids would like it, I thought. (The real kids in the church group, not the fake kids in the treat shop). See, the bottom shelf of that window was just about eye level with the kids who'd be looking at the mural.

Several times, during the painting of the morning glories and the calf, I commented upon this. "I'm still thinking about those kids," I'd say. What kids? Oh, the kids in the window. "I might be able to fit them in," I'd say. "But we're so close to the end here, and it's a finished window. You could call it finished. And I'd be adding another element, that doesn't have to be added. I might mess up. And there's the honey pot. I'd have to paint around the honey pot." This kind of reasoning is called, hoping somebody will talk you out of it. Or into it. Well, there's where my trusty sidekick comes in.

Brenda is a gung-ho kind of person. Never say never, never say die. She's very upbeat. She also knows me too well. "You're not gonna be satisfied till you put those kids in there, are you?"

"No."

"Well, go for it."

So, on the 30th of October, near the end of the day, one more half-day to go... I added those two kids. No models, no nothing. Just envisioned them. The little boy came out just as I "saw" him in my mind's eye ~ fairly easy to paint. The little girl ~ well, she looks a little stiff. There was less room to work her in, squeezed into the corner as she is. I had a little difficulty there, had to soften her hair, keep her from looking like a miniature adult. She's a little over-worked; but all-in-all, the kids are not too bad. I think they added just the interest needed to the candy-shop bay. And Facebook keeps asking me to tag them.

Photo of candy-shop bay,  Oct. 25, before adding kids

Mural 2012: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (Children in Bay Window)