36~ Mural 2012: Details and Touch-ups

Friday, November 9th was about the 25th day of working on the mural. We were nearing completion, but, oh, those finishing touches! Honestly, our estimates on these tedious details were just way off. I'd think I could finish half-a-dozen things in an eight-hour day. We might get three of them done. It was always a little disheartening to know that there was so much left to do. I was becoming exhausted and sometimes tired of the mural. I wanted it finished. I'm sure Brenda had better things to do, too. Friday we only had half a day to work, as I had a family event to attend that evening. I finished up the two big projects we'd started: scalloped roofs and the music room. In some cases, it was just a touch-up here and there: a shadow under the lettering on the music-room door to give it some definition. That tiny detail made a difference. I painted a flower on the teapot in the toy-shop window. It needed that touch to make it look finished.

I had meant to paint the next day. I did work on the mural, but at home. My next "big" project was the cornices under the bays. I had intended to do some research, but was much too tired Friday night. Saturday morning, I got up and began pulling up pictures of cornices. They were incredibly difficult to find. In the first place, I couldn't remember what they were called, so it took me have a morning to search through architecture glossaries and make guesses (finial? corner finial? pedestal?). Even after I found the term, I couldn't find one anything like what I had designed. What I really needed, though, was help on the shadowing and functional details of the piece. I was able to look at several different things and use that knowledge to shape and design my cornice.

That and a couple of incoming phone calls really blew my chance of getting any painting done that Saturday, especially since I'd promised some friends of mine a supper date. So, instead of painting on the mural, I stayed home and created a pattern for my cornice design, while Brenda worked on some finishing touches of her own. A couple of the things she did: some terra-cotta colored bricks for the orange "library" wall. We'd planned to do this, but never had time. She picked a good color, and it looked so good. She also painted the door-frame of the music room (closet door) a metallic silver. I did like the choice of silver, but would have preferred painting it a neutral gray and then dry brushing or putting a thing glaze of silver. I just don't care for thick, flat metallics. It was okay, though, and I decided not to argue the point. Here are sections of the mural: the silver door-frame and terra-cotta brick work, and the floral teapot. Also, I finally risked putting some reflections on the bay windows, though I wasn't nearly as bold with it as I would have been on a canvas painting, or even a smaller mural.

Mural 2012: Friday, November 9, 2012 (Details and Touch-ups)