Here are some pictures from the first two days of actually putting paint on the vertical blind “canvas” itself, after a week plus of prep.

city mural sky painting

I painted the sky almost entirely with my Iwata spray guns and a lot of careful masking– its always *really* gratifying to pull the masking away and see a painted finish running clean to its edges!

city mural sky painting detail

After the skyline gets detailed, I put the paper drawings back down to transfer the rest of the image:

city mural drawings down a second time

The cityscape develops one piece at a time– the drawings are cut into five or six pieces for manageability.

cityscape mural drawing

.. now its time to get to the real business at hand!

Cityscape mural sample

This sample is on board approximately 30″ x 40″ using the full scale drawing prepared for the final surface. The colors are close to the desired goal- I’ll be making a few adjustments- and the style and atmosphere of the painting right on!

More dramatic pictures of full scale process coming soon!

I want to thank Philly Joe Swendoza for having me on the radio tonight, live online (with recording coming!) at wsradio.com/artrocks. I had a lot of fun chatting with Phil while Logan bounced on my lap, but after all was said and done (and in bed), I had to go back over to the cafe to finish today’s faux painting punch list. What needed done was simple enough to be soothing as well, and I am again so grateful to get to just paint.

Anyway, here’s a pic of the cafe ceiling I finished today, a simple “old world” glazing job to help bring the interior color and materials palette all together.

Faux painted ceiling for Cafe Mundo in siimple water based media

I spent a few hours each of the July 4 weekend working on the sky paintings for this Friday’s reception at Coalesce, furniture designer Joseph Bedford’s gallery in Little Italy. Here’s a couple more pix I didn’t put up on the murals and faux blog, even if these paintings germinated in scenic painting with its faux style techniques and the ever popular sky mural as a ceiling and surround technique.

coliseum paintings in the loft

July 5in the studio downstairs-- thnx Jen!

almost ready to unwrap

I've been wanting to properly finish these little ones for a long time.