I just realized I only ever posted half of the ocean beach mural room views, so I went digging for the original files, and found the missing pieces, including the part of this little girls’ bedroom I’m most proud of (after the Torrey Pine reading corner), the hall and closet doors.

Using the organic shapes of the rocks to obscure the outlines of the doors was my way of making the entryway to this room really part of the fun once you’re inside, instead of just a throwaway. If you look close, there are a few seagull perched among the rocks and the ever present cloudline on the horizon behind.

These kid size rocks then give way to the beach and surf rolling right to your feet, with a starfish hanging out by special request.

trompe l’oeil detail, a photo by John Hiemstra on Flickr.

The other side of the arched window architectural detail from the Tuscan wine room project painted back in San Diego in 2003. Everything in this shot is (in reality) painted on the same plane, on the same flat wall, making it a pleasant mix of faux painting, landscape mural painting, and architectural trompe l’oeil.

The corbels were designed from historical references and drawn on paper until perfect, then perforated and transferred cleanly and quickly to the wall in traditional spolvero style that would have made Michelangelo proud.

The Tuscan vineyard landscape was developed from client research mingled with my travel pictures, which I mostly drew and painted directly onto the wall– even if Michelangelo thought landscape painting was a soft discipline for a true artist, I love the hazy feel of the far away bits of this painting and the distance evoked “outside” the arched window.

Tuscan wine room detail, a photo by John Hiemstra on Flickr.

Detail from the first of several Tuscan themed painting projects in San Diego. Everything in this shot is (in reality) painted on the same plane, on the same flat wall, making it a pleasant mix of faux painting, landscape mural painting, and architectural trompe l’oeil.

I created a two-step faux glaze treatment for the entire room (more orange than I would have liked, but the client was happy to get exactly what he asked for. (Guess which of us had actually been to Tuscany when I painted this. :)

The corbels were designed form historical references and drawn on paper until perfect, then perforated and transferred cleanly and quickly to the wall in traditional spolvero style that would have made Michelangelo proud.

The Tuscan vineyard landscape was developed from client research mingled with my travel pictures and I created the town architecture in the same way as the corbels, ahead of time on paper and transferred exactly onto the wall. The rest of the landscape I blocked out in the design process, but drew and painted directly onto the wall-- Michelangelo would have appreciated that, too, thinking as he did that landscape painting was a soft discipline for the true artist.

See the completed Tuscan wall mural here.

This is another project where mural and faux painting collide in a combined trompe l’oeil effect. Developed from my client’s travel photos of Tuscany this time, the mural part of this project is actually painted on a set of four pantry doors custom built for this small kitchen remodel in Pacific Beach.

The “stone” block of the landing was designed to flow with the new tile on the floor, and we used clear knobs so that the oor hardware would disappear into the mural scene.

The weathered grey-green trim is a distressed faux finish that I carried out on the new adjoining cabinetry as well, lightly white washed to match the overall kitchen color palette.

This mural aclso features two of the client’s cats who have passed on to the next life. I’ve done several animal portraits from photos, but I usually have had the opportunity to meet or know the animal. In this case, it was fun to hear all about them, see favorite pictures of these two and then imagine them in an eternal perfect sunny Tuscan afternoon as I painted.

This was one of my favorite projects from years of chalk painting in San Diego’s Little Italy every October until leaving for Pittsburgh last year. This was tight, the trompe l’oeil light and shadow detail on the tooth of San Diego asphalt; I ground a lot of chalk into fine dust that day to build up the shadow color layers rather than just faking them with a solid color. I’m a huge fan of Michelangelo and the whole Renaissance transition of society and culture, so Italian themed events are an easy to get up for.

I want to put up some more detail pictures from the vertical blind mural project, but after some time working on other projects it seems like my mural gallery here needs a little variety right now, so I’m posting this picture of a fun little job I did way back in San Diego in the home of fellow artist and wonderful woman Gloria Paris.
 
The idea is a traditional trompe l’oeil painting subject; to put a window on a blank wall that needs one. The moulding and corner rosette design around the window correspond to the real windows in the room on the far wall. the view related to what you might see if there really was a window in this spot, and no house on the next lot east!
 

A couple more pictures now of the completely finished circus playroom trompe l’oeil mural wall. This detail shows the completed ticket box, with some simple trompe l’oeil effects that finish off one of the better playroom decorating ideas I’ve had the pleasure to develop, with a trompe l’oeil mural emerging from and in turn completing the faux finishes in the room.
 
The letters are shadowed to look carved out and the faux wood grain is a lighter version of the real wood floor and trim in the room. Check out the lions and ringmaster now entertaining the crows on the left and the tickets left on top of the box; in hindsight I wish I’d designed in a little brass padlock holding the box shut and added a long secondary shadow of the tent pole going the other way.

I’ve been putting up some detail shots of the featured wall mural in this vintage children’s room I painted in 2008 over on the mural gallery page, so I thought I should talk some the relationship between the faux wall finishes in this room and more about my own ideas about faux painting, trompe l’oeil and a few other choice decorative painting words.

The ceiling and wall finishes in this room are faux finishes insofar as they purport to be “fabric” and “three-dimensional” and “antique” all in the same breath.
 
At the same time, the painted illusion of three dimensions to the circus tent is a classic example of trompe l’oeil painting, and takes responsibilities beyond the range of most faux finishes (incorporating the doors or adding the monkey, for example).
 
If you haven’t read this anywhere else: This room was designed around the idea of a complete room faux finish that felt like a circus tent.
 
Extended to the circus wagon themed bookshelf/desk combination I’ve written about before, the faux finishes in this playroom room were designed to be fun and yet aged and subdued a little bit to reflect the style and stature of the little boy’s grandparents’ historic home in San Diego.

This picture of the Tuscan landscape mural has never been published before, though I have put up others of this same job. This view is how you first encounter the mural panel when entering the kitchen from the entryway/foyer of this San Diego home.

I show it here because it illustrates how trompe l’oeil mural painting can accomplish the interior design goal of opening up a space where no physical opening is possible, in this case a corner of a small kitchen already allocated for much needed storage space-- this Tuscan mural is actually painted on a set of four pantry doors that hide the pantry shelves, so its a wall mural doing double duty to open the space and disguise the function.