Wednesday, May 11, 2011

My Mural Info

"Cherry Blossoms 2"
B.E. Interiors Photography
I've gotten some questions about my mural and how I did it. Here's the skinny: it's an original. No decals, no stencils, no guides. Yes, folks...I did it all on my lonesome. This is where my graphic communications came into play. Prior to and during grad school I spent hours upon hours in computer labs using graphics software. Then, I used it with work on a daily basis prior to becoming a stay-at-home mom/wife. So, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are two of my best friends. I love those programs dearly and I've found you can do a lot of stuff other than the expected with them. For instance...create murals. For your sake, I wish I could say it was just a stencil kit or decals. For my sake, it's kind-of nice to know I have an original compilation.


Original "Woodland Night Scene Mural"
 On a side note: None of my inspiration photos I've shared have been touched up at all. Not that I would never use Photoshop to touch up, but I'm old school. As I mentioned before, I went through all my photography classes when we still used dark rooms and rolls of film. In my head, I've gotta get the shot to look great when it's taken...no editing except cropping (maybe).
When I said I spent hours looking for inspiration, I wasn't exaggerating. I must have pulled images from every corner of the earth. Trying to please Mommy and young son at the same time is not easy. I went on-line and typed in different searches in the images category. Those then became my inspirations. I compiled ideas to produce the final product in Photoshop and Illustrator. It took me a while to get it exactly so. Want to see some of my inspirations that I used while coming up with my final painting? Thought so. I do want to say, I have no idea where I got most of these photos from. Some are watermarked, but most aren't. I was just stockpiling ideas. I wish I could tell you who took these awesome pictures.  These are just a few I drew ideas from.


















This would be why I offer to paint murals on canvas that can be applied to the wall. This is one project I just can't really give you step by step directions on. I can tell you that an overhead projector from your local school or library can be an immense help. I did not draw mine out on the wall. I created it digital and then printed it out on an overhead transparency.

Hopefully, this will answer some questions.  If you have more, please feel free to ask. I love getting comments and email!

Miss Bee

5 comments:

  1. Wow this is impressive! Your hard work paid off!

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  2. Awesome pics. To think you figured out to merge all of them into what you painted is totally amazing. Sure wish I could stay put long enough to have you paint me a canvas for a room in my house.....It'd have to be canvas as I'd never take the chance you'd do that much work for me to move off and leave it. YIKES!

    Maybe one day (dreaming...) :-))

    Rochelle

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  3. Very impressive! What a great idea to use a projector and transparency.

    ~ Tracy

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  4. Oh my gosh! You and I pulled the exact same pictures for reference! I love your mural.

    I wanted something similar for my son's room. Here is what we did:

    http://www.prettyhandygirl.com/2011/01/camping-themed-boys-room.html

    Brittany

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  5. I've awarded you the Versatile Blogger Award. Go to my recent post to see what that means.
    Lisa

    ReplyDelete

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