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Our 36′ x 15′ mural is completed, and on time!  Here’s what went down:

On this last day we ran into some problems, the kind that throws Drew into a frustrated fit and makes everyone around him just quietly back away…..

First, he wasn’t happy with the way the foilage was turning out.  But that was eventually remedied, which you’ll read in detail later in this article.

Then, an unthinkable disaster happened…… 

Cleaning up a water drip....

Your worst fear, when painting a mural, is having an uncontrolled drip…..

Drew was up on the scaffolding, adding energy to the crest of the wave, when unexpected water dripped out of his paintbrush, onto the painting.

“Hurry, get me some towels.  It’s ruined!” He yelled, panicked.

A long drip of water melted an area of blue and green paint, and some right on the wave that Drew just finished detailing.

Heather ran over & helped him wipe it up.  This mishap this added an unexpected 20 minutes of repair to the mural.  It was a bummer, and a big scare, but somehow they fixed it.

Adding the "Drew" Clouds

Showing Heather a few Tricks.....

The foilage was another challenging process.

The hard part is making the plants look like plants without having to add too much detail.

To keep it flowing, and to make the Mural come to life, Drew & Heather worked on small areas for short periods of time, and moved around a lot.

As Drew says, “staying in one place too long on a mural will ruin it.”

Drew and Heather first worked the plants with sponges, but it didn’t look very good, so they had to change their strategy.  Here’s the order in which they worked:

First they painted all the green, one flat color.

Next, they went in with darker colors to form the foreground.

Then they added shades of green to give it depth.

Finally, they came in with yellows to add high-lights, and then accented the dark with red and purple - thus making it come to life!

Besides the problem of the dripping water and few other minor issues, this mural project went quite smooth.  I think it’s success is due to a few basic things:

1) – Planning:  Drew knew exactly what he needed to get started, knew what would be completed each day, and executed the plan.

2.)A committment to excellence and integrity:  We told the client he would have it done in 5 days, and he did.  This was accomplished by showing up on time (9:00 a.m. or earlier) every single day, and staying until 5:00.  Also by being organized and ready to go before the first day, and having Heather, his assistant, share that same integrity.

3.) Daily clean up of your mess – Drew’s motto is to “never leave a trace that you’ve been there” – meaning, you throw your trash away, you put everything back exactly the way it was found, keep your music low enough to not disturb the occupants, and just be considerate.   He made sure the floors were cleared and swept, and he took his paintbrushes to the studio every night to wash them there – he didn’t want to mess up the client’s restrooms.

Brian, our client, came in at the end of the day and was stoked!  He loved the mural, and I think he probably appreciated that we stayed on schedule and kept our word.

That’s the most important thing to Drew – making sure his customer is happy.  Mission Accomplished.

Satisfaction in Completion.....

Exhausted after a long, hard week of painting, cleaning, planning!

It's been a hard week!

Related posts:

1. North Shore Mural Day 4 – One More Day to Go!
2. Pipeline Wall Mural Commissioned by North Shore Systems
3. Painting the Eagle – Day 3 – And Not yet Finished!

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Paint, Axel!

Details, details, and more details - when you reach this phase in a wall mural, the progression seems to go painfully slow……

Drew and Heather focused mostly on the wave and plants today – minor details, painstakenly slow to paint…..On the Wave:  Drew said he was working to get the wave to look like it was jumping out of the wall – to make it appear as realistic as possible.

On the Plants:  Drew sez “they will have the most detail, because they are in the foreground – although, we can’t paint every leaf, what we want to do is imply detail and let the eye fill in the rest.  Up close, they may look a little messy, but from 10′ away, they will appear perfect.”

Other than Drew calling Heather “Axel Rose” all day & singing “Take me down to paradise city….”, the day was right on schedule.

We are still wondering if it will all come together tomorrow.  Will Brian, the owner of North Shore Systems, walk in & LOVE IT, or not???!!!  That’s always the big question – did we deliver what we promised?  Check back tomorrow for the final photos.

Want the Lip to Look like it's coming out of the wall....

Plants are bigger than lifesize-as is everything here....

The end of the day - tomorrow we begin again

Related posts:

1. Painting North Shore Mural Day 5 – It’s Finished!
2. Pipeline Wall Mural Commissioned by North Shore Systems
3. Pipeline Wall Mural – Day 3

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