Cabin Vibes Bedroom: ORC Week Three – Mural Progress

Last week, I mentioned that I scheduled LASIK on Friday. Everything went smoothly, so I spent the rest of week three prepping the walls and planning the mural. I even managed to start painting it. Since I have never painted a mural before, there were a few things I considered before beginning.

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Colors

For reference, this is the inspiration photo:

I counted eight different colors. The colors become progressively darker, ending in a deep navy right by the baseboards.

Keeping that in mind, I chose my paint based on the overall color scheme, the Pendleton blanket, and the way the colors varied in the photo. I settled on greens and blues.

Without formal art training or education on color theory, my method was imperfect, but it brought me to a good starting point.

Proportions

Like most professional photos, the mural follows the rule of thirds.

Based on that rule, I made small pencil marks on the door jambs, one-third and two-thirds of the way down from the ceiling to the top of the baseboard. Since I was drawing the mountains freehand, those marks helped me keep the proportions realistic.

Avoiding Matchy-Match & Symmetry

To prevent an elementary-schoolish outcome, it was essential to add a variety of mountain shapes and sizes to each color layer. Referring back to the inspiration image frequently, I drew the top four layers.

I actually started by drawing the third layer because that is the way my brain saw it.

Again, I’m not a trained artist, so I worked backward a lot and ended up in the middle. Some day I’ll write a book about my brain and process. Working title: I Don’t Know What I’m Doing.

Winging It

Since it was too late for art school, I started painting. By the end of the first evening, the top of the mural looked like this:

I apologize for the crummy photo. It was dark outside, and my phone did not read the colors correctly with the lights on. Photo editing only made it worse.

Immediately, I had a change of heart about the trees. If this mural went sideways, it was going to be because I screwed up the trees. Naturally, I wanted to wiggle out of that part of the project. Over on Instagram, I received a lot of Bob Ross-inspired advice to go ahead with the original plan.

Shout out to my IG friend, sweetpeamorning, for suggesting that I practice a full-size tree on foam core or scrap wood. That idea never crossed my mind. (Refer back to the book title above.) However, it was another local friend, Lauren, who sparked the idea of a compromise. She sent me this photo of her TV. The scene was from the Ken Burns national parks series:

Aha! Note the bottom three layers of color. The trees show up as silhouettes. Now, that was something I knew I could do.

Where Am I Going With This?

At this point, the mural is still a work-in-progress. I finished the general shape of every layer on one wall. Unfortunately, I am not very happy with the bottom two colors. This afternoon, I picked up a couple of paint chips for alternate colors, and I’ll sit on the idea for a day or two. For now, the headboard wall looks like this.

Next week, I’ll have both walls finished, and I will commit to the final colors. I am making a video of the whole process too. It may or may not be done by the end of week four. Until then, be sure to follow the real-time updates on Instagram.

As always, the featured designers and guest participants seem to have their week three acts together more than I do, but I have faith that this is all going to work out just fine in the end.

Thank you for your support and friendship.