I loved doing this recent kid’s room mural in Newton, MA!
Part of the joy of doing this job is in the back-story. About 3 years ago, my clients David and Sarah reached out to have me design and paint a 2-wall mural in anticipation of the arrival of their first baby Lucy. David and Sarah had just purchased a new house that they had not moved into yet and had me paint an “English countryside”-themed mural (complete with sheep) in time for them to move in with their new baby.
Fast-forward to this summer, David and Sarah are expecting their second baby, and they reached out to me to paint another mural! As always, my first step was to meet with them to look at the space and talk about their ideas. For this mural, David and Sarah wanted a forest theme, but they wanted to make sure it was not too dark. They also wanted some pops of color to make sure the overall mural was more than just green and brown – and they requested I include an owl, a rabbit, a frog and a butterfly. After listening taking my notes, I suggested designing around a clearing in the woods to keep it bright, and maybe include a stream to get more blues in (and make a logical place for the frog). I also talked about the perspective of being in the woods, with some trees so close you could only see the large trunks. They liked these ideas – and I was off to painting my designs!
As I usually do, I created paintings to scale of each of the walls (in the actual paints) to get their approval. I made sure to incorporate their requests in addition to adding a fox and cardinal to get more color in the mural (plus including the peeking squirrel for fun). When we looked at my designs, David and Sarah loved them just as they were – so I was off to painting the final murals!
When I returned to start the project, the highlight was finally meeting Lucy for the first time! Lucy loves her English countryside mural, and was VERY excited about the mural I was painting for her soon-to-be little brother… One of the highlights of this project was the visits I got from Lucy who would peek into the room with her mom to see the progress.
To create this scene, I started by painting the background first and them working my way forward to the stream, the foreground trees and finally the animals. Below is an early in-progress shot.
The mural is now complete and ready for the arrival of baby #2!
Enjoy!!
Jason
Wall 1
Turning the corner to wall 2
Wall 2
Fox detail
Owl detail
Frog, butterfly and stream detail
Bunny detail
Squirrel and cardinal detail