Airplane Mural for Baby Boy

This is one of those, “I have the greatest jobs in the world” posts. What is so satisfying and fun about painting for clients – as opposed to just painting – is the personal elements clients want to include.

Candace & John wanted a plane in their soon-to-be-born son’s nursery. Not just any plane, though. John’s grandfather had flown a Corsair airplane in WWII.

John provided me with all kinds of pictures of a Corsair, including pictures of the actual plane is grandfather flew. After some discussion, we decided to include a tower in the mural as well. It picked up the brown tones of the crib.

The room was already painted a soft blue when I began work, so I just added some soft clouds and a few extra planes.

And, of course, clouds on the ceiling. This has to be the most common request in babies’ rooms. But I’m always happy to oblige.

My biggest challenge of this mural was painting the grandfather, per the request of Daddy. Since the plane was 5’ wide, Grandfather only needed to be 18” high.

Painting on knock-down texture, it’s a little difficult to get fine detailing.

I was standing there, painting(for way too long), working on Grandfather when Daddy walked down the hall, poked his head in the room and exclaimed, “It’s Poppa!”  That was my cue that it was good enough.

It was hard to get a picture with the right perspective to show just how large this plane is. Here you can see the corner – the stripes are on the adjacent wall.

That’s the only downside to painting nurseries – I paint them before Baby is born. Often well in advance. So I don’t get to see the finished room with bedding, accessories, stuffed animals.

After Baby is born, I don’t want to bother the clients to take pictures. So I always have pictures of the walls only, not the entire room.

But this was a very special room. Grandfather “Poppa” flew out from Arizona for a visit two weeks after the birth. What a wonderful surprise it was to see his plane and portrait overlooking his new great-grandson!

Colleen