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Anatomy of a Mural – How to Paint a Bridge

April 6, 2011 By Colleen Jorgenson Leave a Comment

how-to-paint-bridge-12

Or – maybe how not to paint a bridge. It happens. I won’t say it happens every time I paint a mural, but it does happen.

Call it an ‘uh-oh’.

Or maybe ‘oops’.

Even, WTH do I do now?

Today it happened. With the bridge.

Day 3 of this mural started out fairly easy and routine – painting reeds, or tules.

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A little brown . . .

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A little taupe/tan . . .

how to paint reeds 3

. . . and you’ve got reeds. Client happy. Which makes me happy.

Bring on the bridge!

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Client gave me this pic of a bridge she likes.

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I gave Client this rendering which fit the dimensions of the the wall.

So far so good.

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Okay, so I ‘blocked’ it out here. I had chalked it first, stepped back, thought it looked fine, so did a rough paint.

Notice any problem here?

{hint: look at the upper part of the bridge.}

No problem! Just add a couple more pylons, maybe some bushes, and it won’t look like the bridge’s entry had been gobbled up by the Lochness monster. Or something.

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Two more pylons, some bushes on the shoreline and I’m thinking, This’ll work!

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So I trudge onward and start painting the railings.

With the same brown and taupe as the reeds, by the way. Sorry, but I find things like that very cool – how the same colors look totally different just by painting in different directions.

Happy with the top part, I move on down to the lower bridge.

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So far so good, right? Just add dark brown and some highlights . . .

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. . . uh, no.

This is when the WTH? moment happened. Or, How-in-the-heck do I make the planks on the walkway of the bridge look right?

So I look at this again . . .

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This doesn’t help because someone thought she’d be cute and paint a different perspective of this bridge.

But now it wasn’t so cute. I looked at this picture. Then I looked at the painting. Then the pic. Then the painting.

Then I walked outside, took a deep breath, and walked in with a big smile.

{You don’t want your clients to think you’ve messed their wall up.}

It’s paint, I tell myself. I can do this, I tell my other self. I can figure this out, I tell . . . no one. It’s more of a prayer at this point. A prayer to the painting muse – please guide me. Show me how to make the planks on this bridge look right.

how-to-paint-bridge-9

This.Just.Might.Work.

See how the light paint and dark paint kind of ‘fan’ their way around the curve in the bridge?

I’ll admit it – I wasn’t totally sure, but this was the best I could do, short of calling my friend, Theresa, shooting her a photo, and asking her how to paint this.

Oh, wait – my phone doesn’t take photos. Reason #211 to get a smart phone.

I decided to just go ahead and paint all the pylons, posts and railings. And I prayed. A lot.

It’s not that I can’t repaint it. I can. I have before. Many times. But after 15 years, I’d like to think I can paint a simple bridge.

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So this is how I left it today.

I still need to put something in the foreground. Maybe rocks? Rocks & bushes?

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I’m nost sure yet. But do you see how the bridge is something of a focal point – especially when walking into the kitchen?

Yeah – note to Self: no more bridges that curve in main areas of mural.

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And if anyone knows how to take a decent photo of a round wall, can you let me know? Please?

Photobucket

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Domestically Speaking

Filed Under: murals, my paintings, My Stuff

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    About Me

    Hi there! I'm Colleen, a self-taught artist, writer and blogger, among other things. You don't get to be old enough to order off the Denny's senior menu without accomplishing a few things in life. Read More…

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