Floral Wall Art Mural | Part 3
Are there mural artists with fine art experience who can custom design murals in Naples and Southwest Fla.? Join me as I design a custom floral art mural.
Part 3 of this series of posts on Floral Wall Art Mural should bring more light to the subject in general. So grab yourself a drink, whether it be wine, tea, or whatever the case may be and get comfortable as I welcome you into my mind.
Most of my posts are rather long as I do wander from time to time but when you start to get as old as I am you can use your age as an excuse. Of course, I have always been this way and most just thought I was some kind of nut. At times I would get that “look” from others…. you know…. “that look”…so I would just make a statement that “I’m an artist” and that seems to clear up at least some of the confusion in my clients or audiences faces. But the eyes and facial expressions can’t hide the fact that they still think I am somewhat of a nut.
Be that as it may, I believe you are here to continue reading about the Floral Wall Art Mural or you may be here purely by accident having found this blog by chance. So to catch you up to date on what the hell it is I’m yammering about, I posted the links to the first couple of posts of how we got this far.
Wall Art Designs For Hallways (Part 1 )
Floral Wall Art Mural (Part 2)
The previous two posts should shed a little light on how we got this far.
At this point, we are picking up where we had left off in Floral Wall Art Mural (Part 2) with the “Blocking In” of the floral design‘s leaves with a color mixed from Ultramarine Blue and Yellow Ochre. Then by adding a touch of white and a touch more of Yellow ochre for the second step (mid-tone) to create a common color. However as we keep building color with each step you use less paint to start creating some volume and shape by allowing the darker value to show on the shadow side keeping in mind of where your light source is coming from, so don’t cover up too much of the darker value when applying the mid-tones. What’s important is determining your “light source” first and keeping that in mind as you work from dark to light in this instance. We could move on to the third color for the leaves to begin our high lights but I prefer to do this after the rest of the design is blocked in. which brings us to…
“Blocking In The Red Flowers”
The colors used to match the fabric started out with, are a dark red made from a mix of Red Oxide, Burnt Umber. However, I wanted it to match the fabric, plus carry on the Terra cotta color of the Luster Stone Faux Fresco that I have been working with throughout the other Wall Art Panels I had done previously. I also used it as a background for the 12 Grotesque ornamental mural paintings for the stairway wall art mural panels. So I added White, Yellow Ochre, and Ultramarine Blue to the palette to create more volume to the flowers when it comes time to add the secondary “common color”.
In these photos, you can see the slight variations in the red where there is both a warm and a cool side of the red which is why I prefer working with an open palette and not pre-mixing my colors. In fact, if you look very close you can see that there almost appears to be a violet hue to it as well. This cooler color will work for creating the volume when it comes time. I realize of course this is a lot to think about but when it comes to blocking in the darkest value is what you’re after and you will see how the variations in colorwork very well when you start adding your mid-tones and high lights.
“The Red Flowers Midtones”
Before adding the mid-tone to the flowers I add a touch of Ultramarine Blue to my dark red and touch in some darker values on the outer edge of the flower petals and just slightly on the outside of the center and dry brush it to the center of the petals. As a reminder, I am still using an open palette and mixing my colors as I progress. As I mix the common/mid-tone color (red oxide, burnt umber) I add white but I also add yellow ochre to bring it more to a terra cotta shade which is a warmer color than the darker value and also pulls it away from the “pinkness”. You can add more white and yellow ochre to the red oxide for a third pass and a touch of burnt umber to dull the chroma/intensity to build more roundness of the petals. Don’t try to add the high lights at this point we want to do this when we finalize the floral wall art mural.
All the colors I am using for this Floral Wall Art Mural are made by Faux Effects International and are called Faux Creme Colors. Though I also use other mediums for painting murals each one or brand that I use I have a specific reason for as I have more than one method of approach to my painting whether it be fine art, landscape painting, wood graining, marbling, faux finishing and many other art forms that I practice. However I try to stick with universally named pigmented paint brands and although they do vary slightly in color, but generally, they are all made from actual pigments and are usually of the purest forms. This keeps things simple because as in basic color theory teaches that everything comes from three colors, red, yellow, and blue.
“Blocking in The White Flowers”
This step is the same as the others and we’ll be using White, and Faux Creme Color Dark Brown (burnt umber). Because this color can get a little pinkish I also added Earth Brown to the palette as I wanted a blended look working wet into wet to create some roundness to the petals from the start. These colors will also be used in the center of the red flower as we want all the colors used to flow through the entire design to create harmony. I did not use a lot of blending or gradation in this mural design as I wanted it to resemble the fabric from which the inspiration came from and adds to the flow of the hallways decor.
This is where the mural starts to become fun and now is when you start working the entire design as a whole as far as painting the flowers are concerned. The reason is that this is how the fabric appears. The lighter threaded colors are worked over the darker ones to create “shape and volume”.
The smaller red flowers are actually dominated with the mid-tones of the white flowers and those same mid-tones are carried to the centers of the red flowers and so on.
As you work these colors throughout the entire panel design when you are blocking in the white flowers it really begins to make you smile, because at first this kind of an approach (if you have not done it before) will confuse you and will have you second-guessing your ability which can slow you down making you analyze your work with doubt, but trust your creative side of thinking and keep going.
Remember you are not adding your hi-lights at this stage, you are only creating the flow through the entire panel using the dark and mid-tone colors from the flowers. Continue to do this on the panel and signed up for the newsletter or the RSS Feed to be notified when Part 4 of the Floral Wall Art Mural is posted
2 thoughts on “Floral Wall Art Mural | Part 3”
I enjoyed a cold ale & some Theolnious Monk with some very rare computer time. Sat back and thoughly enjoyed the tour. Love the traditional print and all the pearls of wisdom peppered throughout. Your mural is lovely.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Carolyn, Can’t figure out why but your URL came up as a 404 page for some reason. Maybe it was a miss spelling? You are can try relisting it again if you like. I do try to list some things about my work to help others. However painting over Luster Stone is not for beginners as there is no room for mistakes there are several other kinds of ground you can use that are more forgiving and easy to touch up. You must keep your hands clean at all times. Anyway thanks for dropping in your comments are appreciated.