This summer, I had the opportunity to paint a wall mural at Madeira Middle School that was inspired by Pablo Picasso's famous painting entitled Three Musicians.
Picasso was in the height of his Cubistic period and illustrated three figures using distorted shapes and flat blocks of color. The painting shows a clown playing the clarinet, a harlequin playing the guitar and a singing monk.
My version includes references to the school, as I added a globe, book, paper and pencil, and Madeira graphics. Here is a quick video showing the mural come to life!
I had a great time paying homage to Picasso while adding artistic inspiration to the walls of a school. Look for more masterpieces to be added each summer! Here is the mural I painted last year.... Van Gogh!
As an artist, it's always fun to paint a new theme or unique item for the first time. I had this chance when I was invited to a baby shower where the nursery theme was Classic Pooh. Because the mother-to-be was also a tennis pro, I knew I could put a fun "spin" on her hand painted gift from me.
I painted her a frame with Pooh & and Piglet playing tennis. It was a "hit!"
I also found unfinished nesting capsules and painting each one to be a sweet Classic Pooh character. Although not a toy, these will look great on a shelf in her nursery.
The last one was a pot of "hunny!"
And here are some shots of a Classic Pooh nursery I painted awhile back.
So, consider Classic Pooh as a room theme for your little one. It's so cute!
We recently took a quick trip to Indy to visit friends from college and maybe squeeze in a wall mural.
Their middle child is my godson, so I was the obvious choice to paint the stadium mural they had always wanted. They are from Michigan originally, so they wanted to capture their loyalty to the Detroit Tigers.
Because my time there was limited, we came up with this design, sort of an abbreviated version of Comerica Park and the Detroit skyline.
The homeowners had the walls already painted green, which was very helpful in laying down the field.
The most fun came in the details of the scoreboard, although I didn't see the need to paint in the billboard ads. Next time we visit, I'll have to add a few more details. I was speed painting!
So, stadium murals are a great way to decorate a finished basement or boy's room and there are many ways to add personalized touches. Keep this great theme in mind for your next room update!
We also went to a WNBA game, pretty cool! Those gals were huge and so strong!
A customer of mine had a great idea to spruce up her son's room. She wanted to combine her love for contemporary art with her son's passion for Legos-notably Star Wars Legos.
She wanted the flexibility to hang four paintings either in a large square over his bed or in a row, gallery style, along his side wall. With Andy Warhol on the brain, I came up with these canvas paintings.
They are 24" x 24" and depict Darth Vader,
a Storm Trooper,
Luke Skywalker,
and Captain Rex. The bold colors and shapes will look striking against his tan walls. So, if you're unsure about committing to a wall mural, think about what can be created on canvas!
Here is a painting my daughter did in art class last year, also with the pop art feel. Totally fun and they make great inspiration pieces!
One of my latest projects was painting a frog or pond themed table and chair set.
I love painting little ponds with a "bird's eye view" and have featured them on many pieces. Including little surprises like a snail and dragonfly make the project fun and it is a suitable design for both boys and girls.
There is a project in my book Mural Magic that features one of these ponds on a bench.
I will show you the steps from my book as well as include videos of me actually painting the frog on the table top. Here is the first video showing the base coating of the frog after he is sketched on the table with a white pencil. You can watch all of my painting videos in larger screen size on my YouTube channel (coriekline).
You can see that it is simply a matter of loading your #10 flat brush with three colors (Apple Barrel English Ivy Green, Ceramcoat Light Foliage Green, and Ceramcoat Old Parchment). By blending the colors based on highlights and shadowing, you have a very nice base coat that defines the curves and shape of the frog. I am using both the flat part and chisel edge of the brush.
Here is the second layer where deeper tones are added to give depth and highlights are added for dimension.
This video clip shows how to float shadow around the frog using a liner brush and watered down black paint. I also add the details of the frog's face to make it come to life!
Here are some of the steps for the entire table scene from my book that you can purchase from me (by contacting me at coriekline@mac.com) or from any online book seller.
The background green is sponged in to give a mossy texture.
The water portion in the center is flowed on by blending dark and light blues and letting them mix during the wet application.
The frog can also be blocked in with a solid green and save the shading for the next step. Either way, I have fallen in love with the positioning and shape of this frog and use him frequently in other projects.
Below are the full pages from the book, Mural Magic, just to give you an idea of how the book specifically lays out the steps.
Once you feel comfortable painting frogs, dragonflies, snails, or other pond creatures, you can paint them anywhere!
My daughters and their good friends have been planning to have a garage sale for an entire YEAR. They sorted through toy boxes, closets, and drawers and priced up a bunch of their toys to sell.
Preparing for the sale was a lot of work for us parents, but it motivated me to get rid a bunch of stuff, too. So, we picked the same date as our citywide garage sales, made some signs, and set up shop.
Look at how busy we were.... I think our dog, Brady, sleeping in the middle of the sale was a perfect comment to how it went.
Turns out, we did sell a few larger items & furniture, but couldn't give a TV away. Well, actually, we DID give a TV away... to the neighbor kid. Everything left over got loaded up and delivered to Goodwill and the kids were pleased with a little extra cash in their pockets.
And Brady was pretty tired from the excitement!
I love going to garage sale and was able to find a few treasures myself. Stay tuned to see what I end up doing to these....
A lightweight set of drawers with decals...
And two solid wood nightstands. Everyone has a place for these!
