Painting a Mural: Step-by-Step (Part 2)

This is a continuation of yesterday’s blog post which you can read here.

STEP 8: More black outlines. Just went back over the black outlines here. Not all that exciting, but it does start to really pull the piece together.

STEP 9: Painted the shadow on the girl’s hands as well as the text in the word balloon. Used bubblewrap on the spine of the book.

STEP 10: Text on spot. This font is actually called “Damn Noisy Kids,” I don’t think that could be more appropriate.

STEP 11: Painted in the blue books.

STEP 12: Finished black outlines. Also went over white border.

STEP 13: Painted black borders, added black splatter around spot, did various touch-ups, and signed it.

And again, the mural hanging in the library:

For comparison’s sake, here’s the final sketch I pitched to the library director before she signed off on this design:

EASTER EGGS:

A co-worker suggested I included a secret message or word in the mural, like a DVD easter egg. And at first I thought, “that’s a dumb idea.” And then I was like, “Waitaminute, this is a chance for me to show what a huge Joss Whedon nut I am.” So if you look at the spines of the books on the shelves going from left to right across the mural, there’s a B-U-F-F-Y. A nod to the greatest TV show of all time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And yes I am a huge geek.

I included one other easter egg. The face of the disability monkey, the unofficial mascot of the Trumbull Library. This may take some time to explain. When I first started at the library, I would often do the schedule on the white boards (especially in children’s) and then draw a picture to go with it. One week I drew a monkey with sunglasses taking a walk and a co-worker said to me, “Why is that monkey blind?” I protested, “He’s not blind, he’s just wearing sunglasses.” And she returned, “No he’s blind.” She then named him “The Disability Monkey.” I used him on more than one occasion after that. The two I included here were for our mini-golf tournament that we held in the library to benefit a library demolished by Hurricane Katrina, and then, the best one ever, the day we were showing “The Miracle Worker: The Helen Keller Story.” That could never be topped, so he was pretty much retired after that point.

Blog-A-Day Challenge: Day 29

Painting a Mural: Step-by-Step (Part 1)

In 2008, the library at which I work hired me to paint a mural for the new young adult section. The library’s teen group had already voted for the name The Teen Spot. So using only the name as inspiration, I drew various thumbnail sketches and eventually a design was chosen. Traditionally, a mural would be painted on the wall, but the walls of the library were not conducive to that, so instead the final product was painted on plywood and hung on the wall. Because I knew how involved this project would be, I decided to take photographs of the mural as I worked. This seemed as good a project as any to chronicle the step-by-step process of painting a mural. You can follow that process below, but first, here’s a look at the final piece:

STEP 1: Purchase wood. Home Depot is kind enough to cut each piece of wood once (the pieces were originally 4′x8′). The piece that would become the spot is 4′x4′. The piece for the comic strip is 3′x8′.

STEP 2: Cut out the spot. I’ll admit I had help here. My dad is much more skilled with a jigsaw than I am, so he cut it while I held it as still as possible.

STEP 3: Priming the wood. Priming takes forever, especially doing the edges of the spot.

STEP 4: Painting the spot black. It took two coats, as did pretty much every bit of this mural.

STEP 5: Penciling out the comic strip. Dirty little artist’s secret here: WE TRACE! Because the images had to fit perfectly within the panels, I used a projector to trace my original sketch onto the plywood.

STEP 6: Painting the outlines.

STEP 7: Painting in color and applying dots. This should really be Steps 7, 8, 9 and 10 probably, but I didn’t bring my camera everyday. This is two coats of paint and then I applied the dots on top of that using bubblewrap.

To be continued tomorrow…

Blog-A-Day Challenge: Day 28

TURN AROUND!!!: The Latest Trend in Book Covers

A new epidemic is sweeping libraries and book stores nationwide: disrespectful book covers. These book covers feature women that refuse to look at you, the reader, and instead force you to stare at the back of their heads. I believe this trend started about six months ago with Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra biography, CLEOPATRA: A LIFE.

For CLEOPATRA: A LIFE, deciding not to show the subject’s face was a clever choice. No one really knows what Cleopatra looked like, so just showing the back of her head made logical sense. Nonetheless, it appears it was this creative move that opened the floodgates. Now every week, it seems a new book hits the shelves with a cover focused on the back of a woman’s head.

Publishers, I’m ignored by enough women in real life, I don’t need my self esteem dashed further by fictional women ignoring me as well. CLEOPATRA: A LIFE only hit shelves last November, but this practice is now cliche. I understand it may be a difficult transition to return to the days where the reader could actually see the main character’s face on the cover, but it’s time to move on. It’s time these women turn around.

Blog-A-Day Challenge: Day 19

Five Disturbing Children’s Book Covers

Working at a library, I probably check-in or check-out 50 to 100 books in a 4-hour shift. So, yeah, I see a lot of book covers. Book covers are an art. The good ones should be celebrated, and the bad ones should be pointed out and laughed at. There are a ton of non-fiction books that have horribly unattractive covers, but those are the books you use for school projects. Those covers don’t need to sell you on buying the book or picking it up in the library. When it comes to children’s book, apparently putting incredibly phallic imagery on a book’s cover must draw readers in, because it’s not an entirely uncommon occurrence. I refuse to believe no one at the publisher looked at these covers and said, “wait a minute… doesn’t this kinda look like…?” Let’s start with one published by Scholastic featuring a beloved children’s literary character.

CLIFFORD GOES TO WASHINGTON

Clifford Does Washington

Really? No one at the publisher saw this and said, “why is Clifford giving the Washington Monument a hand job?”

BOYS IN CONTROL

In control of what?

The title is from Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Boys vs. Girls series. This series is on our town summer reading list, and it’s been fairly popular, but when I look at this cover all I can think is, “what exactly are the boys in control of? A child pornography ring?” The girl’s face is painted with make-up, the dress is falling off her shoulder, and the boy is cackling with glee while taking photos of this girl who’s clearly very uncomfortable with the situation.

THERE’S A DRAGON IN MY SLEEPING BAG

What is that in my sleeping bag again?

When I first started working at the library, I got into an argument with a co-worker about this cover. She thought it was completely innocent, I thought the dragon’s tail was beyond phallic. A third co-worker sided with me, agreeing it looked way too much like a giant green penis.

THE CLOSE SHAVE

What did you do Thomas? What did you do?!

At least what’s supposedly happening here is in the title. The green train, Duck, is getting a shave.  The thing is none of the trains have facial hair. And Duck looks awfully shocked by whatever just happened. And Thomas seems way too happy about Duck’s misfortune. I’m not too familiar with the anatomy/mechanics of an anthropomorphized tank engine, but it appears Thomas may have spooged all over Duck’s face. Whatever happened here, I’m pretty sure Sir Topham Hatt’s going to have to get Duck a lot of therapy.

THE FLY GUY SERIES

"Up in the sky! Its a bird! Its A plane! Its a... eww... what is that?"

If you put a picture of Fly Guy in between picture of an actual fly and a picture of some dude’s dong, Fly Guy is guaranteed to resemble the latter more than the former. I do not know how a children’s book series gets green-lit when the main character is basically a flying penis, but it happened.

They say crazy people don’t know they’re crazy, I’m a little worried this Blog-A-Day Challenge has taken away my last bit of sanity. If it has, the proof is this post.

Blog-A-Day Challenge Day 11