Getting ready for some upcoming exhibits

Hey everyone. Sorry it has been a few days since the last posting, but I have been catching up on all of the mundane things that piled up since the mural began. Now, I am back to a more normal schedule and will be taking a number of pieces over tomorrow to be framed. Some will go to the show at the Edina Art Center in July and the others will head over to Kimberly, WI to Richeson Art Gallery. I will be sure to post some images of the pieces in the frames when they come back. In other news, Mike McCann and I are in the midst of putting an application together for the city of Minneapolis for a huge art commission that they have available. Chances of getting it are slim, but you will never get it unless you try. So you will have to wish us luck in that venture. Until then, have a great rest of the week and will be back early next week to fill you in on other news as it comes.

THE MURAL IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!

After 15 days and many, many, many hours I am happy to announce that the Vast Enterprise Mural is complete. I will get you a full picture with all of the pavers and other add ons that Andy and Steve are working as soon as they are done putting the stuff together around the mural. I hope you guys have enjoyed watching the process and it was definitely worth the time and effort. It really is great when you get to work with fun people and Mike, Andy, Steve, and George were all of that. So, now it will be back to smaller stuff on the blog (even though there might be something "big" coming soon). More details to follow. Have a great weekend everybody!

Second to last day

Hi everyone. So after two weeks on the mural, Mike and I come down to the last day tomorrow (Wed) at Vast Enterprise. All that is left is the highlights on the three bushes and the final details on the grass. For Mike it is a matter of finishing the last few bricks on the driveway and we turn it over to the Steve and Andy at Vast to finish the display. Hopefully within a week we will have a full photo with everything laid out in the show room. Until then, here are a couple of pics to show you todays view.

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers day to all of you who qualify. Things here in the cities was kept at a quick pace again today with another 13 hour day at Vast Enterprise. Things are really taking shape now with some of the detail work getting done. Usually I don't show the progress pictures out of order, but wanted to show you the first two to give you a better image of what this thing is starting to look like. I am really liking the way it is starting to interact with the natural products like the deck and pergula. If all goes well, the mural has potential to be done tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest. So with that, I am off to get a few things done and will start the week on a great note hopefully.

Busy Saturday at Vast

Well Saturday was a busy one at Vast Enterprise. There was a group of carpenters that joined in on the fun from Outdoor spaces. Their goal was to build a deck and pergula that would attach to the house. While they were doing that, I spent alot of the day working on detailing the garage and also the landscape a little more. After they left, I started working on the door and window a little more to get it prepped for tomorrow. As always, there is alot more work ahead for tomorrow and am coming down to the final few days before it is all complete. Can't wait to show you guys what the final images look like.

The garage roof has arrived

After a break yesterday to take care of some meetings and such, was back in action at Vast Enterprise today. The one thing I learned today was the fact that even though the garage area was alot smaller, the detail work on it was so involved and took a lot more time that the house roof. The good thing is that all the shading and stuff is pretty much done, now it will be the highlights that get put on next. So, with that, the weekend will arrive tomorrow and the work will go on at a great clip, I hope! Check back soon with ever more exciting photos.

The roof is on "fire"

Ok, the roof isn't really on fire, but it did get worked on quite a bit over at Vast Enterprise today. The main issue was making sure that they kept in line with what a slate roof would feel like. You'll notice by the images that I managed to get the main colors painted in and also the shadows that really gave the roof some weight. Now tomorrow I will be able to go in with some highlights a little more to give them a more natural feel.

After a little break

After having had a few days off in North Dakota, it was nice to get back to the mural at Vast Enterprise. I didn't get a full day on the mural as I spent most of it in Waconia taking down the exhibit there. Over all it was a great experience and had alot of comments. And I sold a few things to boot, so it was good. As for the mural, I managed to get the trim work painted on the house and garage and started laying in the windows on the garage. I also spent alot of time working on the trees and a few things as well. As of right now, I have six days to hopefully finish with a few extra days on the end if needed. So, with that, you can imagine what I will be working over the next week. Check back soon for more updates on the mural. Tomorrow will be spent laying out the slate tiling on the roof and maybe some window and door detail. PS. If you noticed a panel missing, it is from Mike taking it home to work on the driveway details.

Thursdays work

Well Thursday has come and gone and wasn't able to put a full day of work in, but still got some good things done on Vast Enterprise's mural. Now I will have a few days off as I go up to North Dakota for a wedding reception and party. Should be a fun time and a nice break. Don't worry though, I will be back at it on Monday after I take down the Waconia paintings. It will make for another crazy week that's for sure. So, have a great weekend and will post again on Monday night.

Mural Day #2

So day two has arrived for Vast Enterprise's mural and now I am starting to feel the fact that we are working all day on a large mural. But, after two solid days of progress and work, I feel we are right on track to finishing by the middle of next week. Crazy to think that yesterday as of noon there was nothing but a white wall. Funny how a day can change things. So in the pictures that I posted you can see some of the textures that are starting to form on the stucco look on the building and if you look closely, you can even catch a glimpse of me in one of the photos! In other news, will be taking down the Waconia show in the next week. Can't believe that it is coming up on six weeks already, but am anxious for some other fun events upcoming. Check back tomorrow for another days progress on the mural.

Mural has begun...

After a week or so of waiting, the mural for Vast Enterprises has finally come to light. Vast is a company that is producing some really cool blocks for patios, sidewalks, and driveways from recycled tires. For the mural, today was a very busy one with putting a double primer coat on the wall and then getting the sketch transferred to the wall so that we could start laying the main colors into the background. As you can see the wall is of a good size at 24 foot wide by 12 foot high and will be done before the 20th of June. The good thing is that I have the help of fellow artist Michael McCann and am looking to get alot done in the next day or so. The best part of the day was when we went to Lowes to pick up some paint and the lady who was helping got wide eyed in disbelief when we told her we wanted some 20 different colors made up. Talk about a crazy order. Anyways, just thought you would like to see what I will be working on over the course of the next couple of weeks. Be back tomorrow with some updates

Scary I know!

One of the things that I find myself not doing enough of, or at all, is the self portrait. I know it is strange to think about painting oneself, but it can be a useful tool in understanding facial features, and the evolution of yourself I suppose. If you think about how this can be utilized, you only have to look at Vincent Van Gogh and all of his great self portraits that he created over his lifetime. With that, when the opportunity came up to work on a self portrait for the Children's Book Illustrators Guild, I knew it was going to be a fun test to do another portraiture of myself. The goal was to create a self portrait in the style that our children's book work is done in. So i stylized my image a little to fit the technique that I use and went to town in creating this image. I know it is scary, but you'll get used to it. Let me know of any thoughts you guys have about your self image and portraits that you do! Here were the steps that I took to get to the final version. As previously posted at the beginning of the week, you saw how the background was completed as well.