99.9% done!

Yay! I am so excited! Just one more day to touch up some trees, and that's it! A friend who has been reading the blog recently saw the mural in person, and he said that the pictures don't really do it justice.  I agree, but just the same, here is a shot of the 99.9% completed mural.

as of 3.18.2012

The fact that pictures don't do it justice means you will have to come and see it in person!
Please join us for a reception this Sunday, March 25, from 4:30-6pm at Triple C Camp, 920 Camp Road, C'ville VA 22902.

I will leave you with one more photo, perhaps the most satisfying shot of all: the wad of masking tape I pulled off all the surrounding walls yesterday. Boy, did that feel good!

Almost finished!

Yes, I know the reception is the 25th but the mural is not finished yet. It's getting very close, though. Just the other day I sat back after a day's work and for the first time I thought "It's almost finished!" There is still work to be done for sure, but the hard part of figuring out where everything will go is done. There are just a few small plants and insects left to add, and I know where they are going.

After the last of the identifiable animal and plant species are finished, hopefully in the next couple of days, then I will just need to add a little greenery to tie everything together, and add the leaves to the trees. In real life, each tree has thousands of leaves. I'd have to be crazy to attempt that, so I will be using a layered approach to get depth, and then outlining and highlighting a few leaves near eye level for each tree. The shape and bark of each tree is very specific, so adding some identifiable leaves to each one should make it possible to identify the common tree species.

then

and now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

five-lined skink

barred owl

big brown bat

black racer and pickerel frog

cardinal

crayfish

crow, cottontail, brown fungus

eastern fence lizard

eastern newt

yellow-shafted flicker and monarch butterfly

mourning dove

painted turtles on a log

red shouldered hawk

There are three soaring birds, a red-tailed hawk, raven. and black vulture. The paintings look odd up close, because they are designed to be seen from far away.

black vulture

raven

red-tailed hawk

To read more about the mural, the role it will play in the community, and how you can support it, please see the website below.
http://greenadventureproject.org/Green-Adventure-Project/Support-GAP/Teaching-Wall-Campaign.aspx

And please join us for the reception from 4:30-6pm on March 25th if you're in town.

And more critters

As I said before, this month is all about the critters. I'll be finishing up the ones that were sketched in, and adding all the rest. Here are the ones I finished last week:

American Kestrel with prey, a meadow vole

Domestic cat that's killed a chickadee

Eastern gray squirrel

White-tailed doe with fawns

Ruby-throated hummingbird

Black bear cub

Lower left corner with rufous-sided towhee, baby possums, box turtle, southern lady fern, earthworm, chipmunk, Virginia willow, as yet unidentified green fungus, and a meadow vole with his tunnel

As of feb 6. You can see the extent of my reach with the A frame ladder. I'll break out the expando ladder (a technical term) to finish the sky and add the soaring hawks and vultures this week.

More critters

The next few weeks is all about the critters. I'll be finishing up all the ones that were just sketched in before, and adding all the rest. There isn't really much else to say, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

red fox sketch

red fox with mountain holly

downy woodpecker

piliated woodpecker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

turkey vulture with carrion

wild turkeys

Whole lotta painting, not much blogging.

It's been many years since I thought and talked about work during off hours, but  the completion date is looming and I am spending more time working, so it's only natural. These days the mural is always on my mind.

It's paying off, though. In the last couple of weeks I have made a lot of progress. The tree silhouettes and bark have been pretty much honed in (except for the oak tree...need to fix it), and the levels and placement of hills is done, though I still need to adjust the color some. Boulders are starting to replace barren hillsides, and I have figured out where most of the remaining critters are going to go. I have chosen more plants, and know where they are going to go. I feel good about where I am in the process, and am still thinking about adding things that are not on the list, so I'm doing OK.

The box turtle, possums, and skunk are done, but I can't find the photos I took for some reason so I will add those later.

I added two new critters, and finished the bobcat.

bobcat original sketch

finished bobcat with mountain laurel

Red-bellied woodpecker

Southern Flying squirrel

Ten weeks till completion!

That's right! In ten weeks the mural will be complete! Here's a quick look at then and now.

Then

 

 

 

 

As of 1.3.12

And here is how it looks within the context of the classroom.

Classroom context

Lots of work to be done, for sure, but I expect this final phase to unfold quickly as the pieces fall into place. The next bit I am going to tackle is the Sycamore grove on the right side. Then the hilly area in the center will get some boulders and rocky outcrops.

There is going to be a logistical problem to overcome. I planned to have a black vulture and a red-tailed hawk soaring in the sky above the mountains. Yesterday I stood on the highest rung of the ladder that I felt comfortable on, and I could only reach the tops of the mountains. I think I can do the tree tops and other things that don't require much detail with a long-handled brush. But not the kind of detail required to get the birds to a level of detail to identify the species. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Maybe it's as simple as getting a taller ladder.

Another thing I still need to address is a sealant of some sort. Acrylic paint is pretty tough and you can basically wipe it clean with a damp cloth, so I am not too worried about that. However, over the holidays there was an "accident". Something heavy must have bumped into the mural and took out a nickle-sized area very close to the heron's head. I can fix it, but this kind of thing is bound to happen in a room where hundreds of people pass through on a regular basis, and no amount of sealant will protect from that kind of contact. Maybe we need to think about the possibility of a plexiglass shield for the lower portion.

Chunk of paint missing under heron's chin

This last image is the cardinal flower, which will soon be sporting a summer resident hummingbird.

Is it Poison Ivy or Virginia Creeper?

Is it Poison Ivy or Virginia Creeper? A very important question! If you don't know the answer you could end up with quarter-sized blisters that ooze, burn and itch, like these:

Poison Ivy blisters

 

 

Yikes! Nobody wants that, right? The two plants can appear to be similar at first glance, especially in the middle of summer when they are both growing like crazy. In fact, they do have a couple of similarities: both can be found as a vine climbing trees, etc., and both can appear as a small shrub or growing along the ground.
But there are three good ways to tell them apart.

The first way is by looking at the leaves. The Virginia Creeper has leaves in groups of five, with finely-toothed edges.  Poison Ivy leaves are in groups of three, with irregular teeth, and tend to be shiny.

Virginia Creeper

Poison Ivy 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly, Virginia Creeper is held in place by small, branching tendrils, and Poison Ivy has a woody vine that looks like a hairy snake! The Poison Ivy vine is really visible in winter, when there are no leaves to hide it.

The third way to tell is in mid to late summer when the berries form. Virginia Creeper has a bluish-black berry that resembles a small grape. Poison Ivy has smaller, whitish berries that hang in clusters.

Both plants provide food for wildlife. Neither the leaves or berries of Poison Ivy seem to have any negative effects on animals. But humans need to stay away from the plant. It's not that difficult to tell them apart, just make sure you don't get too close while you're looking!