Pool in Perspective Figure Painting Mural

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

There were many changes that happened during the process of actually painting my mural. Today I will talk about expanding the pool in the mural design. Having decided on the size of the woman wading in the pool, I just felt that the perspective was either not working or the pool just seemed too small.

Even though acrylic paint dries rather quickly, there are still degrees. It is a bit of a finicky material. So, a lot of how I have gotten done this much this quickly is because I paint on one area and then leave it to go work on an entirely different area. I suppose my experience as a production supervisor in an imaging and duplication lab many years ago helped hone my skills for organization. Once I understand how something works, I plan accordingly to make all the steps possible weave together to meet a deadline. That means that I do not follow the usual sequence of events, knowing that if I can start one section drying before choosing to work on another, I can return to the first area with fewer problems and keep the flow going. I hope that makes some sense.

The first image shows how easy it is to lengthen the pool. One-point perspective gets easier once a few key point / lines have been determined. So, I simply extended the lines reaching to the vanishing point. And then I painted a solid, opaque color on the edging of the pool. This is to help me see the new pool size and how it relates to the figure. It also insures that I do not get confused on which area was travertine tile and which was pool border.

I include this second image so that you may see what a narrow space I am working in. The Jacuzzi is not even a meter away from the wall.

This last image shows the preparation I am making to allow for transparent water in the pool. You may see the round step “under the water.” The light source or sun is coming from the right. (I chose this side because there is a wide vista window on the wall that is adjacent to my mural. It seemed natural to have the light coming from the direction that real light enters the room. The step gets the most light since it is higher than the pool floor and a horizontal surface that gets more light than most of the vertical planes. I want this area totally dry and set before adding water around the figure.

You may see in this last image that I am doing the same process with the large tree on the right. I have painted the branches that may show in the final painting and I wanted the paint to have LOTS of time to dry. Later I will add foliage and allow that to dry. Lastly, I will paint the flowers. So, in a sense, I am working the whole painting “at once,” as I do one of my fine art paintings.