Horse Mural

Susan and I have been very busy this week working on several projects in a home of a long time client. Our "To Do List" at this house includes making over two bathroom vanities; adding a finish on two walls in another bathroom; a horse mural for a young girl who just turned 7; and a fabulous makeover for the family Game Room.

We decided the best way to tackle this job was to divide and conquer. I took the Horse Mural, while Susan worked on the 2 vanities and the 2 walls in the 3rd bathroom. We will work on the Game Room together.

I started out by carrying the ceiling color down onto the wall and then adding in a field of green and some clouds in the sky.

Next I projected the horse image I wanted onto the wall and sketched it in. I used four different overheads for this mural, some stencils, and also some freehand work to complete the composition. I made an overhead from a picture of the Birthday Girl riding a horse. I found another horse that I liked better than the one the girl was riding in the picture, so I used that horse instead.

Here’s the work in progress with my reference material taped up.

There was a request for a pony in the mural too, so one was included.

Here you can see the Birthday Girl riding a horse and the pony looking on.

I added two rabbits (Sheri Hoeger’s stencils), and freehanded the flowers.

A closer look. (click on any photo to see an enlarged view)

The two butterflies were done using stencils. The rabbits were done using two great stencils from the Mad Stencilist.

The homeowners will be putting this room back together over the weekend, so when I return on Monday I will take a few pictures on the entire room. Right now, I’m climbing over a lot of furniture all pushed into the center of the room.