October 6: This has been motoring along, less than a month from the time of conception and we are already in day 2 of production.

Day 1: Chollaball created the valleys and the plains, the lakes and the rivers.

Day 2: Chollaball created the hills and the mountains.

This seems backwards, both gravitationally, and that i should give precedence to that which is lamest in mountain biking, and suggestively reeks of the MidWest. I’m a crappy painter, I had to start at ground level.

The big patches i mixed up paint and glaze, and had 50% too much of 1/5 of a quart. Extrapolate all that, and all this will cost like $30 in paint. I will have enough to do Alana’s room, assuming i don’t crash and burn on this. The next closest most-artisitc thing i’ve ever done was knockdown texture over a drywall hole.

someone really really wanted to help. last day on earth for that t-shirt. someone’s uncontrollably filthy sister also wanted to help. who was who?

Day 3: as i was camouflaging the Brontosaurus, I asked myself what possible good is camoflage on a Brontosaurus?

The brontosaurus took longer than i anticipated. I had to add bits of texture, cause that’s what the world looks like. The Mommy Brontosaurus needed eyelashes, so G could recognize gender. I tried a thumbtack, then settled on a paperclip, and sure enough the first thing G called out was the Mommy/Baby relationship. *awww*. Dad rocks.

I saw perspective, but could not figure out how to paint it, until I stared at pictures of Bryce and Zion and the Grand Canyon.

yaa…here it is:

Another 1.5 hrs to add details to give the illusion of depth and scale. I used all the colors for foliage that i detailed into the dinos. My technique sucks, but i know from web design and color wheels that these things really tie the room together. i sketched it on top of the picture with chalk before painting; it felt so sensible, so appropriate. I would like to take an art class.

today i learned the awesome power of toothpicks while making something i envisioned as a sagebrush. eyeballs and eyelashes worked much better too. this is taking longer than expected.

For the details i used a spoonfull of brown, white, black, yellow, red or the-other-green at a time. Its labor intensive, i have a stack of plastic spoons and coffee cups stolen from work. Its extremely cool, giving the picture what it needs, breaking down the details of the world, representing intelligent design, and then gumming it up in my pedestrian hands with cheapass brushes. At least i’ve been tidy, learning from patching/painting 2 houses in the past 6 months. I have vision. Vision is easy after years of building programs and posts and children’s plot development. But its written, or code, or pics, or romping on the beach and playground with my girls. Paint is not familiar, and i feel inadequate daily.

G was adamant about no T.rex. What kinda piece-o-shit mural would this be without a T.rex? I got her to agree, as long as the T.rex was nice.

everyone loves babies!

big eyes worked for Bambi

Halfway through this panel i realized i was addicted – deconstructing in my mind what layers came first, what rested above or below it, how it evolved to look like its environment, the signals the world presents. A switch flipped, and with simple shapes and lines, i could pour all the goofiness and joy i wanted onto G’s walls. i felt like a god, like when i came up with a killer line 20 years ago doing standup, like when i made a monster play in a big game, or cleaned a nasty trial for the first time. I came up with the idea for the Triceratops sipping an umbrella drink while climbing Tom’s Thumb, and almost fell over laughing so hard. I crack myself up. The only limitation was the shitpack of $2.99 brushes which made every line look like a freeway.

i’m glad i saved the most complicated stencils til the end

30 min to dab a sponge of brown and a streak of red allowed me to sleep that night. The Creator could not leave his children so naked in the wild

G started sneaking peaks in her room and checking up on me, i think Beckie has too – everyone wants to know what comes next!

G: I don’t think dinosaurs played with a beach ball
Me: But they probably would have, if they had a beach ball
G: Cool. We need more dinos

lakes seemed like a great idea, until they became giant expanses of non-dino space

the devil is in the details, and they take forever. toss all project management estimates out the window, addiction has taken hold. The last bit was 2 run\climb\swimasaurusses that G requested. I freehanded some dinos, so G got to influence her mural. They are purple, and blond; they are sisters.