Birthday Week

It is my birthday this week. Not a major birthday, just another birthday. I am celebrating it by preparing for the birth of my next grandchild. He is due in the next few days, so we will be sharing the month for celebrations. I decided I wanted to do a mural for his room, (yes it is a boy!) but my daughters house is four hours away. I did the next best thing... a portable mural 20" x 48". There was not much wall space so it had to be narrow.
I wanted to share with you my process.....some of the photos are not great, but you can see how I changed my mind as I went on....

Stablio Pencil on unstretched canvas...I was fighting with the curling canvas! Hard to see the bear in the tree trunk and a "fox" to the right.

Added collage and texture. I used text from an old schoolbook about being "good". I changed the fox to an otter - my son in laws request. To save time I did an image transfer instead of drawing (and re-drawing)

Here is the close up of the added texture. I used a strip of textured wall paper and gel medium through a stencil to simulate a tree trunk. 

Blurry IPhone photo, but wanted to show the first stages of painting. I used inexpensive Blick paint - Red, Yellow, Blue and white. All the colors were mixed from them. I changed out the bear for a rabbit and the car on the branch became a zepplin....

Here is the finished piece.

Close up of the bunny and otter.

My version of a happy monster....not too scary. Only the best for my new grandson!