Ocean mural for Oneonta City Pool ~by Siobhan and Co. ^_^

[Siobhan]

It's finally finished!! My mother and I had been working on this mural for 2 months in our garage. It was originally a project of the Blount County Junior Arts Council (which I like to call the eeevil arts council...don't ask). It was to be a 6 paneled sea life mural to go on the front of Oneonta City Pool.
At first, the other members of the council were working on it...and well, it wasn't working. After a while, they quit painting on it altogether. So, Mom and I took over and hauled it to our garage.
First, we painted each panel dark blue, going from almost black at the bottom and lightening it up towards the top. Then, we searched online for pictures of whales and dolphins. We then printed them out and projected the pictures onto the panels and traced with a white pencil. The rest of the fish and anemonys were hand drawn.
Once we had it all sketched out, we began the painting. Two months were spent in our garage. We used all kinds of paints, stored and mixed in my moms darkroom. We both did a little of everything in the mural...for example, I did the seaturtle, eel, rainbow fish, surgeon fish, etc..mom did the whales, dolphins, angel fish, jellyfish, etc..
When we were finally done, we sent it to my brother-in-laws paintshop to have it profesionally coated in polyurethane. Then it was out of our hands, local carpenters took it and mounted it on the side of the brick walls of the front pool building, facing the highway.
Now wer're just waiting on them to put plexiglass on it and maybe light it more efficiently. We also got an article in both of the local papers.
If you have any comments or questions let me know!

Here's the pictures of it!






Here's detail shots...
Photos taken by my mom BTW.






















Thanks a bunch!~~~ Siobhan<><

[Gilead]

Nice work and good on you two for stepping up when everyone else was dropping out. That's what keeps the world going 'round.
You guys were extremely painstaking in painting everything clearly and vividly, I respect that a lot.
I almost hate to crit something that's so far out of your hands at this point, but you invited it so here goes. The one thing really missing from this piece is a deep watery atmosphere. You could have achieved that fairly easily by shading each critter and object in shades of aqua and blue maybe heading more toward purple at the bottom of the wall.
But nevermind that for now it's a great piece and you should be proud. You should also figure out how much you'd charge by the square foot to do it again and be ready to quote a price to people when they ask.

[dorian]

wow
must have been a lot of work... and some fun, too

I agree with gilead about the perspective issue. everything seems a bit flat. most of the anemones and fish seem to be on the very "front", right behind the virtual glass. maybe more fish and plant in the background would have added to the feel of depth.
but it IS a very nice piece, these little problems don't do much harm. I'd love to do something like that, and having such a mom must be nice, too


.

[RJZ]

hey hey hey,


sorry for no posts in a while. i forgot my password and went through crap to remember it. but i cant believe you did that ocean scene! it is amazing!!! well i love the new sketch book, keep up the good work! oh and... the sword IS upside down. i dunno, it might be because i am a knight instead of a ninja or samurai. well i am gone. be back later!

RJZ!!!!!!!!!

[Siobhan]

Gilead-Thankyou for commenting! I did want to add more depth to it actually, even give the whales and dolphins white reflections of the surface, but we ran out of time and paint!
Dorian-Thanks! It was fun! And a learning experience to boot. Neither me or my mom new much about painting. We tried to get as much depth as possible without over cluttering it...if that makes sense...
RJZ-Well, it's about time!

Thankyou guys for your comments! They're much appreciated!~~Sio

[ebony]

i don't have a clou how this all works but i just want to tell you that that mural is awesome!!!
much love Ebby and Toby

[ElvisMcVegas]

This is great, the only thing is since its at a public pool, there will be little kids who will walk along and dig their fingernails into the paint and take off little peice and youll walk by it one day and see a it all messed up and chipped up, great job though

edit: wait never mind, I didnt see that they were going to put plexiglass on top of it, thats awesome then because stupid little kids wont walk along it ruin, Good Job to you and your mom.

[Siobhan]

ebony-Hey! Thanks a lot. I have a friend in Holland. unless...hmm..
ElvisMcVegas-Thanks for commenting, and yea, lots of lil kids, and the plexiglass still isn't in! Arge! I swear no one in this small town can get anything done! But it should be ok till then, we coated it in tons of polyurethane.
Thanks again everyone~~Sio