24 Jun The completion of the ceiling mural painted near me in London
In a previous blog, I talked about how lucky it is when a potential client does a google
Search for a ‘mural painter near me’ and Richard Bagguley comes up.
I previously talked about the project for a domed atrium 30 metres high in Putney
London and discussed the preparation of the scaled drawing.
In this particular mural commission due to the height, the client arranged to put up the
scaffolding which needed to be placed at about 2 metres below the top of the dome to
give me enough space to paint the lower and upper sections, since most of the detailed
the painting was to be done on the lower part I needed to be comfortable sitting.
Having estimated the radius of the dome the first good news on being able to measure it
precisely was that it was correct which meant my scaled drawing matched and all the
plants and fauna were positioned correctly.
The planning of a mural painting at that height is particularly important, because it is
seen from below and the perspective has to show the objects elevating. This is
achieved by making the base of the foliage look thicker and tapering as it goes up
otherwise the objects will look like they are about to fall out of the sky.
The other important part of planning a ceiling mural is to use the space to the maximum
for elevation whilst trying not to spend too much time on details which are hardly visible
from below.
For this I planned three planes of vision for maximum depth. The first was to paint the
mountains in monochrome very softly; at the highest they came within 120 cm from the
top, the mountains went all round the radius.
The next step was to mix just the right blue for the sky, I did not want it too obviously
painted i.e. to be more realistic and when I applied it using a big brush I used lighter
variations to blend and cover the whole surface including all the mountains until they
could hardly be seen. Using acrylic paints means working very quickly as there is a
limited drying time but it also means that it is possible to deepen the colours where
needed without having to wait long.
When the background sky and mountains have filled the whole mural leaving a very soft
background it is time to start the detailed work, with the plants, trees and flowers rising
up from the outer edges using mostly slightly muted colours to keep that elevated feel.
These particular clients had taken an active interest in the whole process and would
participate in choosing the elements and adding personal touches which would
personalize the mural and give them a story line for visiting guests.
We took some of the planks away on the scaffolding at the final stages to get a view
from below and made some minor alterations and I received some photos from two very
happy clients when the scaffolding was finally taken away and it had achieved all that
we had set out to do.
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