Drexel Hill Old World Mural

It has been a while since I worked on an old world style mural. One of my favorite things about painting this style is the layering of the washy paints and watching each layer transform the space. Check out the time-lapse video I made of this project and read below to learn more about the design and the process. 

I received a request for this commission from designer Martin Durkin. He wanted to create a beautiful old world style mural above the wainscoting in his dining room. The home has incredible woodwork throughout and has a very masculine feel. So it needed to be dark. We also wanted to created a story as you walk around the room. I love hiding interesting little things in my mural work, so we played with some fun ideas to make this mural special. 

Before

Here are a few before photos of the space. As you can see, the woodwork in this room is pretty incredible. When considering the architectural details for this kind of mural, there were a few things i considered when I was working on the design. 

• ​The ceiling line in older homes, like this one, are not straight. They tend to have a slight wave to them. Since the contrast of the mural and the ceiling line could have made the ceiling line more obvious, I decided to create dark and light areas in the sky to distract the eye from noticing them. 
• The mural needed to compliment the room and not dominate the look. It needed to look like it had always been there. 

The Design

When planning a mural, I always start with a black and white sketch of the overall layout and design. I don't add a lot of detail on these. That allows me to have a map of the layout, yet the freedom to make adjustments as I work. 

Here are a few things that impacted the layout of the design:

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• The little window niche offered a fun opportunity to create a little secret garden feel.
• I decided to let the decorative vent cover stay as it was and paint the mural around it, instead of trying to make it part of the mural. To me it made more sense to approach it that way in this application.
• The two small sections closest to the big window gave me a fun idea of making the landscape end at the sea on both sides. Once side has a more modest boat house and the other has a more palatial viewing structure up on the hill. 
• The imagery in the landscape is very European. Specifically the mural rural lands in Ireland. There is a mix of the large old estates and the simple 

The under-painting

Most of the time, when I start a mural, I will begin with an under-painting in Yellow Ocher. I create a value study as I lay out the composition, so I can see the overall design and the initial contrast as it flows from one point to another. 

Layering

In the time-lapse video above, you can see how I do several layers as I paint. I laid in the sky, then the hills and trees, then added some details. Followed by a glaze over everything. Then the last step was to add the finer details. 

The final Photos

The best part of working on a mural is seeing the way it transforms a space. I was so please to see this room complete. It looks like this mural was meant for the room. It compliments the space without dominating it, made the ceiling feel higher, and created a more intimate feel. 

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