The mural painting continues! As I shared last weekend, here, there is quite a bit more to do but I'm really embracing the progress. This last Saturday I was able to spend hours- yes, hours- painting, much of it in a completely silent room which is quite the novelty these days (wink). 

 

Here's both parts of the coral reef and the beginning of the dolphins. The most time-intensive thing to paint on Saturday was this beautiful gradation. I used all three colors from one color sample strip (colors listed at the bottom of post) at the hardware store. The lightest one is the wall color. For the gradation, I first painted the darkest color at the bottom and up a few inches. I then mixed the medium color with glazing medium and, starting in the middle, usually brought the gradation up first- letting the paint brush naturally out of paint to create the lighter areas. I then brought the gradation down with the medium color to mix with the darkest color below it. 

The larger objects went well. I used a blend of acrylics and wall paint- and will need to go over them with sealant to make sure the acrylic stands up to wear and tear. Actually, I should probably go ahead and seal it all when I'm done just as we used to do with our murals. It never hurts to take extra precautions, especially where little hands will be!

And lastly, since it would be silly to expect everything to go smoothly- may I introduce you to the seaweed on the right? That would be Mr. Bane of my Existence. Seriously, I introduced this seaweed to an array of different colors- Would he like to be yellow? red? blue?- but he looked quite badly in all of them. I painted him over three times before realizing that he and I were not going to come to an understanding. That's okay, I can be a good sport- I'll just turn him into a rock instead! 

Gradation Paint Colors (Light to Dark): Valspar 5005-9C Sea Kiss, 5004-10A Rapids, 5004-10C Monterey Bay Teal