Since December, I have been working on a painting for the wall of the nursery for the new son of my good friends. We have been referring to it as "the mural", though we decided to paint it on masonite and mount it to the wall, rather than paint it directly on. That way, if they move or he outgrows it, the painting can be moved.

Just getting the board home from Menards proved to be quite a trick. It was too big to fit in the car, so it had to go on top. M. and I had enough rope to tie it down, but we didn't have enough rope to make it really secure against gusts of wind at the front. So we rolled down the windows and drove really slowly, each of us with one hand out and up, hold the board down as the wind tugged at it. We laughed at our own ridiculousness pretty much non-stop all the way home.

The painting was a copy of a scene from Trina Schart Hyman's Saint George and the Dragon illustrations. N. had wanted a scene with actual dragn fighting, but we decided that it might be too scary for a really wee one, so we picked another interesting scene.

After gessoing the board, I traced the picture with the help of a projector.

Then I began the long process of turning that drawing into a painting.

Since I was using acrylic paints to copy a watercolor, I decided to mostly use washes or color, with only a few thicker areas here and there, and to let the pencil lines remain part of the finished look.

The last step (for me) came this Sunday, as I painted a bright red border around the edge to frame it.

Now all that remains is to get it mounted on the wall in the nursery. I'm looking forward to seeing it up, and I'll post a picture when it is. Both M. and N. were quite pleased with how it turned out.

I must admit, I was quite nervous when I started. I haven't really painted much since college, which was ages ago, and even then I was more of a photographer than a painter. My paintings tended to be very stylized and abstract. But Trina Schart Hyman is one of my favorite artists, and M. and N. are two of my favorite people, so I couldn't not do it.

If you care to, you can also see a slideshow of the photos above.