Welcome to the jungle!

I have it listed here on my blog description that I like to paint and would be sharing some of my painting projects from time to time. Since I have recently gotten a couple emails asking me about my painting, I thought I'd share some with you here today. Believe it or not, to create this mural I did a LOT of stamping.


While all the animals are hand painted by me (using no stencils) almost all the background foliage is done with stamps. I say almost all the foliage, because there are some leaves, such as the palms above the leopard, that were hand painted. To stamp on the walls I used acrylic paint which I painted right onto the stamp with a foam brush. This way I could shade the stamp by applying several different colors of green paint. I could then get 2 images stamped per loading of paint onto the stamp. So, yes...it did take me a while to do this, as I did the entire room. It was a labor of love however, so I didn't mind. The room was painted for my boys (aged 9 and 7 at the time) and I loved seeing their faces when they would come home from school to see what I had painted that day.This is my youngest son Danny around the time that I finished the mural - had to be 10 years ago now. My oldest son eventually moved into his own room downstairs, leaving Danny with the jungle room...yes it is still painted like this much to Danny's dismay. He has been asking lately for me to repaint, but I must admit I hate the thought of covering up all my hard work. Actually, when he has friends over they all say it's cool...even though a lot of it is covered by speakers, amps and guitars.No, I don't have twins, but by the looks of this photo you might think I did. A couple months ago Danny asked me to take two photos of him - one playing his bass the other his guitar, then in Photoshop he combined the two...cool, huh? Danny is the one I talk about here when I say my son helped me figure this or that out on the computer. He's really good at computer stuff.

Anyways...back to the mural. The photos above show the main part of the mural which is on the wall under the window and can be seen from the doorway. I also painted other animals, frogs, lizards & snakes that you might find in the rain forest around the room strategically placed between dressers, desk, etc... One of my favorites was this cute little frog that is next to the door. I actually copied that little guy from a t-shirt one of the boys had at the time. The other animals I painted were inspired from posters, wall paper border and magazines. I had originally planned to paint a giraffe coming up from behind the bunk beds, but never did get to that.

Hope you enjoyed seeing photos of my very first mural project. I have painted several since this one, but I think this will always be my favorite. If you live here in the southeastern area of Michigan and are interested in having some painting done, please contact me. I also do faux finishes and stenciling.

Enjoy your day...it looks like it's going to be a beauty! I'm heading out to a family get-together in a while so I know my day will be good!