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SubscribeYou Want a Whale on Your Wall?
About five years ago I decided it would be fun to paint murals on the walls in my then 5-year-old’s playroom. Even before we bought our house, I always wanted to do this and knew someday I’d make this happen.
When I presented this idea to my daughter, she absolutely loved it! What kid doesn’t want to decide what to paint on the walls of their playroom or bedroom?
What I wasn’t prepared for was my daughter’s request for a whale on the largest wall in the room.
A whale?
I thought, Yeah right! I can’t draw a flippin’ whale. I draw stick people. That’s it!
She kept insisting, I kept saying no way, I can’t draw one.
Then I decided, What the heck, I’ll search the Internet for whale pictures and see if I can find a simple image of one.
Long story short, I did find a good whale picture, studied the individual lines of the whale’s shape (this is the key to drawing, don’t look at the whole picture at once, it’s too overwhelming) and started drawing.
And erasing.
And looking at the whale’s lines in the picture again. And drawing some more. And standing back from the wall umpteen times to get the “big picture” and make sure it was to scale as best as I could get it.
Rinse, lather and repeat.
Before I knew it, I had drawn the whale in the picture you see above.
Who knew?
Then the best part came. My daughter drew and helped paint the rest of the sea creatures to finish off the wall.
FUN!
Then three more walls to go!
The next wall was to be a garden theme, complete with an ant hill, clouds and a birdhouse on a post.
As you can tell from the drawings on the garden wall, my daughter drew most of these things. I did the painting since, like I said, she was only 5 at the time. I think she did a great job drawing and being creative enough to add birds and insects to the mural. As you can see, we still have some painting that needs to be finished on this wall.
On the third wall I decided to spray paint a chalk board. It turned out really well and it gets a fair amount of use. My mom even draws on it every time she comes for a visit. She’s quite the artist, so my daughter cherishes her chalk drawings by leaving them untouched for weeks after her visits.
We have one last wall to finish. As of yesterday my daughter wanted a haunted house and pumpkins on it. Obviously I’m trying to talk her out of this seasonal theme. We shall see!
LESSON LEARNED: You never know what hidden talent people may have until they try.
Now can I adopt you for a weekend to come paint my kids rooms? LOL
Great work, love the pics!
[Reply]
MsWonka replied: — October 3rd, 2009 @ 4:52 PM
Hi Brandy. HAHA!!! It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of time to do. Buying all the paint colors and then prepping for it, such as drawing everything on the walls and then painting them. Probably why I haven’t completed the garden wall after all these years. BUT, we’ve enjoyed it for a long time now and my daughter ABSOLUTELY loves it.
You did a great job. That’s one heck of a whale. I love that you got your daughter involved. I bet she cherishes the room “that” much more
.
[Reply]
MsWonka replied: — October 3rd, 2009 @ 7:02 PM
Hi Sheena. Yes, my daughter loves those murals. We are in the middle of a home remodel which will include all new interior doors and I’m trying to figure out how to salvage the doors in that room. I don’t want to paint on the new ones obviously. We shall see.