She Continues to Grow Part 7: Pushing it Further towards The End

02/24 I could be finished but I'm not. Unhappy with the belly graphic I added the previous day, I cover it up. I take a deep breath after deciding the blue/white graphics on the girl are a little bland and start filling in some areas with red. White fill is added to wing areas.

I am still feeling as though the background might be too much.

02/26 I had to push it further....


After talking with a few of my fellow artists, I make a bold decision (not without fear) to outline the whole of the girl and two mandalas with white paint - literally obscuring hours and hours of work.

It's difficult at first to make such a huge last minute decision which will impact a month's worth of work but I can immediately see how it makes the foreground pop against the background.



This was a 5 hour session which included more tweaking and rework to the black outlines and the white fill.

02/28/12 "This is the end, my beautiful friend"

True story: standing in my studio after another 6 or so hours working on the mural while listening to my classic rock playlist, paintbrush in hand and pondering what to do next or if maybe I'm finished when I suddenly realize that the song playing is "The End" by the Doors. I get it, I get it! It's done!

This 6 hours of painting was spent retouching the black outlines, and white fill within those black lines, ensuring the main white outline was opaque enough to my liking and also going back over each of the major colors in each of the mandalas to make them "pop." I am very happy I added the white outline.



02/29/12 My mural "She Continues to Grow" is officially finished.



I do one last pass over yesterday's dried paint with the palette knife and she's finished.









My husband is with me as I do this. Fellow Banana Factory artist Holly Scott helps me to remove the staples that have been holding it up for the last 35 days and we roll it up, take it down to the 1st floor and install it on the featured artist wall across from the main entrance to the Banana Factory.

03/25 - Quick Update - The finished mural is on display at The Banana Factory through the end of March if you'd like to see it before it moves on to it's new home.