Painting the Beast: 'forever YOUNG' mural fired up!

Mock-up shows the scale of the finished mural-to-be.

Applying the first few strokes of rich orange glaze.

After an intense week of construction, I was in a position to get started on what I love best: mural-painting. As usual, I have primed the strata a warm golden-flesh tone to begin. I work in the old European technique of laying down perhaps 12-15 transparent to translucent layers in a full-spectrum tonal study before applying the 'native' colors. My first step is to differentiate between light and dark by applying a warm orange glaze to 'everything dark or shaded'.

I don't mess around once I start painting. There's a LOOONG way to go!

Feeling good to be underway after all the prep work. Delayed gratification ain't all it's made out to be.

Starting off at the upper left-hand corner.

There will ultimately be dozens of passes on the rolling scaffold as the transparent glazes are systematically laid in. I will be applying 'global' glazes, meaning ALL of each glaze will be completed before moving on to the next color. So yeah, the sky will remain orange for quite some time! This is not a process that can be rushed.

When I paint a mural on this scale, I like to stay organized, working methodically from the upper left-hand corner and across the expanse of the wall to the right.

When working on a mural of this scale, I have to stay organized with a long-term plan of attack. There is not a whole lot of random painting that goes on, especially when laying in the foundation of the piece. This may surprise you (or not) but I apply precisely the same methodology to a piece on this scale as I would with an easel painting. I won't go into detail here, you will see as the days and weeks go by how it systematically evolves.

Day 1 of painting yields a good result.

Before I move on to the second glaze, all of the rich orange will be applied to begin the laborious process of separating light from dark.