Finding What We Need

The reason for starting this blog was to discuss how I might build a studio space to work in. The problem is that I paint murals, so the "studio" would have to be quite large right? Well that depends! Much of the work on murals is done in advance of actually painting on walls. In most cases, most of the preliminary work can be accomplished in a home office on a computer and drawing table.

Currently I live in a two bedroom apartment and use the second bedroom as an office/guestroom. I manage to get a little work done here but I don't feel like I can spread out and do more than one thing at a time. I set out one project and the room seems to fill up fast! See what I mean.....





Well, I am in the process of buying my first house so things will be changing by the end of July. About a month or two ago I really started thinking about either looking for a bigger apartment or getting a condo/townhouse. But I haven't had a very positive experience at my current apartment so why do more of that. After all, that is the definition of insanity right? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So, it's time to move out of Crazy Town!

So I decided that a better option would be to look for a house to buy. As I mentioned above, I have already had my offer accepted and signed all the financing papers and have a closing date set for July 10th. So, let's see how I got to that point and what does this all have to do with a studio?

Initially I was hoping to find a four-car garage with an attached house!!! Since these are not very easy to find I realized that some compromise was quite likely. I did about 25 walk throughs in houses near Milwaukee before I found one worth putting an offer in on. I ended up finding a stone ranch house down on the North Side of the City of Racine (see earlier post). When Mid July rolls around I will (hopefully) have more space to set up a place to work.

The house is a 3 bedroom ranch with a full unfinished basement. I figure I will use one of the main level bedrooms as an office. The room really only needs a wallpaper removal session and a bit of paint to be usable. But I have 2 or 3 large painting easels that I would love to set up and put back to use. This only leaves 2 choices, the garage or the basement? The garage is going to be filled up with my old blue car so that won't work. So this leaves me the unfinished basement.

My big dilemma here is, what to do to make the basement a nice space to work in? If anyone reading this has any ideas, please post some comments or drop me an email. I would like to build and finish a room in the basement that could be used as a small-scale painting studio. Alright then, what flooring option works best over concrete? Tile or laminate? How do I address moisture issues in this space? I have some ideas but since I can't even really get in the place for another month, what to do, what to do? It's hard to put together a plan from 12 miles away.

There is also a 2nd bathroom in the basement that needs a total re-do. It appears that the room is original equipment from around 1960? So, it all needs to come out and be rebuilt. I have some ideas for this room but need to learn some new building techniques and how to work with some new materials. I would love to build a glass block bathroom similar in style to this...




I really like how these glass block rooms look when they are lit up from inside. I also have been having some ideas pop into my head on how to finish the inside of the bathroom? I am leaning towards using either white square tiles or subway tiles on the walls and smaller tiles on the floor and in the shower. I came across a sink/vanity today that I really like and want to buy really bad!!! It's kind of retro and modern at the same time and would work together well with the glass blocks, I think!



Along with this, just a lot of white and chrome and black accents. I really am looking forward to building this room from scratch. I just need to do a lot of research and find out what materials and finishing techniques work best in basements? I will post pics of the project from beginning to end once I get started on it. Looking forward to input and feedback as I go along!

Now... off to learn how to do all this work!

Now What ?

I have spent the past few days trying to finish the hand drawn mural concept for the Chief City Runs with the Dogs event. Well at least trying finish the portion that is from a historic black and white photograph. This is the most important part of the mural so I am trying to make it look as good as possible. In the end I hope this will all transfer up to actual size on the mural. The drawing I am working on is about 18 inches wide and the mural will be painted on an 8' X 12' panel.

Since I have no idea who will actually be helping me once I get to the Pontiac, Il Walldog meet, I have to assume that I will need to paint the whole thing. This of course doesn't ever happen but I have to be prepared to help who ever walks up to help paint on the mural. After rendering all the detail into this drawing using mostly color pencils, I have a pretty fair idea of how I would paint it. Whether I can quickly train someone to jump in there and crank this out on site is yet to be seen.

Here is a detail shot of the drawing. The little man behind the Model A is about 2 inches tall for reference.







All the while I'm trying to draw this thing up I'm thinking about the house inspection that I have scheduled for tomorrow night. I've been watching some HGTV and some of the inspections don't go so well. I believe the little house that I have put an offer in on will have a pretty good showing at inspection. Just judging by all the other houses I toured, this one by far was in the best shape.

I keep thinking that I would really like to finish off the basement of the house I am buying and set up a portion of that for my studio space. Right now the basement of this house is pretty clean and doesn't have crazy stuff built in every corner like most of them. And it is one of a only a few houses that I looked at which doesn't have some cheesy 70's padded vinyl clad bar in the basement!

So I started thinking, if I am going to start renovating a house, I'm going to need more tools....Let's go shopping! There are a few tools that are must haves for any renovation project! Let's see, a good Sawzall is pretty handy, luckily I have one of those already. I will need a good 12" power miter saw and will most likely get a Makita brand when the wallet is a bit thicker than today! But I will need a good cordless hammer drill. So last night I stopped by the local Home Depot and bought this little beast.






I figure since I am from Milwaukee, I better buy that brand of tool. This thing has an all steel chuck and the battery flips around in either direction for clearance. It really heavy duty and best of all..IT WAS ON SALE! I figure I will be doing some hammer drilling into concrete and cement block so this should come in handy!

Now I just have to go and design a glass block bathroom.....I'm off!

Mural Concept - In the Beginning

I have been asked to lead a mural project this June in Pontiac, Il. The event is being called "Chief City Runs with the Dogs" and it is sure to be the big Letterhead event of the Summer! We will actually be painting 16 murals in 4 days. The event is being hosted by the Diaz Family with help from community members and the city of Pontiac, IL.

Although these events are all very different, it is a bit of a tradition to produce a copy of the mural design in one form or another. Sometimes the pieces are auctioned off to raise money for the event or donated to a worthy cause.

Below is the piece I am working on for this event. Today I would like to talk about how I got to this point and why.

A common question I often hear is. "how do you get the little copy of the art transferred to the large version on the wall"? I will cover that in more detail later, for now lets talk more about creating a concept rendering that will eventually be put on the wall.

I mostly wanted to talk today about rendering a piece of work and share how this particular art is being produced. For this project, I decided to go back to my roots and produce a completely hand rendered illustration both for a painting reference and to donate to the auction. You might ask, "why do that with all the technology we have at our disposal these days." Ah, the point of this whole post!

One of my first "real" jobs was at a specialty advertising firm in Northwest Wisconsin back in the B.C. (Before Computers) era. Yes, before the Mac vs. PC debate there was graphite, color pencils, french curves, and paint. At this first job I was usually handed a stack of business names and was asked to come up with some quick ideas that the sales staff could drop by with and hopefully sell. I did all of this logo design and lettering by hand. I then hand inked most of the work and then used the process camera to ready the art for printing.

Over the years I transferred some of the skills I learned back then over to the computer. Many of those skills however have been gathering dust in the recesses of my brain. Once in a while I call them out and put them to use again.

In this case I wanted to develop an original Alphonse Mucha Style border around the whole piece. The subject matter for this concept was from the era old Alphonse would have been laying down his color, so it seemed appropriate. I first drew the border scaled at 1.5 inches equals 1 foot on the mural. I then inked the entire line drawing of the border by hand.

There was a fairly early concept submission deadline so I had to produce a colored version of my art up front for approval. I decided to quickly render that sample using a scanned version of the hand-inked border, then colorize it in Adobe Photoshop. This way any additions or changes could be done and approved before all the time was spent hand rendering the original art. Actually a couple minor changes were made so this worked out well.

I am currently about 2/3 of the way through the rendering of this piece. Once again you might ask "why use the old school, tedious, by-gone methods"? There are a few reasons I can think of. A hand drawn or painted piece of art work is always just a bit more dynamic than a piece created entirely on the computer. Doing it by hand also give me time to think about what I am actually doing and change and evolve things as I go. This process also allows me to become way more intimate with the whole design! So, when we set up to paint this mural and I have several people helping me at any given time, I will know how each element should look.

And finally, I think a hand rendered piece of work has much more meaning and value than something that can be printed out at Kinko's. I hope to have a frame ready for this piece at the event and have everyone that helps sign their name on the original art. Now I just have to go and actually finish it!

Off and Running

I am beginning a Journey. One that I hope will help me find direction and meaning in my life. For years I have been working full-time and doing art, designs, and murals "on the side". I am both an artist and a Designer but I have a real passion for large-scale exterior mural painting. I have painted murals around the United States and Canada so far, and would like to expand my horizons in that area of my life. In order to do that I will need to build a LARGE studio. So, I am calling my blog and business venture, Studio in the Sky. I figure if I am going to build on a dream, I might as well have my head in the clouds!

In order to build my Studio in the Sky, I will first need a place to return to and be able to call home.

For the last few years I have been on the move. In the Fall of 2006, I accepted a new job and relocated to Vermont. After nearly two years of working, living, and touring New England, I decided it was time to return to Wisconsin.

I have now accepted a new position and am living and working in Oak Creek, WI, just South of Milwaukee. After living in an apartment for a good part of the last year, I decided renting was just not working out for me. I need a home base that I can build an Identity and network out of. I found that it is very difficult to build a network and business if I am moving and not really established. So first comes the home.

For the last few weeks, I have been learning how to shop for houses. I think I have seen most of the wrecks in Milwaukee County. I have also been tempted to make an off on a house that was at the outer fringes of my budget. Not willing to stretch the purse strings too much, I started looking at the problem from different angles. Because the taxes were very high in Milwaukee County, and most of the houses in my budget were not worth buying, I turned my search to the South. Taxes and house prices in Racine County were more in line with reality so I went looking there.

Last week I found a nice house on the North side of Racine and put an offer in on it.....Here is what the little place looks like.....So far!

In the coming weeks I will be traveling to Pontiac, Il to add another mural to my portfolio and one of 16 being painted there in 4 days. I will hopefully bring back photos to post here from the event. I will also be trying to close on the house and start my path to building a Studio in the Sky!