My favorite projects....

I wanted to start sharing some of my favorite projects with you.  The first one that came to mind is definitely my largest.  While waiting for my son's adoption to be approved, I had alot of free time and sleepless nights.  When he finally came home I wanted him to have the most over-the-top bedroom I could manage.  I wanted him to know that we were thinking of him long before we met him.  

I started out sketching a jungle and animals that became a full room mural.  There is nothing like having a canvas that size.  In my normal artwork I have to edit and scale back sometimes.  Here I could do anything, and I did.  I started with a landscape (I tried to depict Guatemala, his home country) with mountains on one side and beach on the other.  Then I started adding all of the friendliest-looking animals I could think of.  A few months in I finished that, but we were still waiting for our adoption approval.  What's an insomniac to do?  Add more, of course.  So then came the trees, flowers, bugs, even a umbrella and ball on the beach.  Some days the news was not good and I would have to close the bedroom door and ignore it until I got better news.  Nine months later we received our approval, so the room was done and ready for our new family member. 

Since then the baby has grown past a toddler into a little boy.  About a year ago I started asking if he wanted his room re-painted.  His answer was always "no", but I was persistent.  I finally asked if he wanted an outer space room (he had recently become obsessed with planets and Star Wars), and the answer was "YES!!".  Finally I could do another mural.  It was sad to cover up my jungle artwork, but I was excited to have a new challenge.  This time he could tell me exactly what he wanted in the room and where he wanted it.  He gave me a list of characters that must be present:  WALL-E, R2D2, Buzz Lightyear, Ace from Planet Heroes.  I was off and running.  This time I didn't have 9 months.  I moved him out of his room for a week and blasted through, working every moment I could squeeze in.  Now the "big boy" room is just as popular as the jungle room was.  I wonder what will be next?