First Corel Painter Illustration

So I finally got around to getting a Wacom tablet and Corel Painter. It was a nice Christmas present. This is my first attempt at digital illustration. I am trying to recreate the look of my "Nighttime for the Mariner" paintings. Not a bad first attempt. I am not crazy about it though. 

Christmas Painting

I painted this as a Christmas present for my Grandmother. It recreates a scene from when her daughters were young.

Graffiti Mural

The teen who this was painted for designed the initials and spray can artwork. I took that initial design and came up with something to fill the rest of the wall. I then painted faux cinderblock and graffitied the wall up.

Cupcake Mural

Some really cute stripes and cupcakes I painted for a nursery. The design was inspired by their bedding.Nurseries seem to be popular lately. I've still been working a lot on commercial projects, for which I have nothing to show. So please enjoy these tasty treats.

Genealogy Paintings

Some personal paintings I did. Using old family photos as reference from the early 1900's to the 50's. I am working on some commercial projects at the moment that I don't have any images of, so this will have to do for now.

Safari Nursery Mural

A fun safari mural I just finished for a nursery. These clients got me in at the last minute. The mother was in the hospital as I was painting.

Butterfly Nursery Mural

These butterflies were painted to match the colors of the bedding in this nursery.

Football Sign Painting

I just completed a painting for a Notre Dame fan. This is a replica of the sign the football players hit as they leave the locker room with the client's hand painted into the piece.

Cow Family Painting

I painted this for my wife for our recent wedding anniversary. Our family as bovines.

Tae Kwon Do Kids Mural

I painted this mural for the after school room at Hwang's Martial Arts' St. Matthews location. My son just started there and really enjoys it.

Old-World Plaster in Dining Room

I just completed this old-world style plaster for a dining room. It turned out beautifully. I love the bits of pale blue just coming through that pick up on the ceiling color.

Ceiling Medallion Stencil

I hand cut this stencil for a bedroom for Homearama. It was two stencils actually that I repeated around the chandelier.

Alice in Wonderland (progression)

It's time for Homearama, again, the annual home show put on by the Home Builder's Association of Louisville. This will be the tenth year I've painted murals for Homearama and the fifteenth different Homearama house. For this year I did an Alice in Wonderland themed playroom for Mastercraft Homes, Interior Design by Liz at Home. You can see the progression of the mural below. You can find more info about Homearama here. Thanks!

What I've been up to lately...

I've been busy with several projects lately, I've been painting for Homearama (I'm doing a Alice in Wonderland playroom, more on that later), I've been working a lot for Shiraz Mediterranean Grill (that's not ready to show yet), and I've done some other freelance work that I probably shouldn't show yet either but I have done some other very neat smaller murals that I can show you and here they are. Thanks. See more work at Stivers Art.

This boy was crazy about castles.

This little girl wanted a peaceful beach view she could wake up to every morning.

A fun nursery mural that picks up imagery from the bedding.

A foyer faux-finish.

A very cool way to personalize a child's room.

Daycare Mural

I had the opportunity to do some work for a local daycare recently. It was a fun job and the kids really enjoyed seeing the new mural.

The Progress of this Mural

This is a mural I did for an elementary school auditorium. It measures approximately 60' x 6' 6". The principal wanted an Arts theme centered around those arts found in the city of Louisville, since that is where the school is located, so I looked to the Louisville Ballet, the Kentucky Opera, Actor's Theatre, and the Louisville Orchestra for inspiration. Most of the figures you see are composites. I would look at between 2-4 photographs, for reference, to draw and paint each figure. The school colors are a deep green so I used a lot of that in the background.

Before I get started, my adjustable Bil-Jax scaffolding, awaiting.

Applying a tinted, high adhesive primer. I like to start from a middle tone, this time grey.

Starting to draw out the figures, I use a grid method and prismacolor pencils. They don't tend to mix with the paint, however, some colors I've used have bled through after I've applied a sealer.

With the style of painting I was doing here, I went ahead and outlined my figures in black and started to paint them in. The kids really enjoyed seeing them come to life.

More and more of the figures coming out of the wall. I was struggling to find the right skin tone on the female cello player.

Moving right along, you'll notice I hadn't yet drawn in the far left of the mural. My original sketch didn't quite work once I got on the wall and I was still trying to figure out what to fit into that area.

Well, I still hadn't figured out what to do with that far left part of the mural and all of my other figures were painted so it was time to start painting in the background.

You get a general sense of the Louisville skyline just in shapes and colors but now I really need to figure out what I am doing to the left.

So I add some actors and the conductor. They aren't looking right quite yet.

But finally after about 5 weeks the mural is complete. The kids really enjoyed getting to watch me paint and I so enjoyed being able to bring this to their school. Now here are some detail shots.

It was fun, but I was happy to be finished.