Step-by-Step Guides to Trompe L'Oeil Painting

I am very please to announce the publication of three new trompe l'oeil books.

I started work on them back in the spring of last year and it has been quite a learning curve putting them all together.

Each of the books take you on a step-by-step journey throughout the planning and painting process complete with photographs and diagrams throughout.

It has been my wish, when putting these books together, to equip you with an understanding of the techniques and materials necessary to create your very own trompe l'oeil masterpieces.

The books are 40-44 pages, full colour throughout 

and are priced at $9.95 / £6.95

  

To purchase these books from Amazon please follow the links below

   Venetian Window             Amazon.com           Amazon.co.uk

   Orange Tree                      Amazon.com          Amazon.co.uk

   Sun & Moon                       Amazon.com          Amazon.co.uk

   Mosaic                        

The books are also available on Amazon throughout Europe

Murals & Trompe L'oeil - Orange Tree Class

This is a short video of one of my recent mural & trompe l'oeil classes.



See my new website for more details



www.ChrisWestallMurals.co.uk

.

Just testing out ifttt.com (if this then that) - if I type something on my Facebook page it should pop up in my Twitter feed and my Blog. Here's hoping from Murals & Trompe L'Oeil by Chris Westall http://ift.tt/1brnrvf

Black Biro Mural

The mural pictured here has actually been painstakingly drawn using black ballpoint pens by Ryan-David Foster. Ryan worked on the mural with his girlfriend, Leigh-Anne who drew the animals. The plan was that the mural could then evolve by adding more animals over time.

Tragically, hours after finishing the final touches to the tree , Ryan had an accident from which he never regained consciousness and he sadly passed away earlier this year.

Ryan grew up in Grahamstown, a beautiful English Settler City in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. He loved the outdoors and excelled at water sports - particularly in water polo. He loved his friends - they were an important part of his life as was his family.

He never had an art lesson in his life but studied at the Boston School of Design College in Cape Town after school. The mural was done at his uncle's house on Dainfern Estate - Fourways, Johannesburg and was started due to his enthusiasm and adventurous spirit. It has left a mark on all who have seen it - a beautiful reminder of a talented, genuine soul.

Unfortunately I never got to meet Ryan, my wife learned about him from his mother who is a colleague of my wife's. She sadly had to make the journey from the UK to South Africa earlier this year when she received the tragic news regarding her son.

As a small gesture on my part I decided to share Ryan's work with you. Using a ballpoint pen to produce a mural is something I have yet to try out but after seeing what Ryan has achieved I will certainly look to giving it a shot.

The Fontana dell'Ovato

Finished the mural yesterday - client is very happy and now I have to get back to some mundane decorating back at home where I have a hallway to re-decorate before Christmas.

The Fontana dell'Ovato

Day five finished on the mural - a couple of days left to go for completion (I hope).
Lots more colour added now - still lots of work to do on the oval fountain - avoiding the temptation to go into too much detail.

The Fontana dell'Ovato

Here are some photographs of the halfway stage of a mural I am currently working on.
It is an interpretation of the The Fontana dell'Ovato ("Oval Fountain") which can be seen at Villa d'Este, Tivoli near Rome in Italy.

At this stage I have very loosely painted in the design in raw umber and then I am gradually building up the washes of colour. I intend for the finished piece to be more suggested rather than get bogged down in too much detail.

Hole in the Wall

It has been a long time since I have painted one of these trompe l'oeils - the water leaking out of the brickwork was always a favourite quirk of mine.

I painted this as part of an advertising campaign for the Little Darwins Nursery in Rettendon, Essex. The mural itself can be seen on the Station Approach road in Wickford, Essex.

This was completed in just over four hours as I was working quickly to try and beat the changing weather. And all done without the use of a stencil (in case you are looking in Banksy). :-)

Pompeian Mural

Just finished painting a Pompeian themed mural for a lounge in Hockley, Essex.

I spent three days painting the fresco as it may have looked over 2000 years ago and then spent a couple of days adding the cracks and the discolouring. The finished piece was then giving a couple of coats of flat acrylic varnish to help prevent any real damage.

Orange Tree Video

Finally finished editing the footage for my Orange Tree video. Hope you like it.

Orange Tree

Orange Tree canvas has been finished and the painting process has been filmed ready for editing.

Unfortunately it has been a while since I have last edited and back then I used a wonderful program called iMovie HD on my old Mac. Our new Mac has iMovie 09 installed on it and and does not make any sense to me whatsoever and judging by all the forums I am not the only one who is frustrated by this.

iMovie HD was close to perfect and Apple decided it would be a great idea to scrap it completely and re-build a new editing suite from scratch. A bit like trying to improve the wheel by giving it right-angles.

I will get the YouTube video done - although it may take me a little longer than anticipated as we need to rebuild the old Mac and re-install the software (including iMovie HD)

YouTube

It has been about 2 years since I last did a YouTube video so it is long overdue for me to make another.
I am currently halfway through an orange tree trompe l'oeil which I hope to complete tomorrow. Then it will be the simple task of editing all the footage together and uploading it to YouTube.

This piece is also being painted onto a canvas so if anyone is interested I may be selling it at some point.

Roman Ruins Mural

I have been busy up in Banchory, Scotland over the last couple of weeks painting a 22ft high mural of a Roman ruin.

The mural was painted on the main wall in a private indoor swimming pool - unfortunately, due to the time spent on painting the mural, I was unable to do any sight-seeing. I do hope to be working up there again and I will certainly make sure I allow myself a bit of free time.

Work in Progress

Here are a couple more photos of the two commissions I am currently working on.
Finally got some colour on them today. The blue doors on the Provencial window will be louvered and the lavender will be coloured lavender - I just like to base it out with green first.

Provencale Panel

This is the other commission I am currently working on in my studio at the moment.
It has been painted onto 9mm MDF that I have then cut to shape.
So far I have planned out the basic window shape and the Provencial landscape in a monotone and will gradually build up the colours as I progress.

The finished piece will be used for a exhibition stand by a company that specialises in French style home accessories & gifts.

School Mural

Haven't had much painting time of late but managed to get some done on the school window panels today.
I have now fleshed out the tones a bit more. The paints I am using are Raw Umber and white with a Magnolia base...! Yes, I did say Magnolia :-)

School Mural

It has been quite a few weeks (months even) since I posted last. Consider my wrists slapped :-)

I am working on some panels in my studio at the moment. Two of the panels are for a couple of windows in a school in South London. When the school was extended these two windows had to be blocked in so with the panels I am aiming to re-create the lost view.
It looks a little bland at the moment whilst I plan everything out - lots of roof tops interspersed with foliage and some wildlife. I have just recently finished a Peter Pan theme mural so I have been painting lots of rooftops of late :-)





The other panel is for an exhibition stand and will be a Provencal window complete with lavender fields. Once I have planned something out I will post up some pics.

Monument Valley Mural Glow-in-the-dark

As promised I managed to take a couple of photos of the mural in the dark to show the effect with the glow-in-the-dark paint.

The silhouette effect of the monoliths works really well and was worth the extra effort in masking off all the areas I didn't want splattered with glow paint.

Monument Valley Mural - Finished

It has taken a bit longer than expected but the mural is now finally finished.

The ceiling has glow-in-the-dark stars, galaxies & comets and then comes down to the horizon so, when the lights are off, the rocky monoliths form striking silhouettes.
Unfortunately my mobile phone's camera cannot capture this and I cannot find my other (proper) camera at the moment. I need to mount the camera on a tripod and set a long exposure in order to capture the glow effect. It does look stunning but for the time being you will just have to take my word for it :)

Monument Valley Mural

Slowly getting there with this one. Gradually building up the rocky forms in a monotone way with a little white. Also starting picking out the stars in Titanium White - still got quite a bit of work to do.