Provence Window Trompe l'oeil Mural

This is a picture of the latest trompe project that I have filmed.

I tried something a little more involved this time with more use of perspective techniques - especially for the louvre door. It was also a bit more time consuming and took a little longer than anticipated.

I had an empty bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape which I had polished off months ago. I had been meaning to use as a reference for a while now and seeing as it hails from Provence this seemed an ideal opportunity to paint it within the mural.

It may also take a while before I get the time to edit all the raw footage as I have another daunting project this week which I will write about soon.

Yet More Salespeople

Those sales calls are coming thick & fast - I had yet another telephone call from a company who (surprise surprise) claimed they were part of Google and offered to get my site listed higher up the index - for a fee of course.
As we were both sat in front of our computers I also opened up Google so I could check my listing.

The conversation went as follows -

Me - I've opened up Google

Salesman - OK

Me - I'm using Firefox, what browser are you using ?

Salesmen - Google

Me - No, what internet browser are you using.

Salesman - Google !

Me - What, Google Chrome ? (this is Google's new browser by the way)

Salesmen - No, Google !

Me - Google is a search engine - what internet browser are you using ie Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc..

Salesman - Oh, er Internet Explorer.


The conversation went downhill from this point.


It also transpires (as if I could not have guessed) that the company were not part of or owned by Google.
But then again why let the truth get in the way of a sales pitch : )

Salespeople

I have been receiving lots of sales calls of late regarding getting my site to page 1 of Google. The most recent one I had was quite revealing as it indicates to me how little knowledge some of these salespeople have about the product they are selling and the industry they are in.

The salesperson this time was from a company affiliated to Google (don't they all say that) and guaranteed to get my site on page 1 of Google for a monthly fee. After talking with the salesperson it transpires that this would be through the Google Adwords scheme and not by means of improving the organic placement of my site which is something I am always keeping an eye on and trying to improve as this is of more value.
I tried to explain this to the salesperson but she kept interrupting to ask questions like " What do you mean by organic listing " !!! This is a basic term when referring to search engine placements and is something she should have known. I'm not saying that such terms should be common knowledge but if you are in the industry you should at least know the basics. It's like a car salesperson who doesn't know what a steering wheel is for : )

She also didn't realise that different internet browsers give different results when searching on Google - I don't know the reason for this but I am aware of it. She wasn't too worried about her lack of knowledge here as she was using Internet Explorer which, she confidently states, is used by over 95% of internet users. I'm sure that users of Firefox (like myself) will beg to differ here but what do we know : )

At the end of the phone-call she signed off by saying that this obviously wasn't something that I was interested in. She had finally got her facts straight : )

Julia Kendell - New Website

Julia (from DIY SOS) has finally got her new website up & running and it can be found at www.juliakendell.com.

There is also some DIY SOS fact-sheets on the site which gives more details & photos of the programs Julia has been involved in so far - including the Gosport show featuring Gordon Collett & myself.

Children's Murals

I have just posted up a new video. This one is a slideshow of some of my favourite murals that I have painted for children's rooms.

They include my Peter Pan mural, the safari and jungle scenes and the Doctor Who Tardis, complete with my son dressed up as a Cyberman terrorizing his sister : )

Venetian Window Mural Video

Here is the video as promised. I was up into the early hours editing this - hope you like it.

Venetian Window Trompe l'oeil Mural

I finished painting this mural today - it is one that I have been itching to paint for some time now as I have always been fascinated with the eclectic facades and contrasting wall textures of the city of Venice.



As with the crumbling wall mural I recently painted - this will also be a short stage-by-stage film shot from a static camera.

It took me about ten hours to paint over a couple of days and I now have nearly an hour & a half of footage that I need to edit down into about 3-4 minutes.

Unfortunately about ten minutes of my initial footage was corrupted - luckily the rest survived intact (to my relief). It just means that I have no film of the very start of the mural when planning out the lattice work.

Hopefully I should have the film edited and uploaded to YouTube within a couple of days.