Redwall Inspired Nursery Mural

In which the author actually finishes a project

I’m still reeling from the fact that I had an idea and followed it through in a realtively timely manner. Finishing up a big project is such a heady feeling. Usually I talk a lot about cool ideas, but rarely actually start them, let alone finish! I’m not even sure what to do with myself.

When the baby was born, I had dreams of a cute nursery. However, he shared a room with his Papa’s office for the first 5 months of his life. There wasn’t much space to work with. When we moved, I felt a huge surge of inspiration and urgency. If I went at my usual pace, he would be starting school before I finished anything! So once we were all settled, I got to work.

This project started out with me wanting to try my hand at painting little woodland creatures on the nursery wall.

So naturally, I drew a bunch of bricks instead. Hey. We go where the pencil takes us.

This feels like a good opportunity to mention that I have never painted a mural or worked with acrylic paint before this project. I would absolutely recommend practicing with your medium before actually applying it to your final and very permanent project. You’ll work out a lot of kinks before hand.

It was always my plan to put a little shelf at the bottom of the painting for the baby’s books. I like the idea that the mural is a window into wherever his books take him.

A lifetime of pencil and pen art served me well, but I had to think differently with acrylic. Looking back I would have done a few things differently, such as painting the base color for the bricks before outlining them.

A sunset felt like a good idea for a bedroom. It’s a nice opportunity for color and suggests winding down for the day.

I looked up tutorials on painting sunsets in acrylic but it still took me well over halfway down to figure out how wet the brush needed to be to blend the paint.

I’m obsessed with how vibrant and pretty it turned out, and actually delayed painting more for a while because I was afraid I couldn’t match what was already done.

But we press on.

Again, a steep learning curve for me and brush wetness. There is streaking and heavy pigmentation in spots, but I’ve come to be very fond of it. It has something of a whimsical story book feel.

Next was the fun part. Details! Set dressing, if you will.

I did my very best effort at some happy little Bob Ross trees. He makes it look so easy!

Once the stage has been set, the players can enter. I knew when I started out with a woodland theme I would be drawing inspiration from Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. His whimsical universe is populated with anthropomorphic woodland creatures such as mice, squirrels, otters, badgers, and the like.

“The creatures in my stories are as big or small as your imagination wants them to be.” - Brian Jacques

The center piece of Jacques’ woodland world is a red sandstone Abbey. Here, peaceful woodlanders can come and live in idyllic safety with the good brothers and sisters of the abbey (until the inevitable protagonist appears.)

It felt right that the path should lead our twilight travelers back to Redwall Abbey.

There were long gaps between each phase of painting, as it is low to the ground and quite a challenge with a curious baby cruising around. Plus painting while he napped wasn’t really an option as I was painting in his bedroom. A toast to my husband for lots of Papa & Baby park dates to let me get some painting done!

Remember what I said about painting the base color for the bricks first?

Ya live and learn.

It was around this point where I kind of forgot what a rock looked like. But two hours later, I think the end result rather gets the job done.

It’s finished! For now! Probably! And only two months after starting.

The final touch was to mount the IKEA spice racks for the bookshelf. Another toast to my husband who drilled into the painting with shaking hands. (I was too afraid to do it myself.)

I like to think this is the view from St. Ninnian’s Church in Mossflower Woods, as the tolling Matthias and Methuselah bells guide the good beasts home to Redwall Abbey for a night of warmth and feasting.

“As I sit here in the warmth and peace it all lives again in my memory, a strange tale of love and war, friend and foe, great happenings and mighty deeds.

‘Gaze into the fire, young one. Listen to me and I will tell you the story.’” - Mossflower, Brian Jacques