This project took a lot more work and effort than I expected, but I’m happy with the result.
Over the last year, we had our two HVAC units replaced and the attic access was ripped up as they removed the molding to give themselves more room. As part of fixing it, I decided I wanted a picture there. I have a memory of an Animaniacs pictures with the cartoon characters looking down through a circular opening riffing on numerous church paintings, but I couldn’t find it. I found some others, but didn’t like them. I even tried my hand at generating one with AI. Those didn’t cut it either so I started looking for other options and ended up with the tower picture.
This is also the first time doing a large scale tracing with the projector. The weak light, at times, became frustrating and I would have liked to have better lens control for positioning. My original plan was to hang the projector and aim it down on my work bench, but the projector needed to be too far away to easily set up. So, I put it on a tripod and aimed it horizontally. Drawing all the lines was tedious and tiring. For the most part, I followed the existing image. I did remove a couple of extra characters from the water tower that I didn’t want.
Painting also took longer than expected. The acrylic paint I’m using required a couple of coats to get good coverage. I had doubts early on, but the moment I used a fine tipped marker to draw in the lines, it was clear it was coming together.
I don’t have another painting project planned, but I’m sure I’ll do another at some point. I’m currently exploring how to carve foam for a statue and/or tiki for the patio. However, given summer is coming, I’m not sure if I’ll make any progress on that in the near term.
