Day 22: Palm Trees on a Pristine Day

From the top of the Royal Village of Az Zarqa

Shadi beginning work on the grasses...

...As we start to highlight the plam tree trunks

Working low on the mural,..blending sand tones in.

A gift from our Jordanian friends,..an Easter egg! Happy Easter
was sung to the tune of Happy Birthday!  It was pure joy!

Shadi, a huge asset to the project~

Sands and fans of greens and blues...

The hidden easter egg found by Fahtoosh~

While painting the mural,..logistics are discussed about the 4:30 am
Monday morning projection excursion to get a few larger details up
on the mural...

Nidal and the electrician working on the power source, and
a 50 meter powercord for the laptop and the projector. Nidal
is picking up Greg and Scott in the morning at 4:00 am.
We will have an hour and half to project the infamous old camel and many other
larger details the students will be filling in and painting.

Days 19-21: Learning the lay of the land

The mural 

Using complimentary colors as a basecoat will
create a nice warm tone for objects in the foreground

The Jordanian landscape begins

Students on top,... working the wall...

As we grow our landscapes

Greg Phillips works with Nidal to measure out specifics

Each column will have three 3x3 square which the students
will be able to add their own individual work to the mural

Greg Phillips will be here for the next two weeks to assist us in landing  the job on schedule.
 His attention to detail will be very helpful.  Next week we will be taking the two dimensional columns and adding depth to them as the students study more landscape painting.

Adding yellows and greens and a dash of confidence 

Work is progressing slower but steadily unfolding.  Smaller brushes bring in the details
as we cover some of the basics in painting and color blending of warm and cool tones..

                                                                                Nearing the days end on Thursday.4/21 .
                                                                           Thankfully, we had cooler weather these last few days
                                                                                  Thanks Amal and Nidal and to all the students!
 .

Days 17-18: Butterfly stencils

Over the next 2 weeks we will use techniques of transferring images,

Today, we worked on stencils. It was a very warm dusty day, We will 

project larger images next week. 

1st step drawing the butterfly...2nd step, cutting the stencils out of the vellum
(tracing paper)

Using blade on cutting board

3rd step,...stencils in place,..waiting to paint

4th step, paint white to strengthen the colors that will go on top.

Shading under the wings...

Omar adds butterflies up high on the wall.

5th step,..blending yellow and orange

Days End,..Omar leaps for Joy! 

                                                     

Day 16: Warm undertones

Work starts off by blocking in colors...

Noora at work.

scaffolding logistics 101

Tools at rest

At days end.

Days 14-15 Stone wall meets top arch

One of our  "little" helpers.

Slowly but surely,...

Day 12 and 13: Meeting in the middle

 2nd coat of deep space blue above arch

Mastery of bucket managment

(detail)

Beginning of stone wall at end of West end of mural

On top of grout tone, blocks are painted in

Very confidently painting at the top..after this picture was taken, we talked about
the term,.."safety first" 

Stone wall is beginning to take shape after 5 fairly easy steps. Primer, grout tone,
 outline of shape, highlights, and shadows.

Stars placed in the mural by Star Mural Ambassadors. It was a good week.
Only lost one day due to weather. Some prior commitments had
 5 of the Youth needing to be at another job,..but to return next week.
Everyone is satisfied with the progress and starting to see the mural take shape.
Next week we will start adding dimensions to the archways and then we will take off top layer of scaffolding, and move onto
the details of the land and Red Sea, Camels, horses and Palm Trees.
Once again, Mr. Nidal is proving to be invaluable to the project. Greg Phillips will be joining the team on
April 20th. Then a two week push to the end.