Southeast Whitesburg Mural--05 Sketching

Saturday seemed like a nice quiet time to head for the college and get started on the sketching. Quiet it was, but it was also hot. It had not occurred to me that the thermostat would be turned up so high (80 degrees F) to prevent the heat pumps from turning on. Next time I'll bring a good box fan.

I was not completely alone which was very nice (the buildings can be kind of spooky at times). One of the staff from the Letcher County Adult Education program was using the quiet of the weekend to get caught up on paper work. During the week they are so busy helping students that there is little time for maintaining files. I regret to say that I don't know all the names of the terrific Adult Ed. folks, or I'd commend her diligent weekend work properly (you can actually catch a glimpse of her in the photograph through the open door). She also saved me from having to go back to my office (in another building) to find my yard stick by loaning me one from their office.

Armed with the yard stick and my sketches, I mounted the scaffolding and began sketching in the line of the hills and the three Whitesburg campus buildings. The graph I superimposed on the sketch yesterday came in very handy for getting everything in the right place. After sketching each building and its surroundings, I masked (the blue tape) the top/outer line of each building, so that I can paint background right up to the building and still have a clean line. After the background is painted, I will mask in reverse before painting the buildings. It helps to maintain that sharp architectural edge especially of more modern buildings.

The first of today's photos shows (above) the whole wall with the end product of today's three hours of effort. Unfortunately as I am always telling my students light pencil marks do not reproduce well (which is why I'm always asking them to use pen on things we're going to copy). So you can only see the blue tape outlines and not the sketches themselves in the picture of the entire wall. So I took two close-ups of the sketches, although even close at hand the light pencil markings are still very faint.


The first close-up (photo left) is at the left of the mural and depicts the original Whitesburg college building variously known as the "Coca-Cola" building or the administration building (it will be christened with a new formal name at the anniversary ceremonies this year).



On the far right of the mural (photo right) is the newest building, the Belinda Mason classroom building, which also houses a small auditorium and most of the faculty offices. The bridge across the river (that connects to the third building) attaches to the rear of the Belinda Mason Building.

The next step -- start painting, beginning with sky and clouds. I'll probably wait until there is air conditioning available. Perhaps Monday.