Murals and traditional paintings are in-demand today.

Many establishments like cafes, restaurants, hotels, and even gardens have murals. These artworks are usually instagrammable as part of their marketing campaign. Customers take pictures and post them online! With these murals and other installation art, a place can have its own character and theme. And people can literally walk into art.

Painting The Koi Fish

THE CONCEPT

We are commissioned to do a painting piece at Nami Hotel, located in Tagaytay City. The owner wanted to recreate the work into a more colorful one. The original artwork was painted in black and white. Since Nami Hotel is a Japanese-themed hotel, I created a Japanese-inspired artwork.

This is the design I came up with. I wanted it to be surreal but simple or minimalist they call. Koi Fish floating and swimming over the mountains. I tried to make it as oriental as most Japanese artworks are, which is visible in the outline. I also incorporated gold so that it will look elegant.

And it is also inspired by the Moon and Water Element in The Legend of Aang.
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THE MATERIALS AND TOOLS

For this project we used the following:

• White Flat Latex Paint
• Thalo Blue Acry Color
• Lamp Black Acry Color
• Gold Acylic Paint
• Brushes of different sizes
• Acrylic Emulsion

THE PROCESS

We covered the original piece with mountain painting. We cannot locate or contact the first artist of this but we told the owner to let him/her know as a sign of respect.

This is the finished background. This is done by just blending black and white paint on the wall using 4" brush. It is fun to do since there is no perfection needed for backgrounds like this. I also wanted to show the brush strokes so not much blending is needed.

After the background dried, the koi fishes were outlined using white paint and a line brush. It should be done using chalk but we cannot find any in nearby stores so I have to try my best not to ruin the silhouette of the fishes.

Then it's time for the actual subject! Using Thalo Blue, I covered the body and apply it in such a way that the fish can be seen as moving and not just being there, I wanted my art pieces not just posed but animated. I don't know if it is visible here, you can comment down your thoughts!

I added the details using black and white paint. Good thing the weather is gloomy so the paint did not dry fast, so more time for me to do and blend the scales and some parts of the fish. But I don't want to overdo the blending as I wanted it to be minimal in design.

Adding the gold part is one of the most exciting parts! It means that the mural is almost done! When it was applied, we can see how delicate it was. The gold acrylic act as the accent color aside from blue. And adding shadow under the fish made them look floating or swimming. The shadow also created an embossed illusion.

For the last part, we added the name of the hotel, but I am not able to draw its logo because I don't have a proper tool at that time.

Then we sealed the painting using Acrylic Emulsion. We just had to deal with some molds since Nami Hotel is located in Tagaytay City which is a cold place and molds love moisture and cool places.

Overall, our client is happy with our work! YEY

Thank you for dropping by!

Have a nice day.