When we first moved into our apartment in Brooklyn, it didn’t take too long for our landlord to find out that I really dig art and like to work on my own skills in my downtime.
I wasn’t expecting him to ask me to paint a mural in the stairwell, though!
I spent a little bit of time thinking about what I wanted to paint and decided on a Manhattan skyline.
My first step was to create a simple sketch of the skyline, which I did using geometric shapes on Microsoft Word (of all programs!) before printing it out. I measured the sketch and the stretch of wall in the stairwell. Then I divided the sketch into one-inch blocks which would correlate to the ten-inch blocks I measured on the wall.
Then, with a ruler and carpenter’s pencil, I sketched the skyline on the wall.
The sketch stayed on the wall for a couple of months while I tried to find time to finish it.
Finally, I took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend and broke out my paints.
My intentions were to create a simple silhouette of the skyline, with just dots of light to interrupt the black.
Just before finishing, though, I realized that I really wanted to drop a full moon in the background.
I had a roll of masking tape with me, so I used it as a stencil to create a perfect circle, painted it in quickly, and finished up the rest of the painting.
Now every time we come and go, we walk past a little Manhattan skyline, reminding us of the amazing city in which we live!
