B-ballin' Off The Walls in Bel Air

I just wrapped up a pretty exciting and big project for some fantastic new Clients!

I was asked to design and paint the inside of a basketball arena, specifically

the Los Angeles Clippers' home court, to serve as backdrop to a backboard

that was to be mounted in a little boy's bedroom. Pretty much a young boy's fantasy 

bedroom. The family requested to have portraits of several of the immediate and extended family members in the front row, too.  

I was totally excited by the task at hand.  I took some photos along the way to show some of the transformation!

 

Before pic, with a swatch of the red that was being tested out for the other walls.

 

Day one, I hit the ground running with background blues.

Abstract people, the arc of the arena and a little of the layout starts to permeate the surface.

 

The Clippers "backboard thingy".  Yes, ok, I still don't know the name of this piece of equipment that holds the backboard up even though I googled different word combos for atleast 2 hours looking for a view from the free throw line on the Clippers home court.  Apparently they don't let photographers run all over the court, like I was hoping!? Sometimes you must let your imagination fill in the gaps.  But it got the nod of approval from my Clients, who, did I mention were:

 

None other than Jada and Chris Paul from the Clippers!  That's CP3, man!?!?  Check out the shoes he's sportin' here!  Won't see those on shelves for a few more weeks, people.  You saw it here.

It's not everyday L Star Murals has breaking news on the latest shoes!

Back to the progress shots:  I had several days of floating heads, glowing eyes 

and dismembered body parts before this crowd started to come together.  I found that after days of only painting faces, I was creating identities for these little people, and laughing about it in my head. "Stern abuela on her night off from the grandbabies" "Attention-seeker who's just trying to get on tv- oh wait- that's me in college! Ha ha!"

 

I worked under a plastic sheet for a little while the rest of the walls were getting mudded.

It was a pretty funny set-up.  Well, atleast it is funny now. ;)

 

 Jada and Chris has this awesome regulation NBA flooring installed, so their son little Chris can really play ball in his room.  I wanted to continue the flooring into the mural, so did my best to match the wood grains where they met.

 I painted big b-ball fan Jay Z in the front row for fun!  

Then I found out that Chris is friends with him. 
Totally normal. Totally chill. (FYI, I travel.)

 Finished view of the mural!  11 days of painting to complete.

 Detail from the left side of the crowd with Chris, Jada, and their little cutie-pie Camryn.

 Detail from the right side with both sets of grandparents, Jay Z and a somewhat Sheryl-Crow-looking-Beyonce.  Again with the sneaks... check 'em out on the 2 granddads!

Well, what can I say?  I really feel like I got really lucky on this one.  Jada and Chris were so easy to work with, not to mention incredibly kind, supportive and patient while I basically camped out at their place for 2 weeks!  And I'd do it again in a heartbeat!  Hope the scouts get word of little Chris on the court!  And hi Jay Z and Beyonce! Hee hee!