Chris plays in a band here in Austin. He also does sound for several artists from the wall including Dave Grissom.

Jesse is a true Austinite. Born and raised. He's been in the remodeling business for years.

Larry from Binswanger Glass.

Linda and Shirley have watched the progress of the mural from day one. They work on the friendly staff of Binswanger Glass. Thanks for the nice comments in my new guest book!!

Jeff was our first winner of the t-shirt contest. He stopped by today to claim his free t-shirt and I was happy to get a chance to meet him. Thanks for participating in the game and kudos for knowing your Austin Music scene. Have fun during SXSW!!

Andy lives in Austin with his wife and baby. He posted pictures on his flickr site and wrote up a cool article in the Austin Metro Blog about the mural. Thanks for all your support and for letting me take your picture.

Chris is from Waco, though he plays with his band in Austin a lot of the time. What was the name? (let me know, bro) Monica, his girlfriend, lives in Austin and came back to visit with him briefly. Sorry I didn't get much of a chance to talk to you. You'll have to come visit again! They wanted their picture taken next to John Dee Graham.

Lynn (right) works for Nets to Ladders here in Austin and Sue (left) works in DC for the North American Association for Environmental Education. What inspiring work! They stopped by to take a picture of me and let me take a picture of them too. I wish you both could be in town for the opening, but maybe Lynn can take pictures for ya, Sue.

My buddy Cece Ventura came by yesterday with a new friend, Laurie. Thanks guys for stopping by! I really appreciated all your kind words. I took their picture next to their favorite Kevin Fowler.

Kevin has lived in Austin for around twelve years. He works for a furniture store in South Austin and stopped by briefly while making a delivery. He recognized Jason McMaster and Jimmy Lafave from the wall, and eventually figured out Redd Volkaert after I told him he played for Merl Haggard.

Ralph is a photographer for the Austin American-Statesman and a really friendly guy. He dropped by yesterday to meet me for the first time and I was so disappointed after he left that I didn't take his picture too. Lucky for me, I got a second chance today when he came back for more pictures! He wrote a story about the mural and we're hoping to catch it in tomorrow's paper, so I'll definitely post a link if it does. Thanks, Ralph!!

Alicia, my wife, came down to paint today. I wanted to add this austinartist address at the top along the wall for more people to see who are driving by. So I made use of her finely tuned lettering skills and she freehanded it perfectly. unfortunately though, I didn't take a good picture of it. Check back tomorrow for a new and improved image sans glare.

This is a picture from yesterday, Tuesday the 20th. It rained most of the morning, but I was able to get out there and work a few hours on adding a second coat over the blacks. I mostly focused on Kacy Crowley.

Bobby Whitlock is part of a duet with his new wife Coco Carmel. They dated for five years and have been playing music together for a long while, and they are known internationally. They are playing at the Saxon Pub tomorrow night. Tuesday that is. Check them out if you can.

Meet Lindsey and Sydney. They stopped by briefly to say hi after a trip to the park - great day for it!

Cece Ventura (spelling? sorry. let me know and I'll change it.) is a local Austin Musician who is about to finish cutting his second album. He plays at the Saxon Pub regularily and recently was hit by car just in front of their establishment... hence the foot brace. He said he was even in coma for a couple days, but since has made a full recovery and was in great spirits today. His story reminded me of the time I was living Cyprus and was hit by a motorcycle while crossing the street. Still have the scar on my right eyebrow from the face-plant into the concrete. Good times!

What a beautiful day to come back to the mural! It was sunny all day and temperature steadily rose to 80 degrees by the time I left. The winds were a bit harsh though and Theresa who works next door at Binswanger Glass made me promise not to use the scaffold. I felt like a paper doll out there. So I managed to fix some color issues along the bottom that had been bothering me. Mostly lightening a few and experimenting with mixing a few others. I purchased some mason jars last night to put the new colors in, which should reduce the amount of wasted paint. I'm probably going to mix some more tonight, so I don't have to do it out there on the wall and waste precious light and time. Overall it seems to be wrapping up quickly and I bought a couple more detail brushes on my way home to add more control to the finishing touches.

A portrait of my sister Annika and her new husband Sheikh. They had a beautiful ceremony over the weekend and I was honored to give her away! Love you guys!!

This is a little 2.5" x 3" ad I did for Alicia's giftshop in Waco, TX.

It was cold outside all day today. I started adding the second and last color to the clothing, that help define the shadows and weight of the figures. I wasn't too happy with the colors I mixed though, cuz the contrast was a bit strong and they started to compete with blacks. So I'm going to go purchase a few more colors tomorrow and fix that up.
I captured a couple pictures of visitors to the wall. Ish came around from inside South Austin Music and talked to me. He's been coming here for years and knew almost everyone from the wall. James Smith came to work on the roof and enjoyed giving me a fright every time he spoke to me from over head. I kept thinking there was somebody behind me or underneith the scaffolding!

James: Check back here online sometime and I may have a little surprise for you.

So I took part in my first documentary! Okay, so it wasn't about me, it was about John Dee Graham, but it was still exciting to be meet John in person and to be filmed working on the wall.

John Dee Graham!

So the weather wasn't exactly perfect today, but it was still exciting to be out there. Especially since I had to be inside the last couple days working on poster illustration for GSD&M. Kevin Peake, who worked on my team during Scanner and is an awesome illustrator and friend, gave me the project and helped me execute it in time. I'll post that image on my website after they unveil it this weekend at their conference.

What a beautiful day it was to be outside! The sun was out and the cool breeze kept me comfortable all day. Painting was a lot of fun and I was able to work on the three musicians in the top left corner. The red and orange colors were a pain to actually cover and so it was frustrating to have to do three or four coats of paint. I guess that's part of the reason that I love to paint in oil so much - you can just paint impasto (thick brushstrokes) and get it on the first try. Maybe next time I can get a chance to do a mural in oil and really get into some detailed renderings and textures.
Yesterday I worked for several hours before the super bowl and was able to fix a few things on the lower half that had been bothering me. I needed to darken the suit of the W.C. Clark to compensate for the heavier use of blacks on the other side (sorry mom, it pained me to cover over your hard work). I think it really helped. This week I plan to finish the hair color in the people I missed and add the shadow or highlight color to the clothing of several characters. Then all I'll have to do is spend the next week or so cleaning up edges. The good news is that I talked to some painting professionals and they said that I didn't need to put a protective coat on the whole thing at the end, because Behr paint (sold at home depot) is the best sold on the market and it is incredibly durable on its own. So that's nice that I don't have to complete that extra step and I don't have to risk discoloration or other negative side effects. I'd hate to screw up all my months of hardwork in a couple hours.
Anyway, I have a lot of commissions and other work coming in now, so I need to start on that. Have a great week!

Scott helped paint a few layers of paint on the wall today.