Andy Lloyd Artist Murals

I was set a rather unusual challenge this summer: to paint a train emerging from a tunnel...on a garage door. The door was painted in green gloss and needed priming with white gloss primer and then re-primed for acrylic paint. The garage is set slightly off the road and if I could get the engine facing exactly right I could achieve the effective of a steam locomotive charging down towards the road. I had some source material to work from, but really just fragments which needed to be pulled together: the front of an engine in an old black and white photo, carriages from a different picture (at a completely different angle), fragments of a bridge...well, you get the picture. That's not to mention the uneven surface of the garage door itself, which added several extra dimensions to the work. All in all, a challenge!!

I started by creating the front of the engine, determined that I could build the rest of the train onto it. The first picture here was based upon a black and white photo, and I set the garage door handle into the metal work at the front of the engine to disguise it. I then set down tracks and sleepers to give the train the correct direction when seen from the road, and added on the rest of the engine and carriages after that.

Around that I created a bridge. I decided that it would be a better idea to use the garage itself to be the bridge, and make the tunnel very short. That way the train could be set back from the tunnel, in full sunlight. Otherwise a dark engine would be emerging from a dark tunnel; too much darkness! This also gave the opportunity to create some depth in the picture. I'd be able to set the tracks back into the picture, to show rail embankments and another tunnel in the hills behind. The difficulty was playing around with all the different components of the picture, to create consistency. Fortunately, I used steam to fudge various awkward bits around the wheels... Here's the result:

The owner of the garage, Mr Goldie, who commissioned the mural, is on the left, and I'm on the right of the picture. If you want to see the mural it is on Sandhurst Lane on the approach to Gloucester. Look out for it on the right as you leave the countryside and enter the city boundary. It has certainly been noticed by local residents...

I'd love to try creating a mural of a sports car sat in a garage, if any Gloucester resident would like to commission me to have a go! It would look cool having a virtual Porsche sat in your garage, wouldn't it?

Andy Lloyd, 24th July 2006

Spiderman Mural August 06

This bright and exciting mural now adorns the bedroom of a 5 year old boy in Longlevens, Gloucestershire, who is naturally a big fan of Spiderman. Spiderman really seems to come out of the painting, doesn't he? This mural took me about 8 hours to create, and covers about half of the wall.

People often write and ask me how much I charge to paint a wall mural. A rough guide is about £150 per wall, but this will vary if I have to travel outside Longlevens, or if the subject matter is particularly complicated. If you are interested in having a mural painted in your house, please e-mail me: andy3751@hotmail.com

A Fantasy Landscape October 06

This fantasy landscape covers two walls of a room. The first shows a meadow containing an enormous dragon, and youngling. The second wall takes the viewer to a beach full of mermaids. The dragon is really eye-catching and rightly dominates the whole scene. I was strongly influenced by some wonderful illustrations by Peter Scott. The dragon has since gained girlie eyelashes and a big smile, and looks fondly at her baby dragon, who is about to bravely try out his breath weapon on a psychotic-looking rabbit:

Elements of this composition were, quite rightly, chosen by the bedroom's owner, who particularly wanted a fairy castle in the background. This worked well in the angled alcove of the room, creating a distinct and cut-off part of the mural for the fairy princess. A gallant prince thunders along on horseback towards the unsuspecting dragon, as can be seen in the above detail from the mural.

As the mural turns the corner, it is connected via the distant mountain range with a beach and cliffs. Here the mural becomes more relaxed in form, with lots of small characters sat around, as if on a family summer holiday. Some characters were taken from cartoons, whilst others were created or built upon other influences:

I've tried to keep the more fun elements in the lower portion of the murals, at eye-height for small children. As the viewer gains height with age, the details in the pictures become more studied and of more adult-interest, containing light effects on the sea during a sunset, and so on. Hopefully, then, the mural will appeal to all ages and maintain its interest over many years. Right now the highlight is definitely the starfish!

A video of my first mural, painted for my sons' nursery

Dr Who Mural December 07

Here's a link to the now completed Doctor Who mural:

http://cheltenham-art.com/andymurals3.htm