Airplane Mural - Pushing A Teen's Dreams

Hello everyone. I'm still here. I've been quite busy and trying to get pictures of completed projects so I can share with you the work that is keeping me occupied.

This project has a nice story. In February I was contacted by a mother of a 15-year old son. She told me that her son loves airplanes and aspires to be an airline pilot. She then explained that he had borrowed an overhead projector from school and traced a plane on his wall, then told her that he would eventually paint it himself. Time passed and she got the idea to surprise him by hiring a professional to come in and finish it.

Surprises are tricky - we had to coordinate our visits when he wasn't there and she had to bribe his little siblings so they wouldn't spill the beans. Finally I was able to schedule time when he was going to be out of the house long enough for me to come in and work.

His original drawing wasn't perfect with some skewed perspectives - and a composition of the plane on a tarmac facing the other wall. Did you know tarmac is short for tarmacadam? I digress. Anyway, his drawing didn't quite work for me so I proposed that we put it in the air and add some clouds. I also proposed a second plane to it's left coming towards you as in an approach to land (nose facing the viewer). That increased her budget so we ended up with what you see above.

He also loves water and surfing and has this surfboard bedspread that I thought would be fun to use in the design of the plane.


It was such a fun mural and I just got word that he was quite surprised and ecstatic when he saw it last Friday. This young man is driven. I was impressed when I noticed a list of goals taped to his wall; get a job to make money for flying lessons, take flying lessons, etc. I hope what I created for him somehow keeps that dream alive. Best of luck to you young man.