For my senior year in high school, my final project was to paint a mural on one of the walls in my school. As psychology is one of my favorite subjects, painting humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers in my school's AP Psych room only seemed natural. This mural is based on a drawing I completed a couple months ago, which highlighted the empathetic and kind nature of this infamous psychologist.
My mural started out on a blank 7ft x 8ft canvas, cozily placed in the corner of the classroom. I used a projector as a guide to trace my drawing onto the wall at a much larger scale. One of the most important factors of this painting was to make sure Roger's features were accurately placed and to scale, so using the projector was an enormous help.
Just as I did with my drawing, I started out with the shirt and jacket first. This was very helpful since I was getting used to using house paint for a detailed painting and I could focus more on application rather than fine detail, as I would need to while painting the face.
Once I completed the shirt, I moved onto the face. I painted from bottom to top, and after nearly completing the face, I started outlining the flowers. Getting the shapes filled in was a good guide for when I would start filling them in with finer details.
After 66 hours, I finally saw the vision in my mind. This mural represents the empathetic, kind, open and genuineness of Carl Rogers, and highlights the importance of displaying empathy wherever you go. For many years, my mural will continue to bring smiles to anyone who walks into the classroom.
The flowers represent each of Carl Roger's humanistic beliefs: bee balm shows empathy, daffodils show forgiveness and regard, and peonies show happiness.
Thank you!
