My WinStar Casino Project

[TheArtist]

Thought I would share what I have been up to since last September. I was asked to do 5 large, octagonal domed, ceiling murals for the WinStar Casino expansion. The casino is located on I35 near the Texas Oklahoma border. They told me that the casino was going to be divided into 5 different themes which my murals would reflect. The themes are, Paris, Beijing, Rome, London and Madrid. I spent the first several months coming up with various ideas for each and getting them approved, then coming up with more detailed computer renderings. There are 4 smaller domes of about 30' across and 1 center dome of 50', Rome, my favorite [] is the one thats 5 stories across. I have finished all the center sections except for the Rome one that I am currenly working on. The Central Center near downtown has been allowing me to use their auditorium on days when there are no events scheduled, my studio was not large enough for even the central part is 30 feet across. They are letting us use the auditorium in exchange for me teaching some art classes later in the year.  

The murals are supposed to reflect the different themed areas of the casino and one reason I am having to do the middle sections first is because they will be placing large, carved stone, water fountains underneath and it would be to difficult to install the center sections after the fountains are in. They told me they wanted the murals, to have BOLD strong colors and designs because they would have to be competing with all the other lights and sounds of the casino.  I tend to do things more old world and toned down so its been a constant reminder to myself and my assistants to "Make it have more contrast and be bolder! lol" I have been told that at certain times during the day there will be music and light shows where each section, mural and fountain will light up, have lights play in the fountains and upon the murals, etc. Sounds like its going to be quite something.



Here is the first mural we started on, Paris.

This is the initial rendering. All the renderings are "basically" how the mural will look. But changes have been made to accommmodate the actual sizes, ideas that have come up to make it and the figures more interesting, visible from a distance, etc.



This shows some of the steps it took to create the balconies.

Drawings, then colorizing and adding bacground sky. Believe it or not I got most of the ideas and elements for the balcony from a photo of Marie Antoinettes bed in Versailles.


The actual painted balcony sections.


This shows how I came up with one of the groupings in a balcony. I had the idea that I wanted 2 guys sitting at a table, flirting with one girl, then having a "woman scorned of who you assume is with one of the guys who is paying too much attention to the other girl". I added to and changed some of the other balconies to be a little more fun and interesting as well.  

Here are the figures I found to create the grouping. 2 guys from an old 1920s advert, a photo of Marilyn Monroe "who better to flirt with? lol" and then trapped my sister when she came into work into modeling for the last figure. Made up some more fitting clothes for her and changed the face to look a little more "tiffed".


And the finished Balcony. As with many of the figures the tricky part "since I cant really afford to get models to always pose for me" is taking, figures from, ads, photos, bw photos, old paintings, etc, then cobbling them together and making the style and colorings of all the figures match when I paint them.    


Here are the vase and flower sections being worked on in my studio. Which I had built specifically for this job.


A finished vase and floral section.


The center, ceiling panel done. I simplified the designs because the panel wasnt as large as I imagined it would be and if I painted the detail in the original rendering it wouldn't look like much from 30' or so away since each piece would have ended up being so small.


Here is the Beijing rendering. I think this one is going to be absolutely stunning when its painted. Again the figures are mostly just general. Like the lady wearing a modern jacked holding the little girl, I will change her clothes to be in keeping with the rest of the figures.


Here is the actual dome "Temple of the Sun I believe" That they said they liked. I again simplified the pattern so that you could actually see something lol.


The finished painted, middle, ceiling section.


Here is the London rendering.


Closeup of one of the sections. Got one of my nephews to model as the "street urchin" sneaking out from under the table.



I kept having the hardest time finding gothic details, arches, a stairway, etc. of the type I wanted on the web or in books. Then I suddenly remembered I had a downtown full of gothic architecture. Lucky me. [] Does the stairwell in the mural look familiar to anyone?


The finished ceilng/sky section.


The Madrid rendering. I have never been quite happy with the figures or even the scenery in this one. Since the side panels of this mural are the last ones I am going to do, I am thinking of scrapping a lot of it and doing something different. I have some neat ideas. []  



Love how the ceiling design came out in this mural though. We used an old ceiling in a palace, then placed that ceiling in a Kaleidoscope program which would turn and morph the original ceiling in infinite ways. Found a pattern that looked really neat, then changed the colors, made some adjustments to the design and.... voila.



Now here is my Faaaaavorite mural. I love painting this style of stuff. And this mural is going to be the one thats 5 stories across. []Rome.



Here is a drawing for the columned sides. Each side section at the bottom is 20' long.


Zee arteest at work last week. Gives you an idea of the scale of the central section.






Will try to add more pieces as I finish them. []

[we vs us]

Wow.  Really stupendous stuff, Artist.  Well played sir, well played!

[AngieB]

Very impressive!! I would love to go down and see them once they're installed.

You're quite the talent, WTA!

[cannon_fodder]

Amazing. I really hate you... well, I'm jealous of your talent anyway.  []

I will surely be stopping by when it opens to donate some money to the tribe and check out the work!

[brunoflipper]

wow, impressive...
your talent is well suited to the casino industry...

[Conan71]

Wow!  I'm stunned.  Even though I've followed your work for a couple of years now, this is amazing.  The scale and content are incredible.

I was curious, in the photo with you painting, how do you keep from damaging the rest of the painting when you crawl on a pre-painted canvas.  Obviously the paint is dry, but seems like you could scuff something, or perspiration could be a problem on a warmer day.

[TheArtist]

Thanks all. []   There is really no worry about damaging the painting or the canvas. Its very sturdy. We usually take our shoes off though to walk around on it. In my studio we even occasionally vacuume the grass and leaves we may track in, off the canvas. Oh, and I dont sweat or perspire. Thats so uncouth. Ok, actually its likely because I am skinny and have a very slow metabolism. [8D]

[Renaissance]

Very cool!  How many people do you have helping you?

[safetyguy]

quote:Originally posted by TheArtist

Thanks all. []   There is really no worry about damaging the painting or the canvas. Its very sturdy. We usually take our shoes off though to walk around on it. In my studio we even occasionally vacuume the grass and leaves we may track in, off the canvas. Oh, and I dont sweat or perspire. Thats so uncouth. Ok, actually its likely because I am skinny and have a very slow metabolism. [8D]

I'm jealous... talented and skinny!!

Seriously, the paintings look amazing.

[mspivey]

Whoa! That's excellent stuff.

Did you do this one, too?

[TheArtist]

I have one full time assistant and my sister who helps me part time.

And I wish I had the time "aka someone with the money to pay for that time" to do something of that scale lol. As much money as those casinos have, they arent the Pope.  Unless you want me to simply copy that, then I could do it in a snap. [] Actually I wish I had gotten something that easy to do. Creating something from scratch is a whooooole lot harder than being a copy machine and copying something. You have to think of the over all theme, layout, designs, colors, balance, do the initial sketches, drawings,.... all the real work is the creation of something. I wish they had been like the Bellagio in Vegas and said,,, we want this, just like this and shown me a picture of that palace,,, I could have taken a nap and copied that artwork. As it is I am still sweating the details. Do I need to add something here, take away that, shift the colors a bit, find a person or model for this, work out how to make this fit in that space, get it approved through various people, make changes they want, and do it all within budget and time constraints, etc. etc.... Whew.

[TheArtist]

Well for the past couple months we have been getting the murals installed.  Starting at one end is Paris, then Beijing, then Rome, then Madrid. Am currently working on the last one which is London.  The new wing that they are adding on to the casino makes the whole casino have an L shape. So starting with Paris...


This side is the most complete, you can see they just finished putting in the carpet and are moving in the slot machines. They have yet to put in the black panels that will cover the rest of the ceiling.  


Was nice to see how the whole mural looked all put together and up. Its a bit frustrating that they are so far off the ground, makes the figures and work look a lot smaller. But I like how this one turned out. The over all design really pops. There will be a lighting system that will go around the bottom edge to light each mural.

I think my favorite figures were the last ones I put in, the lady sitting on the balcony tossing the roses, and the guy sitting on the balcony playing the instrument. Started loosening up and hitting my stride with those.  





The next mural down the line is Beijing. Kind of frustrated with some of my choices on this one. If you look closely lol, you can see the columns have an intricate goldwork design on them. But from ground level you dont really even see it. If I had to do it over I would have saved the week or so doing that design and instead done more figures. Was hoping to do more figures, but due to the time constraints just wasnt able to. They were chomping at the bit to get the flooring in that goes a foot or so up over the subfloor and carries all the wires and such. And they cant put the flooring in until the statues and sculptures go in the fountain areas,,, and they cant do that until the Mural is installed underneath. Was told it cost over 7,000$ every time they move the scaffolding for me on these smaller murals, plus you cant really do anything more once the top flooring is on and the fountains in.

One of my favorite panels in this one is the one with the lions and the temple. The middle part was a bugger and took ages. There again lots of detail you probably wont be able to appreciate due to the height, but still looks nice. There were almost 100 tiny dragons that each had to be drawn up, painted in, highlighted and shadowed. Not to mention the little designs around them. Sooooo much work lol.
 




Now on to the BIG puppy, which is Rome. This one is 5 stories accross, which enabled me to do a lot more. Still wish I had about 2 more weeks on this one to really tweak it up and make it top notch, but all in all I think it turned out great. I actuall spent several days there finishing some of the figures after it was up. There was no way to change the scheduling with the installers, scaffolding people etc. The scaffolding alone on this one is huge. You can see the small, roll around scaffolding I was using to reach things with up on the floor level of the main scaffolding. Dang its hot up there too lol, no air. Take a look at the guy in the lift to the right to see an idea of the scale.



And a few weeks later without the scaffolding... sorry bout the grainy quality of the pics. There was no lighting so making the pics lighter "stressed" the images. Will hopefully get some good ones once everything is done.  



Wish I had had a bit more time on this one, but I am still proud of how it turned out. I think everyone else really likes this one as well. The size alone makes it impressive. Again, click on the pic to enlarge and note the guy on the lift below.



Here is Madrid. Had to dramatically change the design. They are really pushing me time wise. Only had 3 weeks to do all the side pieces. So I made some changes, but I still think it says "Madrid/Spain". The main thing I want anyway is, big, bold, colorful, able to compete with all the lights and colors of the slot machines etc. and the "theme" of each area. Me and my assistants tendancy is to do things more subtle and old world like you would do in a persons home seeing the mural up close, but we had to keep reminding ourselves that these were going to be way up high and competing with over the top casino stuff.

Considering the short time scale to do this one Rome ate up a looot of time, I think Madrid turned out pretty decent.





Now I have 3 weeks to finish London, really hope I get at least 4, but the flooring guys are making progress across the casino and moving in that direction. I am struggling a bit with London. Want to redo some stuff on the middle sky section, and will redesign some of the side pieces to strike a balance between simplifying some yet keeping lots going on. Larger scale stuff thats easy to see and paint on some panels, enabling me to do more figures and smaller stuff that adds interest on the rest.  

[RecycleMichael]

I think I gots a shower curtain and a sofa cover with that red painting on them.

Do you do anything smaller and mobile, like neckties or dinner plates? I think if I paid a lot of money for some art thing, I would want to carry it around and show it off.

Your work sure is purty, but I think my neck would hurt from looking up all the time.

[cannon_fodder]

Vibrant and amazing William.  I'm envious of your talents.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by brunoflipper


your talent is well suited to the casino industry...

agreed.