the murals of skip dyrda
Fantasy Library
In the same Longboat Key condo where I painted the Disney landscape, I created this mural for a narrow hallway leading into the bedroom. The homeowners wanted the space to feel like a well‑loved personal library—one filled with classic adventures, the entire Harry Potter collection, and even books drawn from the son’s world of video‑game design, including titles from Skyrim. The shelves ultimately held 263 books and a playful assortment of objects: a left‑handed Smurf artist clutching my red string, wands and potions, a sextant, a secret map, Dobby, pirate dubloons, and many more surprises. The Smurf sits atop a hidden door that opens into the bedroom beyond. The mural spans roughly 7 by 12 feet and was painted directly on the wall in high‑quality artist acrylics.
In Progress and Detail Images
A section of the mural showing a Pinocchio marionette next to it’s book as well as an hourglass, next to it’s book, The Time Machine. All painted freehand.
Here you see the hourglass again, along with a stopwatch, of course. There’s also a bottle of Wartcap Powder, an envelope addressed to a Mr. Harry Potter, a mysterious note, and a fortune teller.
This is the top section of the ‘secret door’ that leads into the bedroom with that DisneyWorld landscape. In this photo you see a magic wand, A bottle of Polyjuice Potion and one of my left-handed artist Smurfs who is holding my ever-present red string. There’s some kind of frame in the background and I don’t recall why I put that there but it means something…not sure what.
This is the list of all the books (263 at last count) and items on the shelves. And my red string, again. Behind that list you see the Golden Snitch and it’s case and just the top of the Tin Man’s hat.
The left photo shows the blank canvas…the bare wall before I started. The right photo shows the mural a day or so after I started.
The left phot here show the open ‘secret door’ leading into the bedroom where I painted that DisneyWorld landscape. The right photo is a selfie of me in front of a portion of the almost completed mural. That’s Dobby peeking out from inside the cabinet.