Elizabeth

As far as pop culture figures who make good mural subject, DC has a pretty good knack for picking them.  Marilyn Monroe, Duke Ellington, Chuck Brown, and Frederick Douglas among others.  Well, earlier this season the Dacha Beer Garden opened up with a pretty spectacular mural of Elizabeth Taylor keeping watch over their beer drinkers down below.

700 Delaware

Sometime late last year street artist Hense came to DC to work on a former church south of the Capitol area.  The project had some minor controversy over whether this was respectful to the history of this particular site, but nonetheless it's pretty awesome and fun to see up close.

I certainly couldn't sketch this without involving all these great marks and colors, so it took me a little while longer than usual to finish the drawing.  I sketched the basic structure and a little of the surroundings on site, but had to color it at home... after running to the art store for a few more markers...
[You can check out more about the project at Design Boom.]

Marilyn

The Marilyn Monroe mural by the Woodley Park/Adams Morgan metro stop at Connecticut & Calvert. Commissioned (in either 1968, or 1981) by Roi Barnard of Salon Roi, and painted by John Bailey.

Chuck Brown

Back in May, DC's own Chuck 'The Godfather of Go-Go" Brown passed on at the age of 75.  And one of the nicest dedications to him after his passing was this awesome mural, swiftly created by the students at DC's MacFarland Middle School with the help of their art teacher Charles Jean-Pierre.

The Dusk of H Street

Smith Commons on H St commission the street artist Gaia to make this stunning mural on the side of their restaurant. Pretty awesome. Had to draw it.

And this got some other murals on my mind, so I am going to try and sketch a few more of them before I leave town for the summer.