mural evaluation

Rebel Pin UpWall MuralAn evaluative summary of the proposal For wallspace /intallation art for rebel Pin & Paper Scissors Stone.

Jonny PackhamOUGD301

Final Image

I spent a couple of days generating this imagery in stages, in order to put together into compositions like the one shown here. This was the composition in which I thought worked the best using the existing colour scheme of the salon.

When I took these down to the client, they had changed their minds on the design direction which required me to produce another direction for them. The clients were happy with te floral background, but not the image

on top.

In terms of the project, I have decided to cut it off at this point in terms of image generation so I can move forward with my other briefs and stop having my time wasted by clients who dont know what they want. Although I will be following the live brief through until it is finished and document that when it is finished.

With that in mind, I decided it would be appropriate to produce a prototype wall mural. Fred, Amber and Lorenzo were kind enough to let me use the wall on the BAGD balcony.


Planning & Prep

Apart from putting down towels and moving everything away from the wall I was going to paint, I decided I would need a referance picture and also a checklist of things I needed to complete in order to have this finished by the end of the week.

I split the task up into 3 days. First day being background colour, second being floral pattern and third being image on top. One thing i didnt prepare for was the weather and temperature. It was a punishing project!


Base Coat

This was a considerable undertaking and took the whole day and three coats to get smooth.


Completed background colourFor the first coat, I used a roller to cover the wall. After this dried, I used a brush to get rid of an white streaks and then took a roller to it for the third and final coat. The burgundy took 15 minutes a time to dry.


Stencil: Floral Pattern

I tried the stencil initially on A4 paper, but A - The stencil wasnt sturdy enough, and as soon as i saturated it with paint it fell apart.B- the stencil itsself wasnt big enough.

I then moved onto A3 acetate which worked really well because I could see where I needed to join up the stencil in drops to make a cohesive pattern. This was a very lengthy process and was probably the hardest part to complete because I had to think about it spacially and work hard to make sure the pattern worked and was neat.


Stencil: Floral PatternCompleteIt took 6 and a half diagonal drops down the wall to complete the patter. By itsellf, this didnt look complete enough so I made another stencil which was just a single flower from the pattern and basically filled in the gaps to make the pattern look seamless.

At his point i left the wall messy, as the last part of the whole process would be to tidy up the wall.

Printed textiles must be a doddle.


Image Projection

This was initially going to be a test as I wasnt convinced it was going to work, but as you can see it worked really well. I marked out a space on the floor where I had to projector so I could use it again if i needed to without it interfering with the painting.


Pencil Outline

I got the outline on the wall by using a pencil and drawing round the maing image. I also drew around all the different layers of colour and labelled them, almost like a manual colour separation. The only thing I had to think about here was making sure I didnt get in the way of the projector enough to let me draw round the outlines properly. It was starting to get very cold at this point, and I had been out there for two days now. I did feel however I was on track with it as I was working ahead of schedule, having the outline read to paint for the next day.


Fill colours

A new day, and a new part of the mural well under way. I had to be very careful with my paintbrush work to make sure I got clean lines. This was a time consuming process because I wanted it to be precise. I’d say this part took the best part of 5 hours to complete with plenty of breaks in between to keep warm and (almost) fed.


Fill complete

I got all of the fill completed about half way through day 3, and I was happy with how neat it looked. I had to comprimise on some of the detail like cross hatching and the rose tattoo, because it was just too hard to apply to the wall with the tools I had.


Starting on the outline

It was the night of day 3, and I was making good progess with the wall. I did come across one problem which I thought could jeoprodise the whole thing at this point. The black and the greys were gloss, which means the layed well over the red (which was matt) but not over eachother. This made the outline very hard to do because the paint wouldnt lay down consistantly and when it dried it cracked.

But, I left this down to tomorrows tidy up job I had planned and got the bare basics of the black down. Working at night meant i needed to use lamps whilst I painted, so I waited until day 4 to do the detailed areas of black on the mural.


Almost there...

This was the progress by the end of day 3. I was getting wuite stressed at this point because I really just wanted to have it finished. I was determined by the end of day 4 it would be complete.


The completed mural

With aching bones, and over 30 hours of painting under my belt, I completed the mural. This stage was just after I had tidyed up the red areas of the wall. There is only one section of the wall which I think I could have done better, and that is the diamond in the afro. I did comprimise on detail in this section, but I was getting to cold and tired to be stood on a chair for another hour.

That was also the reason why I didnt include type in the scroll. But it was also down to technical problems i mentioned before about the difficultires I was having with the application of the paint to the wall when gloss paint was already there.


The completed mural/2


Tungsten Lights

The evening of day 4, I waited until it got dark and rented out some tungsten lights from the photography studio. They were really bright so I only needed one in the end to really set the mural off. I think this dramatic photography showcases it well and does it justice.

I also just wanted to mention what Mark Howe said yesterday about how its good to do things for real instead of just on photoshop, and how it will always look better in your portfolio. That was very much my rationale in doing this piece. I also said in my statement of intent that I would make the most out of any oppertunity that comes my way, and I think I have succeeded here.

The next step Is applying this imagery to a product range for the salon.


ThanksForReading!

mural evaluation

Documents

jonny packhamougd301stencil

wall messy

stencil wasnt sturdy

cohesive pattern

prototype wall mural

te floral background

floral patterncompleteit

floral patterni