What happens when you reread Orwell during this year of our lord twenty-twenty? This mural happens.

This mural was commissioned by Canvas Atlanta for Modera Prominence in Atlanta, GA. This is the first mural I have treated like a painting. Layering and creating elements that remain painterly was the challenge with this big wall. I will try to take you through the many days of creating this mural. Love it!

CREATING THE IMAGE

I created a sketch, redid the sketch then redid it again. Once the sketch was finalized, I plotted on how to create it at 50’. Not being super confident of how I was going to pull this off, I tried to go through each step on a canvas to practice.

EQUIPMENT LIST

Day One.

Day one was all about gridding this 55’ x 20’ wall. Pencil and a 4-foot level got me through this first part. The grid will help me layout the background shapes. I realized that I would never be able to see the pencil lines, so I went back and roughed in some of the grid with spray paint.

Day Two.

Grid is up, so now time to plot out these awkward lines. Using a drawing from my iPad I am able to use the grid to place the composition. As I get the lines up, I also start filling in some of the background color.

Day 3-5.

The rest of the week was really about filling in the background so that I can start the layering of the different elements that are in the final mural.

Week 2

One of the parts I was worried about “getting on” the mural was the large ATL letters than run through the entire length of the mural. I pushed my normal painting techniques to the limit on this wall. The cinder blocks were a challenge.

Week 3

It is coming along at this point. The details on this thing are what will take awhile to perform. I was excited to get the ATL on and some of the other elements started.

Week 4

The last week to work on this before I send back the lift. Going to start adding the details that I missed and also a bunch of shadowing to different parts throughout the mural.