Saturday, February 20, 2010

North of the Line Cafe for S.T.E.P.


This inspirational mural is for the S.T.E.P Agency in Sacramento. This is the biggest mural I've painted so far. It's in their large multi-purpose room where most of their clients hang out, eat, having meetings, etc. They wanted to make the room more inviting while creating a visual that encompassed their philosophies and principles.


The start of the mural. The only part painted on the bottom half are the tree roots.


They were great clients because not only were they very prepared, they knew exactly what they wanted in the images and quotes.


At the same time, they allowed me some creative freedom in how the images would be symbolized and tied together. 


I did a very detailed sketch of this mural, even doing some close-ups to use in my opaque projector


There are many different kinds of projectors, but this one got good reviews for my price range. After using it, the only downsides I've found are that the projection area is a bit small and it isn't as bright as I would like.


I used the projector for most of the mural since it was so big. I needed to make sure I got the spacing correct. Plus, it was very helpful when drawing the text. I used paint pens for filling in the text. It made it much easier to create the fine lines and curves of the words.


There was a lot of climbing up and down ladders since the mural was on the top half of the wall.


Even though I didn't know sign language, it was great to have the clients of S.T.E.P. come in and say "hi" and check out my work.


You can see the whole mural in a Flash scrolling picture (second thumbnail in on the top row) if you go to my portfolio website, Griffmobile Designs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm assuming the client was happy- that is a gorgeous mural.

I own a restaurant, and I've been considering a mural similar to this, with an ocean theme. How much time did the entire project take?

Valerie Krist said...

I can't find my notes on the measurements or time, but I wanna say it took about 100 hours or so, including research, sketches, etc.

I get into a zone sometimes, and 7 or 8 hours fly by!