Shelly Beach Murals – the prep work

I have been working on the mural concept and plans for a few weeks.
It seems like I have done an extraordinary amount of work, on the sketch pad,
researching and on the computer, my printer has been working over-time churning out
ideas and outlines, I have bulging folders of underwater pictures and birds and fish….
And for all of that, I have a couple basic line drawings which really do nothing to convey
either my excitement for the project or the vision in my head. Rats.
I was surprised by how hard it was to hand over the concept plans and the final designs,
and in the end had to completely detach myself from them and realise that some people won’t like it and most people won’t grasp my intention. But despite all the worry and self-doubt
we are still on track.
So now I get to work on the individual birds and fish, I’m quite looking forward to up scaling the
snapper to its full on the wall size and bringing it to life.
Having the opportunity to paint an underwater scene is so cool, and I’m hoping to do some snorkelling over the next week or so to get even more inspired.

Shelly Beach Murals

We are working on a new mural project at Shelly Beach, and I thought it might be a nice idea to keep track of progress.
Especially seeing as  I decided to post some of my earlier mural works in my port folio and I couldn’t find any blimmin pictures.  So I’m off to hunt down, Te Hanna and the Kaukapakapa images.
How can you paint the sides of large buildings and not take photos. Honestly.
Looking back at the stuff I do have, I’m a bit shocked that I had the nerve to rock up to past mural sites with just an A3 bit of paper and a coloured sketch. By Crikey.

Finding Inspiration and Keeping Track

I was looking for a Nick Fedaeff  print recently when I found  a stack of old visual diary cards-

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its so nice to have a record of what inspired you, what caught your  attention and the things that  you thought enough of to record. Some times I keep a daily visual diary, but never for an extended time.
My diary keeping never seems to be important at the time, but its fantastic to be able to look back over old images, ideas,  thoughts and memories. Stumbling over these  has inspired me to find my spiral bound  scrapbook, feltpens
glue stick and top up the ink in my printer.
I have lots of ideas jostling for a space on a board or canvas, so its important not only to gather that energy but to keep feeding the creative reserve with new ideas.

Now when I’m working on a painting I use Evernote to keep all the treads together. This was really helpful in completing the Musicians Family  which  has been on the go for longer than I like to admit. I used Evernote to collate photos, sketches  reference paintings and edits.

And because it works on all my mobile devices and  computers, wherever I was I could add an idea or thought and it would be available  everywhere.
Its also great for keeping my favorite  art websites  in one place.