Mural Mural on the Wall

Sea to Sky Location: 855 E Hastings Street, Vancouver — *Sea to Sky*
Location: 855 E Hastings Street, Vancouver

This past summer I had the honour of working on two murals as a part of Vancouver Mural Festival. I’ve never done any murals before and I’ve always wanted to do one, little did I know that I was going to work on two back to back. I’m definitely not a mural expert yet having done just two, but I’ve learned a great deal from working with some of the best muralist in town, and I’d love to share my experience with you!

West End Best End Location: 990 Nicola Street, Vancouver — *West End Best End*
Location: 990 Nicola Street, Vancouver

West End Best End Location: Nelson & Nicola Street, Vancouver Artwork on yellow wall: by Carson Ting (Chairman Ting) — *West End Best End*
Location: Nelson & Nicola Street, Vancouver
Artwork on yellow wall: by Carson Ting (Chairman Ting)

Designing a mural

There’s A LOT of prepping beforehand. As a part of VMF, I only needed to worry about the mural design while the organizer dealt with the logistics, such as permit application, liaison with the building owners, equipment rental, etc. I remember the first thing they gave me was a CADD drawing of the wall as well as some photos of the building. With the measurements, I was able to figure out the size of the graphic elements I was going to paint. It seems pretty straightforward to design a mural, but I’ve learned that it’s not always the case. There are many factors that you have to take into considerations when you’re designing your piece, such as the building material of the surface (whether it’s flat or uneven) or the surroundings (whether they’re going to interact or interfere with your design). I had to change one of my designs last minute because the wall is made of stucco, which is too coarse to execute my original artwork (see below). In the end, I simplified my design so that it wouldn’t take forever to paint (it was also impossible to paint detailed work on stucco).

Therefore, always inspect the location first before you design your mural! Also, try look at the surfaces from different angels and see if certain spots are going to be blocked by something. If people can’t see, there’s no point of putting your focus there.

From screen to wall

I think this is the most challenging part of the whole process. If you get it right, then the rest is just fill in the colours!

From my understanding, there are two major ways of transferring your designs to the wall:

Projection method - using a projector to project your design onto the wall and trace it directly. It has to be done in night time if it’s outdoor, and a power source is needed. This is the most straightforward method, but the setup alone can be time-consuming. If the surface is very big, you might need more than one projector, or you need to repeat the process more than once.
Overlay method – draw a system of grids or random doodles to cover the whole surface and then take a photo of it. Overlay your design with the photo in Photoshop and use the grids/doodles as reference points to guide you on the wall. Depending on your illustration style and the architectural features of the surface, sometimes it’s not necessary to create additional reference points with grids/doodles. Some people just do it freehand.

Carson mapping out his design on the wall

For my both murals, I didn’t use either of the methods above. Since my designs consist mostly of geometric shapes, and that fact that there are already some horizontal and vertical lines from the cinder blocks and panels, I was able to map out the whole design with some simple tools like stencils and levels. Like I mentioned earlier, I have the dimensions of the whole surface, so I only need to calculate how big each of my shapes are to scale. For example, if the height of the wall is 6 feet IRL and 600px on screen, I can use the ratio to calculate the dimension of a shape. If it has a length of 100px on screen, it would be 1 foot long IRL.

Utilizing stencils saved us lots of time

Overall I think my method has worked out pretty well for me. My finished piece is quite close to what I had on screen. How you execute really depends on your illustration style and your preference. My studio pal Carson Ting who’s quite experienced with murals said he’s never seen anyone work on a mural this way – with lots of math! It’s not for everyone for sure.

My takeaway

One thing that I’ve learned from my mural experience is that you have to be good at problem solving. Since it’s a multi-day production, there would always be unexpected challenges and obstacles during the process. Being flexible about your artwork and process is also going to make your experience a lot more enjoyable. Don’t try to be a perfectionist. The truth is that your final mural will not be 100% the same as your original design. Manage your expectations and know that there will be small errors and imperfections, which are likely only noticeable by yourself. After all, no one is going to look at your mural up close! Lastly, acknowledge that it’s public art, which means that it might get vandalized at some point. One of my murals got vandalized after just a month. I had to spend one of my weekends to fix it. It was a terrible feeling, but I had to remind myself not to take it personally. People do dumb things and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it.

I have grown to love painting because of my mural. The process was physically intense and I felt dirty at the end of the day every day, but I enjoyed every moment of it. It was definitely the highlight of my summer.

Do you have any other questions for me? Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!