I’ve never taken one of my finished paintings apart before– stretched, folded, rolled, shipped, framed, unframed, cut off the bars, glued down, all of these violences I have done to my creations but this was a new one on me. Preparing the vertical blinds as blinds after completing the painting was kind of anticlimactic as an artist, though essential as a craftsperson and makes for some unique pictures.

first round of blind preparation

vertical blinds on the table

the wicked surface

This last picture shows pretty well the second and third levels of hell, I mean challenge, of painting the vertical blind surface with a coherent image (and not just an abstracted pattern). Not only was this mural painted on 122 overlapping “pieces” which have to line up properly for the image to be clear, but each piece is machined with 1/8″ vertical grooves and extruded from plastic to boot. Prep, paint adhesion and just trying to put down a straight, beautiful line (or a thousand of them, we are talking about drawing architecture here) were all special cases requiring more thought and attention than usual.

I’m about to get on the road for the drive back to the east coast even though I have more than one job pending here in San Diego. Since nobody is moving fast enough and I miss my kids, off I go.

First here are single pics of the finished mural panels right and left. These were taken from the ladder we set up in the shop and show better detail of both mural image and mural surface, which was a real challenge.

San Diego city mural right panel

San Diego city mural left panel

This mural was painted on vertical blinds (122 pieces!), each of which has a vertical groove pattern that required almost every mark on this mural to be done with spray work– you may have seen my daily mobile praise for my Iwata paint guns. Each panel is approx 16′ wide and 7.5′ tall and painted exclusively in Nova Color Artists’ paint, easily the best acrylic paint ever made (thanks for all your help on this job, Barbara!).

More detail pics and installation pics coming soon, I feel its time to go now.

With the exception of my iPhone dying last Saturday, the San Diego city mural is now complete and installed with a minimum of hassle. Here’s a quick camera pic for now while I organize the rest– until I get my iPhone repaired or replaced, no more instant publishing.

cityscape mural complete - ladder shot

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• open studio for mural project tonight.: http://bit.ly/IW5ez #
• http://ping.fm/p/UBimJ – another good morning after, today painting darkest shadows and
  brightest lights. #
• mobile mural updates for 2009-10-02: http://bit.ly/1iowbg #

Cleaned up the studio today for an impromptu opening tonight during the South Park Walkabout– if you’re in San Diego, head over and stop in the big open doors on 30th and Juniper near the corner with the musicians under the awning. Get a one time only look at the San Diego cityscape mural I’ve been creating on 30 feet of vertical blinds.

san diego cityscape mural on vertical blinds

My friend photographer Mike Brown will be screening the first cut of the time lapse video he has been shooting the last week documenting my progress painting the mural. If you can’t make it, here’s a couple mural process shots of mine. I’ll post a link to Mike’s videos when they’re uploaded.

mural painting process pictures

masking down on finished sky painting

back at the beginning of architectural drawing for San Diego city mural

laying down the mural drawing

• http://ping.fm/p/lO6Mq – coming into the foreground (and the homestretch): city mural at 95% #
• http://ping.fm/p/66BI0 – Friday morning mural details. #
• mobile mural updates for 2009-10-02: http://bit.ly/DeQAN #
• mobile mural updates for 2009-10-02: http://bit.ly/WNido #

Here are some pictures from the first two days of actually putting paint on the vertical blind “canvas” itself, after a week plus of prep.

city mural sky painting

I painted the sky almost entirely with my Iwata spray guns and a lot of careful masking– its always *really* gratifying to pull the masking away and see a painted finish running clean to its edges!

city mural sky painting detail

After the skyline gets detailed, I put the paper drawings back down to transfer the rest of the image:

city mural drawings down a second time

The cityscape develops one piece at a time– the drawings are cut into five or six pieces for manageability.

cityscape mural drawing

.. now its time to get to the real business at hand!

Cityscape mural sample

This sample is on board approximately 30″ x 40″ using the full scale drawing prepared for the final surface. The colors are close to the desired goal- I’ll be making a few adjustments- and the style and atmosphere of the painting right on!

More dramatic pictures of full scale process coming soon!

Here are some new pictures from the cityscape mural production process over the last few days, creating and perfecting the full size drawings I will use as patterns or templates on the blinds themselves. Firehouse #9 is being really good to me, my gear and this project so far, check it out!

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