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

Here are a few of the initial pics of the cityscape mural in progress. No painting yet, but creating full size drawings of the project to be used as templates/tools/patterns to produce a tight, accurate architectural drawing on a regularly uneven surface.

cityscape mural drawing in San Diego

I’m using a mix of technologies in these pictures. The first marks on the paper are drawn just like on the (hand) drafting table, trading the parallel rule for a level but making the same choices of horizon line, vanishing points, etc.

cityscape mural drawing in San Diego

I block in the shapes so that they are accurate in the full scale drawing, then use the projected image to accurately “fill in” these subdivisions. My blocking decisions in the scale drawings have been about 70% accurate, meaning I’m re-see-ing my photo references with more clarity and perfecting the final design at full size, a nice luxury to have in terms of process.

temporary but effective painting studio space in San Diego!

I use printed versions of the drawings at full 1″ scale while working as well as the projected roadmap. Ultimately the full size drawing is its own creation that involves some tracing, but really revolves around the mindful allocation of space, especially when you’re doing architecture.

I’m going to put up more of this stuff on my actual mural and faux painting blog, but since I started here and I’m still screwing with the social media hook ups, I’m putting these up here first as an antidote to the iPhone pics I sent form the jobsite this morning.

Except for the “straight line details” inside the architectural bits, drawing and inking complete, painting starts tomorrow.

If you’re in San Diego, come by Cafe Mundo, 121 Juniper Street in Banker’s Hill tomorrow morning for coffee from 8-10am and check it out.

Cafe Mundo mural in Banker's Hill, San Diego

Cafe Mundo mural in Banker's Hill, San Diego

Here’s the rendering sketch again from the last post about this mural project:

black and white concept sketch for Cafe Mundo mural