壁画制作向导重点

1、 The Wall 1998Visitation SchoolWhen starting a mural project a wall is often pre-selected by the sponsoring organization. Ideally, the artist will be consulted to help select an appropriate site for a mural.Artists also sometimes search independently for a location to create a self-sponsored project

2、. The artist conceives of an idea, identifies a wall, secures permission, and paints the mural as a gift to the surrounding community. Another process that can work well is for an artist to have an inspiration about a possible project for a place and then to involve community members and organizatio

3、ns in sponsoring the mural.The Condition of the WallYou want a wall that is in good shape. If it is a masonry wall, this means that the brick and mortar is not crumbling, powdery, or too badly cracked or broken. It means that the wall does not have efflorescenceminerals that seep through the wall, l

4、eaving a build up of white salt-like stain.If the wall is only missing mortar in a few spots, tuckpointing can be handled by the artist or by a volunteer. A professional mason should tuck-point the wall if the job is extensive. This is for the benefit of the building and for the longevity of the mur

5、al. Before painting begins, a waiting period will be necessary after the completion of the tuck-pointing so that the mortar can cure. Consult your mason for the required waiting time. CPAG recommends waiting at least one week.The wall should not have any old layers of paint remaining, particularly i

6、f this paint is loosely attached. A thorough scrapping, wire brushing, and/or power washing will be necessary to clean the wall. If you powerwash, allow the wall to dry a couple of days before priming.A wall need not be perfect before a mural is applied. Minor cracks or uneven brick and concrete can

7、 be painted over. Standard procedures should include a washing of the wall to remove loose dirt and dust. This can be done with a large pail of water, brooms for scrubbing, and a mild detergent (dish soap). The wall should be rinsed clean and allowed to dry. A high-pressure water spraying system pro

8、vides the most effective cleaning.Soda blasting of the wall is recommended when you are trying to remove old paint. This is different from sand blasting, which is far too abrasive and damaging to the brickwork. In some cases, a chemical stripping of the wall can be used.The long-term condition of an

9、y wall is dependent on the condition of the roof and stone caps on the parapet wall. It is to the benefit of the building and the mural that these be kept in good repair. Muralists can assist the longevity of murals by sealing the wall cap with the same sealer that they use to do the final sealing o

10、n the mural.Indoor WallsIndoor walls may not require all of the procedures mentioned for outdoor walls. The paint should be tight to the wall and should be sanded or deglossed with a commercial product if the paint is shiny. Prime the wall with gesso or a good quality commercial primer before you be

11、gin the mural.Walls can also be covered with wood panels or with a canvas covering. This method has the advantage of allowing future people to preserve the mural if there is a need to repair the wall or if the building is torn down.Whose Wall Is It?Appropriate permission must be secured at an early

12、stage to avoid disappointment. A signed permission agreement is ideal. You will need to communicate with the owner of the property and discuss the project proposal. The objective here is to obtain some protection for the life of the mural. It is important to include the building owner in the develop

13、ment stages of your project.MeasurementYou will need to take accurate measurements of your wall early in the development of the plan. These numbers will help you when ordering the scaffolding and when you begin designing your art to the scale of the wall. A tape measure can be used with a friend hel

14、ping on the other end. An early grasp of these measurements will add to your familiarity with your project. Be sure to accurately measure and place windows, doors, and other architectural features.back to topDeveloping a DesignGiving Voice to a Community2001What We SeeThe central purpose in creating

15、 a community mural is to give a visual voice to a particular community. The design process should be seen as a collaborative activity that openly involves members of a community learning center, a neighborhood park, a local school, or a senior citizens facility. Several discussion meetings may be ne

16、cessary as the artist or artist-team begins to develop the mural design. During these meetings, which may involve impromptu conversations with attendees before or after the event, you will begin to absorb the issues and matters of interest within the concerned body in attendance. The ideas raised at

17、 the meeting should be written on large sheets of paper for all to see. You may want to mount a lecture easel to hold an 18”x 24” pad of paper. Many large sheets of paper can also be pinned to the wall before the meeting and the artist team can fill these with notes during the public discussion.Meet

18、ings and ResearchThe design development is an interactive process. This should begin weeks, even months before any painting is done. You will want to include all important and concerned individuals: community representatives, sponsors, youth team members, and assisting artists in this stage. The pro

19、cess will likely involve several meetings that allow individuals to contribute ideas and issues of concern. It seems appropriate to do several meetings especially if a large number of people are involved. One of your meetings may include community representatives and sponsors. Another meeting might

20、be held for community youth. A final meeting may be held where all parties are brought together to discuss the design. The objective here is to closely listen to those in attendance concerning the mural themes and to develop your drawings and research around the expressed issues.After meeting with t

21、he community group, you may find that some further research is necessary. You may need to visit a local historical society or community historian to obtain historical photos that allow you to be very specific about details for your mural design.Community members may hold helpful and exciting images

22、within family photo albums. Local business organizations, schools, and storeowners can be surprising providers of intriguing material that gives your mural a visual edge. You may want to take photographs of your own to create images of interpersonal situations or to document needed local subject mat

23、ter. Enlist community members to find needed material as a kind of homework assignment. This will enhance the community ownership of the work.Design ApprovalIt is important to know exactly which members of the community will give final approval to your design. Try to specify this clearly at the begi

24、nning of the process. Usually there is a small group of two or three people who have the final word and will give the green light to paint your design. The group will include such people as the school principal, one of his or her assistants, the director of a community center, or the local Alderman.

25、You must be careful to intimately involve this core group of decisionmakers in all stages of the design development. Question them about the suitability of certain images. This core group will alert you to issues or themes that might be problematic. Their input will save you and your design team fro

26、m working up ideas in ways that may be irresolvable. By including key decision makers in your design strategy, you avoid setting up a disempowering situation in which a design developed by the design team is rejected by a “higher up.”Drawing and composition1987Mifflin MuralThe material you have rese

27、arched will become the visual reference necessary to start your drawing and compositional studies. The early drawing stage should involve loose gestural imagery that is not too concerned with intricate details. This stage might also be initiated with a cut and paste technique. Photocopies can be cut

28、 and juggled into exciting relationships. Even these early drawings should be created in proportion to the size of your actual mural area.back to topGetting up on the WallScaffoldingOften to paint the upper areas of the wall requires scaffolding. CPAG does not recommend trying to paint while standin

29、g on high ladders or provisional scaffolding. It is recommended that you visit a scaffolding supplier and become very familiar with the equipment and services that are available. There are several scaffolding size formats that you can choose from and an on-site visit with a representative of a scaff

30、olding company can be a very good initiation into this important aspect of mural making.Make a good assessment of the ground area in front of your wall. The scaffolding will need a flat surface to move around on. Often a wall is situated in front of grass, dirt, or some other soft and uneven surface

31、. These areas will need to be covered with heavy sheets of plywood or heavy wooden planks to give your scaffold firm footing.Once you have chosen your scaffolding system, you must become familiar with its use and operation. Generally, even veteran muralists experience a period of getting oriented ea

32、ch time they begin a project. You will need to become comfortable with constructing, climbing, and working on the scaffold. Scaffolding management demands the utmost seriousness and safety concerns. Inexperienced team members should be slowly and thoroughly introduced to the operations of a scaffold

33、ing system. One should not work alone in the construction and dismantling of this equipment.The storage and safety of the scaffold equipment requires a mention here. In urban areas, this equipment is very much in demand and is readily stolen if left overnight or even unattended and unlocked during t

34、he day for brief periods. The materials can be secured in several ways: lock all the parts to a stationary point with large chains and locks, find a facility close by where you can store your materials each night (gas station, local residence, etc.), or transport the materials in your vehicle each d

35、ay.Enlarging Your DesignThere are three main routes to getting your outline up on the wall. You may: 1) project your design using an overhead projector, 2) use a gridding system, or 3) directly draw your image onto the wall.Drawing can be done with large charcoal sticks or with a paint brush and thi

36、nned acrylic paint. Acrylic is recommended because it will dry and not fade or smear into the paint while you are working. Charcoal lines might be mistakenly wiped away or washed away by rain. Watery acrylic will drip down the wall, but these drips are easily covered when color is applied. Dark drip

37、s or mistaken lines may first need to be covered with white paint if they will be overpainted with light or transparent colors.Projecting the DrawingProjecting outlines onto the wall is probably the fastest way to transfer the design. If you have a very complex design with lots of small detailed are

38、as, the projector can eliminate the need for meticulous drawing and multiple corrections.To project a mural, reduce your line drawing to a transparency on a Xerox machine. Make sure the lines are still crisp and dark. Also, create a 1/2 inch line grid transparency to use to check that the image is b

39、eing projected squarely onto the wall and is not distorted at an angle or elongated by height or width.1992By All Means NecessaryOutdoor projecting involves some special conditions. Obviously, the projection must be done after dark. It helps to have dark plastic trash bags handy to mask unwanted str

40、eetlights. It can be fun to have a nighttime projection event. Typically, the mural team (and other invited artist volunteers) gathers before sunset to get everything set up and then works for several hours. A nice white wall is important here because a projection is less visible on a darkly tinted

41、wall.Significant space is needed in front of your mural to allow projection. On a large wall, two scaffolding towers will be needed for the projection. One tower holds the art team tracing outlines on the wall, while the other tower holds the projector. The projector must be centered on the height a

42、nd width of the projection area or the image will be distorted. On smaller walls, the projector may be situated on a large foldout ladder. Some walls may be too large for a complete projection to take place and gridding or free-hand drawing may become useful.GriddingThis is the age-old technique for

43、 enlarging a design or drawing. Create a grid of squares on your small design and a corresponding grid of squares on the wall. The grid on the design can be drawn on an acetate overlay to avoid damaging your original drawing. After priming the wall, create a grid first using a chalkline and then pai

44、nting the lines with a brush against a ruler.The squares on your small design might be one inch by one inch. This means that the squares on the wall might be one foot by one foot. By copying onto the wall what is in each square of your design, you begin to reconstruct your mural design at a large sc

45、ale. You will want to render the basic outlines of your mural first and not involve yourself too much with modeling or details. Establish your overall layout as quickly as possible and begin to check for the correct proportion and “feel” of your major elements. It helps to draw with vine charcoal an

46、d a rag as an eraser and then to paint in the drawing as each section is completed and judged as accurate.back to topSupplies for Mural PaintingSuppliesWhen starting your painting, you should put together a list of all the materials you will need. Here is a collection of the supplies that are common

47、ly used: acrylic paints in a selection of colors that corresponds to colors in your preliminary design empty containers with lidscoffee cans, cups, etc for mixed colors primer (gesso) rollers roller pads extension handles for your rollers rags and/or paper towels drop cloths buckets brushes in many

48、sizes yardsticks masking tape painting palettes or trays for mixing colors metal scrapers to clean dried paint off palettes stirring sticks wire brushes brooms and shovels eye protection (goggles) ladders scaffoldingpaint spraying systemmilk crates or other sturdy boxes to store paint cansOrdering P

49、aintsMost collaborative murals are painted with good quality acrylic paint, sold in jars. These are suitable for indoor and outdoor use. Enamel and oil paints are not recommended for outdoor use because they are moisture impermeable and do not allow the wall to breathe. (If moisture gets into a wall

50、, it cant gradually dry out through oil-based paint. During freeze/thaw cycles, the moisture trapped by the oil-based paint can expand and cause damage to the wall.)The quantity of paint you need will be determined by the square footage of your mural. One gallon of paint or gesso is estimated to cov

51、er 100-300 square feet. Rough, textured walls absorb more paint. Complex painting techniques making use of underpaintings and the application of 2 or 3 layers of paint require larger quantities of paint. Figure how many times you are re-coating the wall and multiply to determine your paint needs.Whe

52、n selecting paints and colors, be careful to select colors that have good lightfastness ratings. Consult paint charts for the brand of paint you are using. Earth tones and black are most stable. Unfortunately, most blues and violets are somewhat fleeting and have a tendency to fade after five to ten

53、 years in direct outdoor sunlight.Nova Color Paint from Culverton, California is a highly recommended, relatively inexpensive paint suitable for murals. Liquitex paints are more expensive, but are highly saturated with pigment. Mural paints can be bought in pints and quarts. Nova Color sells colors

54、in economical gallon sizes.Be sure to order a few gallons of gloss or semi-gloss acrylic medium to mix with paints to thin them and to create transparent glazes. Thinning acrylic paints with more than a few drops of water is not recommended as this will affect the longevity of your mural.back to top

55、PrimingPrimingThe mural wall should be well primed before you begin drawing and painting on it. Be sure primer is applied to a well-prepared, well-cleaned wall. (See section above on wall preparation.) CPAG recommends priming with an acrylic gesso. Contemporary gesso products are made with acrylic p

56、olymers; they are more durable than latex-based primers. Gesso is also more heavily pigmented than latex primers and thus will give you a more opaque, sparkling white surface on which to begin your painting. If you dislike beginning on a white ground, you may tint your gesso with acrylic paint.Remem

57、ber that a lightly applied coat of primer that leaves many small rough spots and “pinholes” will need to be re-done and will ultimately take more paint than a “juicily” applied single coat that adequately and completely covers the wall. Its better to fill in pinholes with relatively cheap primer tha

58、n with expensive, pigmented paints.1998Visitation SchoolRolling Your Prime CoatGetting a crew of volunteers or youth assistants together to prime the wall can be a great way to begin a community mural project. You will need lots of rollers, pads, trays, and extension sticks. You can often secure a donation of these materials from a local hardware or paint store. Be sure that your roller pads are matched to the roughness of your wall. It helps to have “spotters” who use a brush to fill in particularly difficult areas and to trim around the edges of window and door frames.Spra