​​I have learned in the last few years that public art can really impact a community. In the last few years, Downtown Melbourne and surrounding communities have been adding some eye catching public art to the city scape. It has been an amazing transformation. 

We are fortunate that the City of Melbourne and Melbourne Main Street have vision enough to support the programs that have given us the opportunity to have that awesome eye candy to see everyday. 

Who wouldn't want to be a part of that positive movement. I was fortunate to be hired to do a mural on the side of Nahacky's Aquarium store in Downtown Melbourne on US1. I've never done one before, but thought a 5 ft by 10 ft wouldn't be too overwhelming.

Preparing
I spent 3 years as an industrial artist, so I knew what to expect to prepare and protect the space, what supplies I would need to do the job properly, the amount of paints for each color, etc.  I ordered a quart of the bright colors and a gallon of the background color and black and white, but  could've gotten away with quarts of those as well. 

Supplies I needed:
Dropcloths to protect area
Rubber Mallet
Paint opener
Tape
Garbage Bags
Buckets/containers for paint
rags/paper towels
Paint
Brushes
Paint mixers
Ladder

I was working out of my pretty car, so I wanted to keep everything protected. I know what happens when you don't. So getting the right supplies makes a huge difference.

The opener and rubber mallet are a necessity. Those keep the paints completely closed and safe from spilling. I also keep the paint cans within boxes themselves, to keep them from spilling over.

​Day 1:  2 1/2 hours
​Day 1 was all about the background. My intention was to put the background colors in and grid it to ensure everything was in proportion, but I said screw it and I figured I would wing the shapes. No grids. I thought it would take longer and since I drew them to begin with! If it were larger, I probably would've had to, but this is only 5'x10'. pictures to the right

​Day 2: 2.5 hours
​Day 2 was spacing everything and adding some detail. The white makes it look terrible, but I wanted to see where I was going to ultimately put the the sea life. I started with the background school of fish. I figured I would use up a whole day if I had to paint them individually, so I made a vinyl template from my painting, they went up in 5 minutes. I added some sand color and rocks to the sea bottom and also put in the giant clam. pictures to the right

Day 3: 3 hours
Day 3 was about that coral and putting in some fish shapes. I also went over the school with a wash to send them further into the background. It definitely looks better as I add more detail. 

Day 4: 3 hours
More fish shapes, a star fish, and a sea horse. And that new brush. I love buying new art supplies. My hubby got a few of me painting.  Day 4 gallery to the right
Day 5: 5 hours
I wanted to get the details on the clown fish to give them a little personality. I also gave the yellow fish dimension and will add the eyes and other details tomorrow. 

Day 6: 2.5 hours
It didn't feel like I got much done today. I put in a rock, painted the base of a coral and put the final on the clam. It needed more detail. 

​Day 7: 2.5 hours
It felt like I got A LOT done today. The right side is almost done. Put in the grass and will put in the tendrils on the anemones tomorrow.  It s getting closer to the finish line.  

Day 8: 1.5 hours
More coral rock and grass! The left side is finally making progress. 

Day 9: 1.5 hours
Everything but the cleaner shrimp and clear coat. 

Day 10: 2 hours
Cleaner shrimp! And I added a crabby conch.

Day 11: 1 hour
Clear Coat

All Done!
I'm happy with the outcome and hope to do more int he future. Painting big is pretty nice. What I noticed is that it is definitely more forgiving. You have more space to work out the shapes and values.  Video and detail below

Making shapes for 3 dimensional projects is one one of the fun parts of the project. There are several ways to do this, and a lot of different materials to use. You can also use free materials that would otherwise be thrown in the trash or you can purchase the needed materials. I use a lot of foam in my shapes, which is available through the craft stores or I just keep the packing material foam that comes with appliances and other products to keep my materials costs down.

For instance, I bought a piece of foam from Michaels for $11.00. My husband bought an item that had twice the amount of foam and that was free. Frankly, the free foam cut easier. The foam used n packing is a little less dense, which makes cutting it and shaping it easier. 

Shapes can also be started with a balloon, crunched up paper, tape, plastic bottles, etc. Whatever you can find. 

What you'll need.

• foam or other shaping products
• foam cutter
• ​wire or toothpicks for additional pieces
• gorilla glue

For the foam block, I first draw the basic shape and cut out all of the extra using the foam cutter. 

Once you get the desired 3 dimensional shape, add anything additional that needs to go on it. 

I use toothpicks and gorilla glue. Gorilla glue is great to use with foam. 

The other great thing about foam is that you can sand it with a lower grade of sandpaper and it will help with all the angles. It shapes nicely with sandpaper. 

If you're going to go over it with papier mache', it will be ok to leave some of the foam shiny, but for adhesion, it is always best to have your foam surfaces sanded, so it's a nice rough texture. The material will adhere better to it. 

For these foam fish, I am not going to papier mache them, but am going to put the joint compound directly on them.  

"Spike" started out as an old project that I felt had zero personality. It sat on my shelf for about 2 years. Then one day I decided to play with cold porcelain. I ended up making some spikes and thought they might look good on it. 

It definitely got me back interested. Although the cold porcelain was a total fail, I fixed the problem and ended up with a pretty fun project in the end. 

For the materials and process that I use, the cold porcelain failed with the joint compound because of the wetness, so I had to take out all of the spikes an replace them with something else. 

I ended up cooking up some polymer spikes and it worked out better than I had hoped.

Once cooked, I glued them in and went over them with the joint compound. 

Let's talk about the paint process, because I love the way this material finishes. 

You can choose to sand your pieces to be perfect or you can leave them imperfect, which is the way I love them. Leaving the texture imperfect allows the colors to build up and adds more depth to the piece. 

I start with a base coat of gesso. And I usually do this outside as gesso is a smelly chemical that needs good airflow for your work area. I add a little bit of color to the gesso so it's easier for me to see where it ended up, as the joint compound is also white and you don't want to miss any spots. 

Once gesso is on, I start choosing my colors. I do a lot of layers of color to try to get the most out of the texture. The first color I choose is the color I am going to ultimately paint on the top layer too. I chose cadmium red medium. Then I added cadmium red light using a dry brush to grab some of the texture. I then used paynes grey to fill in the darker ares, like around the spikes and eyes. I then washed the whole thing in deep violet. 

Now I'm ready for final painting. I painted it again with the cadmium red medium and added some textural dots in cadmium red light and by mixing the cadium red medium with payne's grey for a darker shade of dot. 

The spikes were painted payne's grey to white after everything else because they are simply in the way of everything and need to be done last. 

The green used for the eyes and base  is phthalo green, which is one of my favorites. 

I took a pic of my pallet (right) so you can see the colors I used. And I cannot brag enough about the liquitex Gloss Super Gel. (also pic right) It put a nice thick clear coat on it and made ti look so shiney.