Ramsay Community Mural Complete!

The summer weather left much to be desired in terms of work days but I managed to finish up the painting when it was nice enough out, no hail, thunder showers or excruciating heat destroying my poor brushes. Here it is take a look!

Its so long, you cant see it all at once or take a single picture of it in its entirety. So I made a quick mock up to give the general impression of the majority of it by patching a bunch of pictures together quickly in Photoshop.

I also got a page featured in the local Ramsay Neighborhood Newsletter on page 13. Its in Black and white and the mural is very colourful but it gives you an idea.

I'd like to take this opportunity to give a shout out and show my gratitude with a special thanks to the following: John Holt for introducing me to Shannon who was my go to person for this project. The Ramsay Community Association for giving me the opportunity to splash paint in my hood. To those volunteers that helped me along the way: Jordan, Greg, Ben, Nolan, Teegan, Becky, Lanny and Cindy. Thank you!

 Above are a few more to help get the idea across if you haven't visited the Ramsay rink to see the completed piece it in person yet.

IV on the Ramsay Mural

Its been a lot cooler out, which is really helping with the application of paint. The pigments are covering with fewer layers because it is coming out of the can thicker.

I also brought up a camping chair for the lower bits so I don't have to kneel on the gravel. Unfortunately, it broke within the first hour of using it.

I'm adding pink and purple which is getting me closer to finishing off the pattern in many of the letters.

The remaining white areas will eventually be filled in with blue, a different blue than the background.

My buddy wandered up and reapplied some of the orange he painted to make it less streaky and transparent. It was a super hot day that day and the paint was coming out of the can as thin as ink.

The letters are shaping up. Once they are filled in I will go back and retouch the black outline.

Add more colour to your world

When I'm not teaching my teen camps full time, I sneak in some colour after work and on the week-ends, wether permit tin, on the Ramsay Community rink mural. Got his by some bad storms which really cut down how much I could do this past week but I did have a little help from my friends recently.

My best friend Ben, and niece Teegan, helped me add some orange and magentas while I added some green to the piece.

There is an overall pattern I am following, ROYGBIV and mixing the previous and following colours onto each letter.

One thing I didn't expect that has become apparent as I proceed, is that the pure tones need multiple coats to flatten them out and hide the transparent looking brush strokes. Meaning…… I have many more hours to put in than I anticipated. C'est la vie.

Its nice and quiet when working alone, but much more fun when I have music playing and helping hands. I teach after my day shift tonight but will be back at it tomorrow night and throughout the week-end if anyone out there wants to pop by, message me for details :D

Ramsay Community Rink mural

I love my neighborhood, ramsay. I was elated to be awarded the opportunity to do another mural for my community. This time it is along a wall over 100 ft. long near the rink, at the top of the hill. The community decided on my preliminary, had the wall primed and I got to work.

There are a lot of invisible steps when making an outdoor mural. First you have to visit the site and take measurements. Then you have to transfer that data to a suitable design template. 

 Then you have to design it and have it approved, in this case by the Ramsay neighborhood community board.

 After that happens, other parts of the machine need to get going, you need to get money and gather the necessary materials, especially the paint colors.

 I definitely will go over budget on the paint but I'd rather get good outdoor plaint that will last if I am going to put many hours in on this piece.

 I managed to get down most of the lettering free hand, with a bit of planning but no measuring to get them to fit in the length properly.

 Then I begin the elaborate flower of life patterning in each letter.

My initial plan had a much larger circumference but this far more detailed version is due to the garbage can lid I decided to use to construct the pattern.

 It is a challenge to go around the posts so I'll have to create a cardboard shape that can bend and fold around the posts.

 I had a friend pick the paradise blue that will be filled in around the letters.

 My nephew Nolan came to visit and "help" me on the mural.

Stay tuned there is more to come.

Robot uprising - S.W.A.T.bot - 042205

My good friend and neighbour Greg put me to the challenge this week.  Our neighbourhood Ramsay was hosting a Beakerhead event for the kids, a robot uprising and scavenger hunt.

We got a box from Mrs. Kim from the Alberta corner store and hit the dollar store for supplies, the challenge to build his son a cardboard robot costume.

He taped up the box and gave it a good healthy coating of trembled silver spray paint and gave me the bag of supplies to get cracking. 

There is one thing I know about my little friend Navan, he loves police stuff and hopes to be one when he grows up. I came up with an idea that should get him really excited, I am making him into a robocop of sorts what I call the S.W.A.T.bot.

I got lots of lights from the Dollarama, red and blue ones that blink like cop lights and a cool safety one for roadside assistance, this costume will be extra rad halloween night!

I cut the bottom out so he can get in from the bottom. I cut a flap for his head to come out of and two for the shoulders. I put on small pie tins filled filled in with some foam from my old bedding. Luckily it fit perfectly.

I did a little detail work and added some stencilled black lettering. Greg painted his boots silver and got the awesome helmet form his mom's place.

There were tons of cool kids in their home made robot costumes ready for the uprising. I got a few good ideas from their collective creativity.

After a performance explaining the goals for the robots, the gangs of robot kids broke off into groups to venture out to find the "pneumatic liquids" hidden around Ramsay.

I visited my best friend and brought his little one up to check out the end of the event, he figured out how to turn S.W.A.T.bots power on and off.

Sooo cute!

I decided a reflection picture would do it justice. I'm going to add a few more features before Hallow's eve. I'm excited about my little creative project and I look forward to it lighting up the night when he goes trick or treating. I wish I made one for me too :D

Ramsay Mural - daytime

Taping has begun

I'm glad it is fairly nice out, the next stage can happen without freezing ones ass off. You can see the glint of the lettering outlines better in this lighting.

Getting there. Its cold out and a bit hard on the hands but this green frog tape is the bomb!

Here is is a few hours later and a few Cognac's in. The taping will help make the next few steps crisp and clean. Next, 3 coats of white in the taped lettering.

Ramsay garage mural - night session

My buddy and across the street neighbor just finished a ton of renovations on his place. Including a fresh coat of paint. He doesn't want graffiti tags on it and approached me about doing a very specific mural. His family has owned the property since the neighborhood of Ramsay was established in 1914.

Late in the night we bombed the side of his garage. I spent some time the day before getting some files prepped for the design and booking a projector out. I figured this was going to save us time and energy, and boy was I right. From start to finish, it took us 1 hr. to get the line work of the design completed. Normally this could take an entire day.

It was freezing out and the set up was definitely make shift. I put my laptop on an inverted trash can, we leveled out the projector with scraps from the recycling and borrowed the saw stand from my room mate who was cleaning out his garage across the street. With some minor adjustments the image was set and we got to work with pencils and charcoal outlining the image.

This gives you an idea of the scale of the operation. my neighbor, Greg, helped me do the outlining of the lettering. The garage we were set up in front of opened right before we were finished as the other neighbor returned from work. We did manage to finish luckily!

Here it is the next day. The pencil lines are harder to see. This is where the white paint will be taped off and filled in with a few coats of white paint. Below the charcoal outlines are where I will hand paint black lettering. So, once it warms up a bit we can get the show on the road!