Drawing Up A Mural

When working on community murals it is essential to be able to communicate with all stake holders by means of drawing. To be able to discuss ideas and themes people need to gain a visual impression of what different styles and themes could look like. You will never 'please all of the people all of the time,' but by pushing images around in a group setting most times it is possible to come up with a group consensus about an appropriate mural image.

Don't be daunted!

The place to begin is with an initial discussion to decide the theme. For the sake of this article we will choose the "The Year of the Outback." Once the Artsworker knows what the theme is, the most obvious place to start is with an image search. If you would like to see some search engines which make available great images either for free or low cost look here. As you know an artist can't just pinch images from the web willy nilly and use them for commercial purposes. My preferred method of operation is to go out into the field and to take photos so that I have the copyright. I often spend hours looking at images and doing prepatory drawings. By putting together a collage beforehand I know what it is that I am looking for. When I know just what I am after - off I go with the digital and usually I have what I need in a very short ammount of time.

The mother and Joey posed in the drawing above were taken from just such a photo. One can either draw straight from the photo, trace the outline or scan the photo into the computer. By using simple image software I can then cut the image back to a mere outline. It really dosen't matter how you come up with the image just that you come up with a very simple drawing which can be used to communicate your ideas with others.

This quite complicated photo/collage has been reduced to some simple lines and shapes that can then be painted in a very 'naive' fashion. The original collage was taken from a line drawing, a photo and some hand drawn silhoette impressions in the back ground. Each drawing was scanned, cut and pasted in a very simple Photoshop Deluxe Business Edition Image Editor. The reason I use such a simple and inexpensive translator is that it means I keep the integrity of my drawings. I draw very simply and all I need is software which will allows me to create a collage and use a few other simple tools to bring the drawings together.

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