Prepping the wall

The mural project is very exciting. Unfortunately, this part of the process is not very exciting! But it must be done, and it must be done correctly, if everything that follows is going to succeed. You know the old adage: "Measure twice, cut once. Measure once, cut twice". The prepping deserves to be described because, though rather boring, it is time consuming, and it is something that I learned from.

The wall originally had a couple of coats of what appeared to be a semi-gloss wall paint. This was not suitable for this project, due to the non-absorbent quality of the paint. We applied two coats of a flat primer. The first coat was white, and the second coat a light blue. I chose light blue to act as a unifying color for the entire mural. This is such a large project that there may end up being small (1/4" or less) areas that don't get painted. But there will be a non-white color in these spaces that will make it complete. The light blue color will make it seem as though a little bit of sky is being reflected throughout.

Normally I would use gesso (pronounced JESS-oh), a thick, acrylic-based primer, to prep a canvas. It acts as a sealant and tightens the canvas as it dries. It also provides "tooth" to the surface, which is to say that it gives it a little roughness for the paint to cling to. It is quite flat (no gloss) and somewhat absorbent. It is also very expensive, and would have cost a small fortune to put two coats on a 10x26 wall. Hence the decision to use wall primer instead. It's nice and flat, has some tooth, and took the blue tint nicely. It will work perfectly well for a fraction of the cost.

The next step was to transfer the grid to the wall. In this case the grid is made up of 3' squares. This provides a backbone for the mural, to make sure everything goes into its proper place. I had a few ideas for ways to do this. One was to use chalk lines. I tried one chalk line and didn't like it. Another was to put a push pin into each corner of every square, and I could use the pins later to hold my drawings in place while I was working. For those of you who speak pig latin, I decided to ix-nay the in-pays. I ended up using the KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) method to apply the grid. Working methodically with a ladder, a tape measure, a level, and a straight edge, we drew the grid with a pencil. Like I said earlier, not very exciting!

Here's Minal helping me put up the grid.

 

 

You can see the light blue color, though it's prettier in real life. Normally I am not the measuring type. And the kind of work I have done has never really called for it. But in this case it was essential, and because of it I can work with more freedom and confidence.

The next step will be to rough in the landscape contours and trees. For this I will begin to apply color! It's actually a little scary...I'll let you know how it goes.