Chief City Runs with the Dogs

On June 24th I will be driving down to Pontiac, IL to take part in the "Chief City Runs With the Dogs" mural painting event. I am one of 16 project leaders heading up one of 16 or 17 murals being painted over a four day period. There are 150 artist registered for this event from as far away as Germany. The city has put a lot of effort into planning and organizing this event and turning it into a city wide celebration! You can find more info at this site.....

Chief City Website

In preparation for this event the project leaders are provided an information packet and asked to submit a mural concept for review and approval. I posted an earlier blog regarding the concept rendering process that I used for this project. I have finished the hand rendering of the maquette and will be framing and donating it for an auction taking place at the event on Saturday evening.

Currently, I am in the process of printing out all the reference art sheets that will be used during the painting of this mural project. I have no idea who will be helping me paint the mural over the course of the four days but I know it will be completed at the end of the event. Basically the artists attending the event just walk up and ask, "can I help". So, when someone walks up to volunteer, I need to have reference sheets to hand them to get started. I am printing both transparencies that will be used to project and layout the mural, as well as color images of the art. The color copies of the art will also be used as a reference for paint color mixing/matching.





Here is a "simplified" version of the transparencies that will be used to project the image onto the 8' x 12' aluminum panels....removing most of the color and getting it down to basic outlines works best for projecting.





I also cropped and enlarged detailed areas of the art in Adobe Photoshop and printed them out on good quality photo paper to make painting a bit easier when the time comes.





I'm never sure if there will be printers available at the event to produce additional reference materials, so I try to print all the copies I think I will need before hand.

When it comes to overhead projectors, I have used many different machines from various manufacturers. The one I have chosen and hold in high regard is the Apollo Ventura Portable Overhead Projector. Hands down the best projector for this type of work! It's lightweight, portable , and best of all produces an excellent image with very little distortion.





Another thing I have found pretty handy for this type of work is a projector stand. There are quite a few available from different manufacturers but I am in the process of building my own. Back in 2006 I helped Kurt Gaber of Gaber Signs with his second running of the "Brush Bash" Mural painting event in Chippewa Falls, WI. In preparation for that event, Kurt asked a local welding shop to build a projector stand to be used over the course of the event. After the event was over, Kurt kindly gave me the stand to take home to use on future projects. Below is the unit that was built in Chippewa.




Although this unit has served me quite well, I am redesigning a new lighter weight version. The original stand was constructed of steel tubing, while very sturdy, it is fairly heavy. On occasion it is required that we project images on two-story roofs which requires carrying or lifting the sections of this stand up ladders or scaffolding. I have purchased aluminum tubing for most of the new parts and also bent the projector platform out of stainless steel. I think over time you will notice my love of all things stainless steel! I will post some pictures of the stand as it comes along. But first I have to learn how to weld aluminum! Or as they say across the pond Al-U-minEum!