SITE

The site that we are putting our mural is on Summit and 16th.   This is a church and it has more advantages than our original site because we have places to store are supply's and wash are brushes so we don't have to take stuff on the with us when we go back to school. It is also on campus so we have places to go out to lunch. There is a learning center which gives us a place to chill and relax and there is also a pool table and TV's. We also have the advantage to work inside when its cold or raining. 

We would like to give a shout out to the people that have helped make this possible: Chris, Catherine, Clarence and anyone else that help us.

Foundation Layer

The Foundation layer is the basic layer of color after the base coat. We put it on the boards that we are putting the mural on. We also put a foundation layer on the flowers that we are putting onto the mural. We all had our fair share of painted the pieces of the mural. We had to paint many layers so that the green base coat wouldn't show through, like there had to be many layers of yellow put on. After we finished doing all of the foundation layer work we had to start painting details.

University Area Enrichment Association

The University Area Enrichment Association is the sponsor for our mural. They work for people living, working, volunteering, and attending school in the neighborhoods around the Ohio State University. They try to improve the quality of the people's lives by focusing on individual and community empowerment. They believe that important issues to the community include housing, economic development, the environment, health, and education. They also positively affect the community through leadership development and support. The Graham School Mural Project would like to thank the University Area Enrichment Association for their support.

craftmanship

Craftsmanship is very important, whether you are working on a personal or public piece. It is used for all types of work from writing to building, and it is an inexcusable element to making things work and such. Our mural needs to be the best we can do. We don’t have very much time but we should still take it slow and make a good product. We have been rushing and our product is a bit sloppy. The craftsmanship hasn’t been the very best so we need to slow down and pay attention to detail. Craftsmanship is essential because it will help decide how well the final piece looks. The effort put into this will be shown by how well the outcome is. We need to watch ourselves and peers and make sure that everyone is taking time and are doing the best they can do. This mural will reflect on us and we want that reflection to be excellent. This is a long and complicated process but the contribution you give to it can either make or break your name. I personally would like this mural to be one that everyone can enjoy, but if it is sloppy it won’t be appreciated. I think that if we all help each other out and just spend a little more time focusing on the project then this will be a great piece of work to remember.

revisions and directions

During the process of making the mural we have made many desicions as far as changing what the final product will look like and what our day is like at the site. One of the revisions we made at site is that we now have a job list. At the begining of each day we list and assign the jobs that need to be done each day. We started doing this because some of us were having trouble finding work to do, now if we need work we look at the list and there is almost always a job to do on it.

We've also made many creative changes to the mural. For instance on one of the 3D panels there was just a plain window, we instead decided to paint it as stained glass. Another thing we did was rework the colors of one of the flowers to make it stand out more. Something else was that in order to fill up space we decided to make more 3D elements (birds, animals, insects) that will be put in an empty space in the mural.


A big revision we did was the decision to make the mural what it looks like now. Because we didnt really have an idea for what the mural should look like Megan and Jodi came up with some ideas and we worked off of those until

we came up with what we have now. None of us were very happy about not really having creative privledges but we had been working for the past weeks to come up with an idea and didnt really have much and we had to get started so it was necesary.

My personal expierence on the mural. By Angela

This mural project has had it's ups and downs. I like to paint so it doesn't really bother me but when all of us have to keep re-painting things because of our original craftsmanship, it makes the day a lot more hard and stressful. I do however feel like this project made me become closer friends with a couple people. At the beginning of the project, I wasn't into the idea as much because I didn't know anyone in the group I was in. Now I enjoy the project a lot more and have a lot more fun.

Cutting 3D Elements

For our mural we decided to encorperate 3D elements so it can pop out and catch peoples attention. We cut four flowers and several small animals. To cut out the 3D elements we used a jigsaw. I was one of the only students who felt comfortable using the jigsaw, so I did most of the cutting. After cutting, we primed, base coated, and detailed the elements.

Priming and basecoating the wood.

The first step in painting the mural is to prep the wood. Since we are using wood and hanging it up on the actual wall of the building we have to make sure it can withhold the weather. We primed the the wood with white primer twice, and then one coat of a medium shade of green paint. This makes the wood completely covered so that when it rains, the wood does not mold.

Subject Matter

We've gotten very far on our mural since we last blogged.
Our group has started painting already, and here's a picture:
The part of the face you see there is actually part of a "nose-and-up" face. This face has different skin colors, to represent diversity, as well as different hair colors. It also has almost all different eye colors.
About the flowers: Our main subject is Community. One flower has a few people protesting/supporting different things, such as equality, peace, and freedom. Another flower has a person riding a bike, suggesting that they are out in the community. That yellow and red circle is a soup kitchen scene, where a server is giving someone some soup inside a church. Finally, the circle at the bottom is someone planting a flower, which means they're making our community look nicer.
How do the face and community flowers tie together? Well, the face is actually going to have these flowers rooting out of her hair, or so we're thinking.