I love mural painting, it’s probably my favourite mediums to work with because I really enjoying changing urban and public spaces. No much else for me compares to watching your design come to life on the street, out in the world, taking on a life of its own amongst the hustle and bustle of the world. There’s a pressure as well to painting live, in public. It’s a vulnerable place to be which adds to the sense of achievement once you are finished.

This piece wasn’t relevant to my project, just for fun over the Christmas break and a way to enjoy Christmas during these bizarre and deflating times. I wanted to make something jovial that took my mind off of everything. I really enjoy whimsical pin up art so the mural was inspired by this kind of theme.

I pre-designed the mural, as I always do, on photoshop. I was looking forward to using some new stencils I had experimented with a few weeks before and used the laser cutter to cut. I wanted to see how they would look being used in a full mural, as that’s the objective of all my smaller stencils – that they will eventually end up as components to a mural.

The photoshop design took around a week, whilst experimenting with different designs. Sadly I don’t have the screenshots of the process as they’re on the computers in the tech space at the university which is now closed again until further notice due to the pandemic.

here is the final design though which luckily I had emailed myself.

I decided to paint the mural in Leake street. This is an indoor street are and Graffiti tunnel in Waterloo. I chose this space as it has lights 24 hours, and during the winter months it can be difficult to paint murals due to the lack of day light hours. The weather can also be a problem, and these are two factors you normally need to consider, especially if the murals take a long time. One this size will typically take me about 8-10 hours. I measure the wall, then design the mural to fit.

Tier 4 was announced a few days before I was planning to go and paint there, which was disheartening and I wasn’t sure if I was still allowed anymore as the rules are unclear. However I had already cut the stencils and finished the design, bought the paint etc… so I decided anxiously to go ahead and pray for the best.

I took plenty of process shots, to be able to show the mural coming together bit by bit…

The police did come past several times. I was nervous they would ask me to leave due to the Tier 4 restrictions. However they said they really liked the piece and were fine.

This is the finished piece

I had a lot of positive responses from people when it was finished. I think people enjoyed the playful nature of the piece, especially during these dismal times. I started painting at around 7.30 / 8am in the morning, and I finished around 8.30pm at night. Towards the evening there was a loud gang in the tunnel, showing some aggressive tendencies which made me nervous but I carried on painting and did my best to ignore them. Although they were riding bikes up and down the tunnel and one of them nearly rode their bike into me. I had to keep one eye on the painting and one eye on what they were doing. There are many challenges posed by painting in the public domain, pressures you wouldn’t face anywhere else. But this means you’re able to work when there are all kinds of spanners thrown into the works and ultimately I believe will make you more resilient and determined as a creator.