!Character REFASHIONIZIN!

Above: Illustration by Angie Wang

I was trying to figure out how to push some areas in the design as we were beginning to paint. I thought it would be a good opportunity to investigate something that Ive always loved- fashion.  I felt so many characters in this image were REALLY wanting to wear something awesome.

Ive always loved interesting and unexpected outfit choices- on me and anyone else I see working their style.  ESPECIALLY those braves souls in Cincinnati who are working the Tokyo look (aka anything goes, no matter what). And, especailly if their Tokyo in Cincinnati look involves patterns, bows or weaves.

Real Tokyo style above.

I was doing research in fashion design and illustration when I came across illustrator Angie Wang. Hands down my current favorite illustrator. She is incredible.

Angie Wang has a fashion illustration blog that she updates frequently- the follwing images are from that.  Here’s her Blog

After completely falling in love with the unexpected outfits, bold color palettes and illustration style of Angie Wang I worked on a couple of sketches for my own mural characters:

Today we are on-site working on the mural- starting the final layers on these re-fashionized characters! Come check it out!

P+V mural transfer and first paint strokes

Here is the final mural design before the transfer process started on the wall.

We used an opaque projector connected to my computer to transfer the design in sections.

Stephen Cavanaugh has been my assistant through the entire mural design and painting process. He is a great artist who worked with me during ArtWorks’ Seedbomb project this past fall. Here we are on day one of the transfer. Photo by Scott Beseler.

The photos below are by Mark Grote. Mark has been photo documenting the mural process for us since the first days on location. I also met Mark through the ArtWorks Program. He is a second year Industrial Design major at DAAP as well as a great artist. Check out some of Mark’s work here.

A typical busy Saturday at the store.

Paint cart and a cappuccino.

One of my favorite parts of this project- talking to the kids who come through.

After the first few layers of paint went up, we re-projected some additions to the design.

Heres Stephen working on the second transfer.

And we painted on!

Park + Vine Mural Commission and Design

So, for the past few months I’ve been working on a mural at Park + Vine. Here is the progress from today:

Let me take you back to how this all started.

P+V is a green general store located on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. I’ve known the owner Dan Korman since I started working at ArtWorks in 2007.

The store was scheduled to move from Vine to Main Street in October 2010. Dan contacted me early last fall and we started talking about a mural for the store’s new digs after the move. We met on-site one afternoon to size up the wall facing the entrance on the left side of the store. This 10 x 13′ wall would be the location of my mural.

Thinking about it now, I would have never EVER expected to be painting a mural in the very spot where I tried (TRIED!) to drink coffee and look so cool every morning before going to school at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.This is how I remember Kaldis before it was Park+Vine.

But, back to this wall. Here it is shortly after the move in October:

Dan watched the progress of Ice Cream Daydream as it was being painted this past summer on 12th and Jackson. This was my first mural and project management experience with ArtWorks. This gig at ArtWorks helped me land the job with Park + Vine. So, a big thank you to ArtWorks for doing what they do best – forming and training artists for success in their field. To support this amazing program click here.

Dan was attracted to the style and spirit of Ice Cream Daydream and wanted something similar for Park+Vine.  We brainstormed content revolving around community, sustainability, and the positive momentum of Main Street and Over-the-Rhine.

Here is how the design process happened.

First, I started with some visual research.  I love creating hybrid animal/object/ human-type creatures. I find they have the ability to represent human potential and passion. Ice Cream features some of these guys- cupcake plants, pie flowers and so on. I showed Dan the images below to get a feeling of what he liked:

Also, since we wanted to convey Cincinnati’s growth as a community, I pulled together imagery that was indicative of location, community, and a sense of place.

And, of course patterns! All kinds that i love- retro, organic, psychedelic, etc.

I digitally collaged some of this research imagery to use as a jumping off point for my design process. For me, designing involves multiple rounds of digital collage, drawing, tracing, scanning, photoshopping, coloring and doing all of that again and again till I am satisfied.

Below: the first conceptual digital collage

Collage, drawing, photoshopping, coloring. Again and again.

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Finally! The image above is the final design before work on the wall began. The design was transferred onto the wall in December, and painting on-site has been taking place since. The project will be completed this April, just in time for Earth Day.

Upcoming posts documenting the painting process coming soon!