Outcome - stage I

I started my outcome piece with a massive piece of hardboard measuring 85cm by 135cm, which with help from my dad, I covered completely in white emulsion. Following this I drew out the four main images of the mermaid, fairy, gnome and lion in pencil and drew out lines of where I planned the four sections of colour would go. I went over the pencil outlines in black marker pen so that my drawings could be painted over but would still show through.

Initial 4 drawings in black marker pen

I started with the water section, which I painted the background of using acrylic paint in blue tones with spray paint drips for an extra water effect and then drew on the mermaid using a combination of blue sharpie pens and fineliners. Apparently textured acrylic paint seems to be one of the few surfaces sharpies don't want to draw onto though!

Mermaid drawing and background

After I'd done the background of the mermaid I did the background of the gnome,  which was also done using acrylic paints - brown, green and white - and drew the gnome on using twig and ink based on the drawing I'd done previously. I omitted the pipe because I thought it would be more appropriate at the location of a family friendly music festival.

Gnome drawing and background (and you can can also see my messy working area)

Following the gnome I painted the background for the fairy using mainly white acrylic paint, mixed in with some pale blue and grey-ish shades too and then drew on the fairy with pencil.

Fairy drawing and background

Before drawing the lion I had some experimenting that needed to be done. I had originally planned to draw the lion in sharpie pens so needed to experiment on a separate page whether this was something that would actually be achievable and my outcome of drawing the lion with sharpie pens wasn't great. Once I'd decided I would use conte crayons for this lion drawing too I experimented with different potential background colours on a separate page. The conte crayons didn't really show up against any of these background colours so I just chose to keep the background white and then possibly paint round my drawing of the lion at a later stage.

Lion drawing

I hadn't done an exact plan of the locations of the background images and motifs to this was something I did next by drawing them onto my mural design with pencil and painting some areas out in white acrylic paint.

Planning the locations of background images and motifs

This post seems to be getting rather long and picture heavy now, and I've come to the end of the first stage of how I designed my mural so it seems like a good time to move onto another post.