Just Play! Mural -AMEB
(Australian Music Examinations Board)
5.20 x 2.70 mts
Located in Wurundjeri Country
Lonsdale St, Naarm / Melbourne CBD
This mural was commissioned for AMEB's headquarters. The main goal was to portray all the disciplines taught (music, dance, drama, speech, music and stage production, performing, podcasting, mixing, etc). The brief requested for vibrant, abstract shapes and an overall playful approach.
Concept sketches (created in Photoshop)
I hada a play with three ideas:
1) Incorporating the characters into geometric shapes - for all the audio playing symbols (play-triangle, record-circle, stop-square, forward-triangles, etc) as well as the musical pentagram across the wall.
1) Incorporating the characters into geometric shapes - for all the audio playing symbols (play-triangle, record-circle, stop-square, forward-triangles, etc) as well as the musical pentagram across the wall.
2) A bit more of a spacey feel. Characters break boxes and boundaries and float freely. Inspired by the sensations when listening to music
3) Thinking of free-form and improvisation. A loose line connecting everything. Little geometric shapes represent sparks of genius and creativity.
Process
This mural required a lot of patience and discipline to finish each colour flat before starting the next. In many of my murals I rely on a solid dark outline at the end, which allows for less perfection in the flats. This was the first design I painted in a wall with no outline and such amount of complex geometric shapes next to each other. Masking helped, but overall I had to be very mindful while painting smaller shapes.
This is a project I enjoyed a lot and am most proud of, but one that was very challenging. It happened a few weeks before my journey as a parent started and I was struggling a lot with anxiety and feeling a lot of pressure, thinking my kid could be born any day and I wouldn't be able to finish the mural. Physical pain (chronic back and hip issues) did not make things easier.
I've found that painting murals and listening to music can be very relaxing, but when I broke down emotionally halfway through the project, nothing helped more than crying, expressing my fears and receiving a big hug from my partner. At the end it was all ok, I was able to fiinsh the mural and became a dad a few weeks after :)
Thinking back though, I should have asked for help to make things a bit easier. So, my advise is: if you feel overwhelmed it's ok to ask for help, and cry and hug!
Total time spent: 45-50 hours. Split across 2 days designing the artwork and 6 painting
Materials
Taubmans Interior paints
Monarch 75, 50 and 25mm house paint brushes
Flat and round brushes, assorted sizes
Masking tape
Epson Ultra wide range projector (no way I was tracing this with a grid!)
Pro tip: Dyson cooler to improve drying times and indoor air-flow
Big thanks to for trusting my work and being one of the best clients ever.
The design process was perfect, they providing a clear brief, lots of image references and even took the time to select pieces of my portfolio to use as examples of what styles they would prefer.
Open for commissions