Fresh Creative Co were commissioned to paint a mural in the Lobby area of the ‘Princess Lofts’ accommodation building in Swansea for 7 Lettings
For this project we were asked to paint an image of a princess in the lobby area just inside the front door, alongside some graffiti style lettering reading ‘Princess Lofts’ which would run along the wall up the stairs inside.
PROCESS
We started this project, as always, with a period of research and design. We were very aware with this one that an image of a princess could appear childish if not handled properly and this was something we were keen to avoid if possible. We went through several iterations of the design exploring different ways we could approach the Princess part of the mural. In the end we settled on quite a classic looking princess with long flowing hair which we decided to place inside a ‘frame’ of broken wall, to make it look like the wall was breaking away to reveal the princess behind.
Next we drew a few different sketches of the letters, slowly evolving it to a place where we were happy with the style of the piece. This too was to be placed inside a broken wall effect, this time made to look as if the piece had slammed into the wall, causing the wall to break apart behind it.
Once we had our designs approved and in place we set about sorting out the materials we’d need for the mural and headed to the site. Once on site we prepared the area, making sure the wall was clean and ready to be painted, masking off any areas we didn’t want to get paint on such as wall mounted light fittings and the skirting board. Unfortunately there was a light in the middle of the wall where the Princess was planned to go which we had been told was going to be moved but in the end wasn’t able to be, so we had to make some minor adjustments to the design to fit around this.
We marked up the sketch of the princess and the letters on the wall and set about painting them. Painting alongside the stairs was a challenge because of the slope so we took extra care here to get the angle correct, marking the letters up a couple of times before completing them. One of the benefits of using spray paint is that the colours all cover each other really well, allowing you the flexibility to work on the sketch outline several times to make sure it’s how you want it, safe in the knowledge that those outlines will disappear once the letters and background are filled in over them.
We painted the bulk of the Princess and the letters before painting in the cracked wall background and then coming back in to add the finishing outlines, highlights and other touches to the letters and character over the top.
FINISHED PIECES
This one turned out to be more of a challenge that we expected, mostly due to the added difficulty of working up the stairs, which made it difficult to step back from the piece to view it as a whole. It also added an extra challenge in maintaining the angle of the piece through the part of the wall where the stairs levelled out into a landing area.
Overall we were really pleased with how this wall turned out and we felt we had succeeded in not letting the subject result in a wall that felt too childish for its location.
