Fresh Creative Co. were commissioned by McArthurGlen Designer Outlets to design and paint a mural in their new baby changing room in their Bridgend centre.
The brief was to create a mural with an underwater theme that would brighten up the room and make it a more pleasant place to be in, giving the little ones something to catch their attention during their visit.
PROCESS
We went to meet the good folk at McArthurGlen, to chat about what they wanted and to take a look at the space and measure up the wall. We then went away and began the design process. As we’d been asked to produce an underwater theme we began by researching and collating ideas on that theme. Once we had found the direction we wanted to take we took some of the elements we had found into photoshop and combined them together to flesh out our design. Once the design had been approved we then stripped that design down to a line drawing and projected this up, actual size, onto tracing paper in our workshop, using the projected image to create a real size hard copy of the outlines on paper.
When it came to painting the mural we took this plan onto site and used the paper outlines to trace the image onto the wall, giving us a first lines markup which was as accurate as it could possibly be to the original design. With this in place we began the task of actually painting the wall. We started this process with the background, working our way forwards in the image before adding the characters and then finally the foliage along the bottom of the piece last. Due to the size of the wall and the confined space we were working in we tried to keep the use of spray paint (our usual weapon of choice) to a minimum on this project, instead favouring good old fashioned emulsion and brush work for the bulk of the project, especially on the finer detailed parts such as the three main characters. As well as emulsion and spray paint we also used a selection of high pigment paint markers for some of the smaller details.
FINISHED PIECES
Every project comes with it’s own unique challenges and this one of course was no different. Due to the centre being open until late we had to paint this across two night time shifts, painting until 4am the first night and 1am the second night. Although this was a gruelling schedule, it was also an enjoyable time to work, with the site being quiet and still away from the usual hustle and bustle of the centre during the day. Free from distractions the night shift was a place we were able to focus in on the work and really enjoy getting stuck into the creative process.
We were extremely happy with how this mural came out and really felt that we had successfully fulfilled the brief and brought a splash of fun and colour into the space that hopefully will be enjoyed by both young ones and parents alike.
