SaraChristensen on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/sarachristensen/art/Color-Theory-II-Mural-244136700SaraChristensen

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Color Theory II Mural

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Download Size: 3000 x 1610

This baby was why I was so inactive between January and April. As the image states,
this is a 43ft mural installation done for LWTC as part of our Color Theory II class!

This course takes place twice a year since it's an elective that not a lot of students take.
Each class, the students comes up with a mural idea to execute somewhere on school
campus. Of course, it has to be approved by the administration, but it's entirely our
design. During Winter Quarter, my class did one for Room T122 and our clients, so to
speak, were the teachers who taught in that room throughout the week. Fun, huh?

They wanted something that would spark students' creativity and reflect the fact that
this room was dedicated to those in the MMDP Program (which is an abbreviation for
Multi Media Design and Production). We spent the first month coming up with ideas
for the wall space and going back and forth with the instructors so that we got it just
right. In the end, my idea was chosen out of the entire class and we just went for it!

The main idea behind the mural is the MMDP program, so I chose to pick various objects
that designers use every day. In our program, we had many different subcategories:

- traditional art
- photography
- graphic design
- 3D modeling
- game design
- animation
- filmography

The clients also wanted the mural to indicate our location, so then I decided to include
famous monuments/buildings/sculptures around the Seattle area in the skyline. There was
a lot to think about, so the mural ended up being really complex and full of information.

:bulletgreen: From left to right, here are all of the objects featured in the mural:

- drawing mannequin
- comet
- Saturn + moon
- The Eagle (Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle)
- Hammering Man (Seattle Art Museum)
- MMDP logo + supernova
- The Doughnut (Volunteer Park, Seattle)
- comet
- Seattle Space Needle
- digital camera space station
- animated running men
- 3D wire frame planet
- small Saturn-like planet
- filmstrip + black hole
- computer mouse rocket ship + trail
- Mt. Rainier
- moon
- sun rays: pencil, paintbrush, stylus, sharpie
- painter's palette sun

Once we had final approval, we went forth painting the mural as a class. Everything was
done in 8ft boards and then nailed to the wall surface, so we didn't have to actually paint
on the wall (which would have been hard considering that there are classes in that room
every day). We had five 8ft segments and another extra piece to cover the remaining 3-ish
feet. I was in charge of the last two 8ft sections, which is about from the filmstrip over to the
sun-palette. The part I physically painted all by myself was the sun palette. Other than that,
most of the work was distributed evenly among the class. I oversaw most of the painting.

My favorite aspect of this piece are the various design references that have been disguised as
space phenomena. The camera space station, the 3D wire frame planet, the mouse-rocket,
and the large sun-palette on the far right. I also like how the drawing mannequin is pulling
back the mural and breaking the boundary of the piece itself. I had fun playing with that.

After six weeks of hard work and non-stop 3hr class periods, we were able to finish it before
the end of the quarter. It didn't go up in T122 until the next quarter due to scheduling conflicts,
but now it's up for the entire school to see! It's strange seeing something that I worked on in
Photoshop up on a giant wall surface, but it was so very rewarding. I had to learn to let go of
a few things since I wasn't the artist anymore and I couldn't paint everything myself exactly as
I envisioned it (curses!). Learning to work with a group of a dozen or so designers was one huge
task but we were able to pull it together and create something amazing despite our differences.
I made a lot of friends in that class and we had some really great times just painting away.

Phew, that's a long description. I'm sure I forgot to mention something in there though, haha.
I hope you guys like it. We tried our best to replicate the original (top image) but in the end,
we sort of made it our own. Even though so many people worked on it, it's still my baby.

Painted over the course of 6 weeks. Completed March 24, 2011.
Image size
3000x1610px 3.19 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon PowerShot A650 IS
Shutter Speed
1/25 second
Aperture
F/2.8
Focal Length
7 mm
ISO Speed
80
Date Taken
May 2, 2011, 3:51:36 AM
Sensor Size
5mm
© 2011 - 2024 SaraChristensen
Comments6
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kittykittyhunter's avatar
That actually looks amazing. :wow: