Imagine mural

<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" LINK="#FFCC99" ALINK="#009D74" VLINK="#FF9966"> <div> <IMG SRC="29a8ce7e0.jpg" border=0 width="206" height="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> "Imagine" Mural</div> <div> This mural was conceived of to bring attention to North Park's growing arts community. The eyes of John Lennon are visible </div> <div> on the top of western facing wall forty feet high in the air  It is 26 feet wide. </div> <div> The eyes are visible from the top of the hill four blocks away. As you get close to the building</div> <div> The entire face comes into view along with the word "Imagine".</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="29ed245b0.jpg" border=0 width="804" height="603" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> "Imagine" mural  (along with trompe l'oeil figure at entrance)</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="29efac010.jpg" border=0 width="684" height="513" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> John Lennon's eyes are seen above buildings as you come over the hill.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> THE QUICK STORY:   "Painting the Mural"</div> <div> I saw the top of our building visible from several blocks away and thought  "That would be a great place to have a mural". </div> <div> After several drawings, the idea came to me that "Eyes" would be cool...who's eyes? A child's...beautiful girl...who do I really like a lot...</div> <div> I love music...especially the Beatles...I grew up on the Beatles...Wow! I'm going to do George Harrison or John Lennon....It's going to be John. </div> <div>  </div> <div> I could do more though. As people get closer to the building, I want "Imagine" visible...Simple words...positive words...The town I live in is a </div> <div> growing ARTS COMMUNITY...an established artists town...this will tie in to the creativity here....but I also want to put John's entire face as </div> <div> they get closer...</div> <div>  </div> <div> So the eyes will be seen as you enter our part of town...as they get closer, they will naturally look at it and then see the IMAGINE </div> <div> and John Lennon's face...Perfect! </div> <div>  </div> <div> We, my fellow artist and friend, Sam Ballard, Talked to a lot of folks and got thoughts, opinions, etc. I did some computer renderings in black & white </div> <div> to show the basic concept idea. It was originally going to be black & white. We got approval from the buildings owner and also our neighbor next </div> <div> door to paint off the top of his roof, set up the scaffolding below for the lower parts and were ready. We climbed up to the top of our neighbors roof </div> <div> and began scraping loose paint chips away in the cracks visible and primed and prepped those areas.</div> <div>  </div> <div> That night we hauled up the projector, ladder, pencils, tape, rollers, paints to the top of the 35 ft. roof, set up the projector, </div> <div> blew the image onto the wall and drew it in.</div> <div> The next morning, bright and early we began "blocking in "the basic shapes and colors with paint brushes attached to extension poles. </div> <div> We decided that some sepia colors would be more of an impact. From there it was just keep blending a bit more here and there </div> <div> ....the next two days I painted the eyes, finished off the word imagine and finally </div> <div> the nose and mouth.</div> <div> The nose and the mouth gave us a challenge because as one sees something directly face on, there is no skewing or distortion...</div> <div> but as you start to view at a more obtuse angle the face changes shape and looks narrower and narrower. So we had to rethink the face and </div> <div> actually make the face fatter and wider than it would be when viewed strait on. Now it looks like John Lennon's face when you are looking at it </div> <div> from a 45 degree angle...a bit of trickery so it begins to look real. And since people can ONLY see the face from that 45 degree angle, </div> <div> it looks perfectly appropriate.</div> <div>  </div> <div> Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this short little story on the process.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0099FF" FACE="Arial" ><I><B><U>See more on how we painted this mura</U></B></I></FONT>l<A HREF="id815.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="How Imagine Mural Was Painted"><U><IMG SRC="29e567230.jpg" border=0 width="103" height="35" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div>   <script type="text/javascript"> var page_name = ''; var invisible = ''; function sE(){return true;}window.onError=sE; var ui='rik';var rn=Math.random();var base=top.document; var qry=ui+':3::'+escape(base.referrer)+'::'+screen.width +'x'+screen.height+'::'+screen.colorDepth+'::'+escape(page_name) +'::'+invisible+'::'+rn+'::'+escape(base.URL); document.write('<a href="http://www.web-stat.com/stats/'+ui+'.htm'); document.write('"><img src="http://server4.web-stat.com/count.pl?'); document.write(qry+'" border="0" alt="web stats analysis"/><\/a>'); </script><noscript><a href="http://www.web-stat.com"> <img src="http://server4.web-stat.com/3/rik.gif" border="0" alt="web stats analysis"></a></noscript>   </div> <div> Murals Fantastic is the online portfolio for artist & muralist Rik Erickson.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> All images are © Copyright 2000 - 2001 by Rik Erickson, and may not be reproduced, </div> <div> copied, displayed, or used in any way without written permission.</div> <div> All rights reserved.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Artist and muralist Rik Erickson serving the Southern California  & Chicago area.</div> <div> For the very best in high quality murals, faux, trompe l'oeil, fine art, design and much more.</div> <bR> </BODY>