The behind the scene of some of our mural projects

Many people are often curious about the process that is involved in creating art. Throughout our years we have learned that art is not a one size fits all method. The more that you explore art, the more you find new ways to do create it.

MIX COLORS

Our biggest lesson in being able to create large scale artworks and murals is to make sure that you have all your colors pre-mixed before you start. For large scale art, you can’t just always mix colors on site even though certain colors within the artwork will be mixed instantly. The artists has to decide what the largest mass with in the artwork is and pre-select those colors through paint guides. You can order all your colors with paint companies once you have chosen what they are.

CREATE A SKETCH

We often create a preliminary sketch  to make sure we like the colors and composition. A sketch also allows for the client or organization hiring us to get an idea of what the final artwork will look like. This take a lot of practice! Get a sketchbook and practice, practice, practice! We like to create sketches a variety of ways from digital concepts, architectural renderings to mock-ups and physical small scale samples. Every project is unique so we can customize the sketch to be tailored to the most important aspects of the project.

IT’S OK TO EDIT!

Some of our best ideas are not the first ones. In an effort to ensure that our clients get exactly what they envision we often have to edit our first sketch and try a new idea out. It’s okay to go back to the drawing board, to see what can be eliminated or what can be added. Sometimes its great to be able to play around with different ideas and see how it looks. It’s all part of the process. The only way we continue to create some of the best art is to try different things.

GATHER MATERIALS

The key to creating great art is to make sure you give yourself enough time to plan. Normally we spend 2-3 days gathering materials, creating our work schedule, and making sure we have all equipment on site. Mural projects are very delicate and if you fail to properly plan you could miss a whole day of work.We have created many murals  across the country now so we know what to expect and how to make our planning process faster.

PRIME AND PREP WALL

We prepare the surface to be painted on a variety of ways. Everything is dependent on what you are painting on. The most important aspect of ensuring quality and a long lasting artwork is to make sure that the surface is properly prepared to adhere to the molecules in the paint. We gather all technical specifications of the surface to make sure that we use the correct materials. Every surface is unique but from stucco to metal and glass, we have a solution for each material.

SKETCH ARTWORK ON WALL

Depending on the size of the wall and what the artwork is we may choose to use a grid method or a projector. The gird method has the most accurate result. This way works best for odd sized walls, small spaces, extremely large walls and areas without electrical sources.

START PAINTING!

Here comes the magic! Our favorite part! We now take our sections and get working. This is the longest part of the process and the one that comes together slowly. Layer by layer we built up the artwork over a series of rolling in the color, hand brushing, and color mixing. We sometimes take a break between the process to make sure that we don’t exhaust energy levels. It is vital to ensure that we can look at the artwork with fresh eyes and make adjustments as needed. People often underestimate what it takes to create artwork on such a large scale. Most of the time the work takes a physical toll on your body. We always make sure to yoga and a healthy smoothie to our routine each morning to make sure that our bodies are strong and healthy. Any time your body is exhausted it shows in your work. GREAT ART TAKES TIME. Schedule in breaks, exercise and good meals. Not only will it keep you energized and refreshed but the results can be seen in the out put of your work.

 

Well that’s it! We hope that this short list provided some perspective on our process. We may have missed a few elements here but that’s the mystery to art. Each process is unique to the artist. We study light shadows, perspective, form, and color to gain awareness on how to create realism. The foundation for great art is to study it. Art is a science. It is  a journey to discover and each method will lead you to new results!

 

 

New Slick Chimp and Flamingos Mural

We have finally gotten around to uploading some of our progress photos for Wynwood Smoke Lounge that we completed a few months ago. Wynwood Smoke Lounge is a cigar shop, hookah lounge and entertainment venue located in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District. For this particular mural, the client asked that we come up with a creative concept that involved animals smoking.

For the cigar shop, we choose a sophisticated monkey a.k.a. Slick Chimp who is about 9 feet high. We also painted the walls to wrap around the interior so that the colors could be seen behind the glass cases of products. For the hookah smoke lounge we placed two flamingos smoking a hookah with the logo of the company displayed on the hookah glass. The background was created using a series of patterns and shapes that complimented the color scheme for the lounge.

As always, many colors were custom mixed using a simple color palette of primary colors red, yellow and blue. The pattern on the walls were created suing a series of precise tape work that required rolling in certain colors. We used Benjamin Moor paint.

We made an effort to create a concept design that matched the interior furniture selection so that the artwork would have a fully immersive experience and relate to the overall environment. The result was one of a kind and we have received so many compliments. Slick Chimp seems to be everyone’s favorite as he draws many visitors in to the shop to take a closer look. The owner’s have told us how trilled with the finished mural and that it has definitively increased traffic and new clients to their business.

That’s what its all about. The way that art can change an environment to a cool atmosphere that people enjoy to visit. At every point we make sure that all the details are not overlooked and that customers get a truly unexpected result.

You can check out these murals at their location in Wywood Arts District:
Wynwood Smoke Lounge
320 NW 24th St, Miami, FL 33127

Artist Amir Shakir’s artwork “The Unfixed Brain”

This artwork was created by Amir.

 

Acrylic portrait painting for artist Amir Shakir created by Ivette Cabrera.

This artwork titled “Akiro Warrior with Machete” celebrates a black warrior styled like a Moorish prince with a variety of textures and fabrics. The artwork is a new format than the usual artworks that are primarily murals or drawings,

I took the photo of Amir in our art studio and recreated the image matching the color of the fabrics etc. I wanted the strong contrast of the warm tones oh his face with the green background. The machete in many cultures is a very important tool that is used to cultivate and for battle.

Below are some pictures of the color mixing process required to achieve the final result. Skin tones are mix of various colors depending on the light source and surrounding objects within the scene. I begin by creating various options and then narrow down to the most important colors for the artwork. I create a quick sketch to make sure that I like the composition of the artwork.

 

Newly Completed Mural at Wynwood Walls

Mural located in Wynwood address is 524 NW 26th St Miami Fl 33127

40′ x 38′
Acrylic
3 weeks completion time

Our completed mural for supermodel and army veteran Raquel Riley Thomas. We were so please to take part of such an amazing project and bring our clients vision to life!

We began by completely spraying out the background with a dark green tone with a light mist of purple. We then created stripes down the whole wall to create the illusion of looking at a linen canvas.  We layered sections of this mural to create a strong sense of depth. To create an exact skin tone color match we mixed all of our colors in our studio and separated them into various labeled containers. We created about 17 colors in all and the rest was ordered through our paint company.

Here’s a few shots to the process

Colors of the Sky

Our left over mixing containers

Before photo

40′ feet in the air! It an exciting time to be an artist in Wynwood. Not only are we in an area that fully embraces artists and allows them to freely express themselves but it also nurtures their growth by granting them a large platform to fully execute their vision.

A big thank you to the team over at Moishe Mana’s offices that allowed us to use their building to execute this vision.

The County of Miami Dade has honored our very own artist Amir Shakir with an honorary Certificate of Appreciation for Art Basel exhibition December 1 -15,, 2018.  We thank Mayor Jimenez and Commissioner Bravo for the recognition.