Anyone painted a mural on the side of a building before?

[jvartandillustration]

Hello, everyone.

I just completed a wall mural at the school where my wife works, and the admin love it so much, they now want me to do a massive piece on the gym wall.

They are asking me to give them a bid, but I have never done such a project before. Anyone out there who has painted something on the side of a building? What would I even charge for such a project?

[NessIllustration]

@jvartandillustration Wait you said you just completed a mural, and in the same breath say you've never done a mural. I'm confused... What did you charge for the first mural?

[ArtistErin]

@jvartandillustration I think you are saying you have never done something that might require a different skillset like gridding out proportions and taking into account the street perspective, lighting outside, equipment used and type of paint? I know Jake, Lee and Will did a 3PP interview with a mural artist where he describes his process, creates a plan and rents a lift so he can get on the side of the building. I tried looking for the exact episode, but if you do find it I learned a ton watching how he sets up his process.

I painted a logo of an elementary school mascot inside a gym on a cinder block wall. A student had created this logo and the school wanted to preserve it, however they wanted a new mural painted over the top. So my job was to recreate that logo in the gym (it was originally on the lunchroom wall) I set up a grid version to scale on graph paper and transferred that based on square footage in the gym, hand drew it directly on the wall with no projector (yeah, dumb and a projector would have made it so much easier). Anyway this is the way I did it. I painted primer only on the sections I would be painting, then went over the primer in flat acrylic paint, outlined the art to match the student's previous work, and applied 2 coats of matte polyacrylic clear coat over the top. It's been there for almost 20 years now and still looks the same. The hardest part for me was achieving tight lines over that cinder block texture. I used a super fine detail brush for the finished line work.

So I imagine what you could do is estimate the square footage of the project, add all the materials + 30% extra (you always run into needing more and you don't want to run out!), and factor in how much time you will need for the equipment (they can be expensive! So pad extra time in your quote). Instead of renting a lift I bought my own scaffold from another project. I factored the cost into my quote and my client bought it for me. I would rather use a lift for outside, just saying! I admire muralists who work outside. It's a whole different skillset.

Just a few things to consider! Oh and check Graham Rust's book "The Painted House" https://www.amazon.com/Painted-House-Graham-Rust/dp/0394573404

Don't know if this is overkill for what you are looking for however his work really helped me in my perspective and visually implementing detail on a large scale.

Hope this helps you! Update us on what you learn. I'm curious what they are wanting to have you do.

[jvartandillustration]

@NessIllustration The first one was one 8’ X 10’ wall in a room. This gym wall is significantly larger, so I think it will require equipment, materials and preparation that I’ve never had before.

[jvartandillustration]

@ArtistErin Thanks for the tips. This info is very helpful.

[NessIllustration]

@jvartandillustration Ahhhh I understand!

[ArtistErin]

@jvartandillustration You're welcome! Wondering where you're at in this process, it brings me back to my muraling days Loved this time of my life... so just vicariously living it again through you if you don't mind!