Apple iPad 2 Mural
Just when we thought we were going to batten down the hatches and prepare for a cold and lengthy winter. A worldwide well-established global media company gave us a call – Titan.
They specialize in outdoor advertising on anything that you can encounter in outside day to day life; from a bus shelter to a 100 foot high in the sky locale. Any moment in the day one of their contractors is either craning over in a tight spot to make taut a large banner or mimicking a Cirque du Soleil trapeze artist zipping around to paint the final touches of a celebrated unique brand name logo. Needless to say we were extremely excited to be presented with this opportunity.
The client they had in mind for us was the none other than Apple. The late Steve Paul Jobs was known for his enduring tenacious work ethic. He and a few other “wiz-kids” were all coming up with computer operating systems way back in days of yore. Initially he was successful with his product the Apple computer. Through his time like many great contributors in human lineage, his success wavered. The PC personal computer was a kink in Steve’s plan, however recently he soared back into the spot light and now has the an extremely successful company. Apple’s latest star is the iPad2 and would the subject of our mural.
The location selected to paint this mural was in the trendy night-club district of Toronto’s downtown core, close to Adelaide St & John St to be specific. This area showcases high rise office towers, famous theaters, TV broadcasting stations in addition to a generous sprinkling of fantastic restaurants. The western wall of the club overlooked the parking lot of a fire hall. This particular fire hall is part of the south command district. While working on this mural project we couldn’t help but feel we were surrounded by greatness in one way or another. We weren’t sure whether it was the courageous firemen responding to emergencies or the iPad mural itself, an icon of invention crafted by a ceaselessly determined individual.
The fire hall was very co-operative; moving their cars when we needed to bring in the Skyjack 7127 in order to access and paint every nook and cranny, or when it came time to get some water for to clean our painting tools. The irony cannot be understated, what better place to get water than a fire hall? The trusty Skyjack used for this mural project was an all-terrain vehicle featuring the ability for full operation even at a 30 degree angle. The wall for the mural was 30’ x 30’ so our Skyjack proved incredibly useful.
The image was of the front of a large iPad2 positioned above ten smaller iPads arranged in a fan like manner providing an excellent sense of depth. The ten lower iPads showcased the iPad cover and artfully displayed their exquisite rainbow of colours. The reflection at the bottom of the smaller iPads conveyed the presence of a very shiny surface, reinforcing Apples long-standing design ethos of clean and simple. The larger iPad showcased an array of apps, expressing the tantalizing options available on the iPad and provocatively beckoning you to play with its features.
This wall was in need of some pre-painting preparation work. This location has had numerous murals painted on its surface throughout the years. First part of the process was to scrape off the loose paint in order to provide a sound foundation for our paint. Once that task is complete we gave the wall a good coat of “Apple clean” white paint with our airless sprayer.
The complicated task of getting the image to fit within its measurements is approached from a few angles. First, we measure out some points and then project the image on the wall. This allows us to have an accurate representation of the image directly on the surface it is to be painted. Next, we outlined the key areas that were to guide us throughout the following artistic processes. At that point we painted in the foundational colours with a good old fashioned roller and paint brush. These first set of colours were our base coat, to follow would be the process of highlighting and shading to bring out the details. This stage called for ample amount of green painters tape. Since this mural required such a large number of tiny lines precise masking skills were required. The job of the green tape did not end yet, in order to add further detail to certain areas we needed to mask off the completed areas. Sometimes it felt as though we were playing a chess game rather than painting a mural.
The final stage of development involved painting the icons on the iPad screen. First, a little history about a technique called pouncing. Pouncing is where you take a piece of paper and poke tiny little holes along your design. Then you take the design to where you are going to put your mural and secure the paper to the wall. Next, you apply a small charcoal powder to the entire area. Finally, when the paper is removed there remains behind a faint outline of the image. The great master painters of history have used this technique up until present day.
In this mural we utilized vinyl stencils, a modern form of pouncing. Using vinyl stencils still requires you to go through similar steps. First step is to trace the design on a computer software program such as Illustrator. This program uses vector lines, vector lines are important because that is what the printer needs to do its job. The printer takes a vinyl sheet and cuts little lines in the sheet of where your image is. You then take this vinyl sheet and stick it to your surface, remove the inside area where the little lines are cut and it becomes a custom stencil. Finally we use paint to fill the in the stencil. An alternative method of painting the small icons would be to paint them by hand. In fact, some of these icons we needed to touch up and complete the finishing touches using a brush.
This mural was a great finish to 2011; we really enjoyed the opportunity to work with Titan360 in addition to painting such a world famous device as the iPad2. We can’t wait for the spring to come, snow to melt away, and weather to warm up so we can get back outside painting.