Finishing the Ryton Mural, SWOT Analysis

This week we went back to finish the mural. In the last post, I showed the scaling-up process and blocking in the base colours. With a much sunnier day, we got off to a great start and managed to get a lot done, filling in all of the rocks and base layer shapes. This allowed us to see how the composition was working and if the elements were layering as they did in my original drawing. This was the biggest problem as the container was longer than I'd expected, meaning I had to improvise to fill in some areas in the middle. The colouring was done over two days, one to block fill everything, then a shorter trip to add all the details and do the grand reveal! After making a lot of progress on the first day, I took a photo of it and worked on any amendments I wanted to do as there were a few things that needed altering. Since I was playing art director I sort of took a step back from the painting as everyone wanted my opinion on colours and elements of the design. While this was great, I feel that I let a few things slip that I could've done better, or more to a style that suited mine. With this, I wrote a list of amends so I could work on them in the next visit- every project needs a checklist!

Mural Alterations:

• Widen the tortoise’s front legs, more defined foot
• Add the flag behind the bigger orange rock instead of the smaller one, more space so it can be bigger
• Sort out the blue bush in the middle, it needs to curve round to follow the path
• Redo the orange plant, fill up a bigger area
• Widen dark brown branches, try to flatten them out
• Add footprints to the left side and middle cutting through the bush
• Make the rocks behind the fox bigger, try the yellow paint with lighter orange lines
• Point fox’s snout more
• Refine hedgehog spikes
• Add darker shadows under all the rocks, needed to add more layering- could be turquoise
• Make middle background rock more of an oval and move down onto treeline
• Have the worm's tail sticking out above the footprints
• Add new orange (or yellow) plant below the pond, thinner leaves but more of them
• Add the missing bush in the middle next to the green rock
• Add the big Ryton wheel on the right side, make it red. 
• Another branch on the tree next to this coming from lower down.

Progress picture with alterations digitally drawn on

The Final Trip

At this stage, I felt very confident in what I wanted to achieve. I knew it would look a lot better when all the details went in as they're usually my favourite bit and where the illustration comes to life. Adding all the blades of grass, shadows under the animals and rocks, and features on the animals brought so much personality to the piece and I felt a lot happier with it. 

Together with Dan the spraypainter, my tutor David and Mark, a fellow illustrator, we worked to finish the mural before the rain came in and stopped us. I took charge and started doing more of the linework which I didn't expect to be doing at the start as I was pretty useless at it! It was amazing to see it come together as I had envisioned and see how the kids reacted to it every time they were playing outside or came to deliver me hot chocolate. It reminded me why I love working on pieces like this and want to pursue a career in children's book illustration; seeing them spot all the animals and point out different features was exactly my intention for this piece, so I felt very grateful to be working on it. 

Once it was complete, the children and teachers came out for a photo. The class were the ones who chose and sent the feedback to me so I was happy to see how much they loved it. Hopefully in the future I'll get more opportunities like this to work on projects for the community and work on a larger scale.

Thank you to Dan McConway, David Hails, Mark Hurry, Kelly Boden and Helen Laybourne for the opportunity.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths-

• Learning a new skill in spray-painting. Something I'd never done before and I had to go for it as there was so much to do. This was good for me as I could practice on the background where it didn't have to be as precise then work up to the more important bits like linework and detail.
• Gaining confidence in leading a team. It was made clear that Dan wanted me to take control, asking more about every decision which was daunting at first but once I'd realised that it was my job to lead I enjoyed having creative control and changing elements if I wanted. 
• Great to work with a school, a target audience for my children's books so interacting with the kids and hearing their opinions was really helpful and motivates me for producing my final book and progressing onto the children's book illustration masters.

Weaknesses-

• No weaknesses! Other than maybe a reluctance to work on more important bits at the start but that was a learning process.

Opportunities-

• It was a great opportunity to work with Dan McConway, a professional spraypainter based at The Biscuit Tin in Newcastle. Hopefully, I'll be able to work with him in the future or visit his studios/ spray painting outdoor space.
• Great publicity for me, the college and the school. We're hoping to get it in the news (Gateshead Council and The Chronicle) so that would be amazing to see. It is also in a prime location with many people passing by and parents picking up children so it will be on show for years to come. This might present future opportunities with people wanting a similar thing at another school or commissioned a similar piece.

Threats- 

• The great British weather! It was hard to prime the container as it was wet making it a much more complicated process than expected.

The finished mural on a road connecting the primary and secondary school