Tuesday 18 June 2013

The Library Mural is Finished!


I finished the artwork for the mural last week. Hurrah! 


It took a lot longer than I had bargained for, but I am a bit of a perfectionist and couldn't help myself spending ages on detail, like doing more colouring-in on the original children's drawings and making the scanned cut-out of each one just right. I'm really pleased with how the photo montage bookshelves and computer screens look (spot the shameless self-publicity btw...).

Here it is in two halves, so you can see it more clearly:





The rough was passed with only the most minor changes - I needed to get more cultural diversity into the characters (the children all drew white librarians). I managed to colour a couple of librarians differently, like this one on the far left:



I also included a couple of children from my artwork, one Chinese girl and an Asian boy:


The other thing main thing they asked me to do was change 'Shhhhhh!' from this child's drawing, which doesn't fit with the modern library's ethos, to 'No breathing fire!':


Because of the limitations of my computer and to keep the file sizes sensible for sending, I had to send the artwork in 5 sections, with a good, healthy overlap, so the printer could stitch them together at his end.

Can't wait to see it. I hope the children recognise their drawings!

5 comments:

Penelope Notes said...

What an interesting mural with lots to see and enjoy. It is one of these collections where the children will see something new each time they look at it. The drawings are superb. Congratulations to both you and the kids who started it all. :)

Jeanette said...

What a great collaboration between you and the kids!

Carina said...

Aw wow I absolutely love this! Especially how you've incorporated the children's drawings into it - making it so special to them :)

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Margo said...

Brilliant.

Unknown said...

Looks amazing. Can't wait for you to post photos of it in situ.