Exam - Mural
This is an exam assignment. We had to design a mural for a particular wall that fit the theme of the building it's attached to. Our 'client' was Blind Walls.
Choosing a Wall
We had the choice out of 3 walls. The first one is next to a restaurant called the Botanist, located in Breda. The second one is a Jazz bar in Eindhoven, and the third one is a municipal office / city shop in Tilburg.
I didn't choose the second building, because I knew I'd have a hard time matching a design to this particular wall color and there are a lot of windows which makes it even harder to come up with a design that works. The jazz theme also didn't really speak to me. I chose the first one instead of the third one, because you can add way more details into that mural, which I love, because people walk close to the wall. The restaurant's theme also really fits to my style and the things I love to draw.
Research
I looked through the entire website of the Botanist and the rest of the internet to find out what their style is and what the history of this building is. I took some notes while researching.
Moodboard
The first idea that came to my mind, was the typical aesthetic-looking leafs with a few artistic, simplistic shapes. That idea was too boring and standard of course. After that, I wanted to look into the idea of drawing a canal in some sort of way, so I tried looking for some inspiration pictures but there weren't a lot. After that, I searched for botanicals and then I came up with the idea of drawing botanicals just like in old flora & fauna textbooks.
Sketches
Before I started sketching out ideas, I made a template of the flat wall so I could design my illustration in that template.
For my first sketch, I tried the canal idea to show a piece of the history of this building. I wanted to draw a river surrounded with nature instead of the city canals, so that the botanical theme was still there.
Then I sketched out the botanicals idea. I made a small list of botanicals that are often used as ingredients and sketched those out on the wall. Later on, I improved this sketch by enlarging the drawings and placing them a little bit behind all the windows and doors instead of drawing around those, to reduce all the empty spots.
And for my 3rd sketch, I drew the first basic idea I had. If I were to choose this design, I would put way more details in all the leafs and then draw those red and yellow shapes to match the interior of the restaurant.
I made some quick mockups of the second and third sketch. I didn't pick the first sketch, because I really wasn't feeling it. I didn't like it enough to explore that sketch more and the other two sketches were already interesting enough for me to choose out of.
I decided to go for the botanicals idea, because that was my most original idea and I really loved the idea of drawing them realistically in the style of those old schoolbooks. I think a lot of people are gonna go for this wall, so I really wanted to design something original.
Drawing the Botanicals
After I got my GO, I started drawing all the plants and mushrooms. I first layed down a 'sketch' of each botanical so I could get the proportions right. I also decided to give the mural the typical paper-like background instead of letting the bricks show, so the theme of the old schoolbooks comes forward better and the drawings of the botanicals are better visible.
(skip to the last image of this grid to see the final result)
After laying down all the basic shapes and colors for the plants, I changed the sizes of all the drawings a little more, since that was the feedback I got with my GO. To create a bit more of a dynamic flow from left to right, I tried making the drawings on the left side smaller and the right side bigger.
And then I drew all the details to give all the botanicals that realistic look.
(skip to the last image of this grid to see the final result)
Finalising the illustration
After finalising all the botanicals, it was time to add all the details that fit the old textbook theme really well. I started out by giving the background an old paper texture.
Then I added in the name tags of all the botanicals. It was still a bit too empty for my liking and so my teacher gave me feedback on how to fill up those spaces. I started out by adding some text like in the reference pictures on my moodboard. The group in all caps and a somewhat normal font and then the latin name in a fancy handwriting font.
Some spots were still too empty for my liking, so I filled them in with some light, quick sketches of the botanicals, just like in my moodboard.
The final illustration is now finally done.
The Mockup
I made a mockup of the left and right side of the wall, so you can get a feeling for what the mural would look like in real life. With the wall lines you can see in the final illustration above, I split the mural up into 5 parts and places them onto the mockup pictures using the Perspective and Warp tool. I then set the opacity to 80%, and the final mockups were done.
End Result
Evaluation & Feedback
I am pretty happy with how this illustration turned out. I think most of the plants and mushrooms look really good, and I love the extra details like the text and small sketches. It really gives off this old flora & fauna textbook vibe, which I was going for, so I think I succeeded. One thing I would change next time, is the amount of botanicals I decided to draw. Because having to draw 15 plants & a bee in a realistic style in about 2-3 weeks really wasn't doable. Next time I need to lower my own standards and think better of what I am capable of doing in a certain amount of time without having to spend hours and hours of my free time on the project as well.
My teacher gave me a G for this project and I finished this subject with a G. "Your illustration has gone through a nice process. You have experimented and researched a lot to get to this end result. You make good choices while researching so that there's a good coherence in your illustration. You use your resources in a good way. Your color palette has a playful and mysterious effect that suits your story."
