How It's Done

I took another swing by the Paint Louis flood wall yesterday afternoon and met Adam Sherman. He is one of the artists and was putting some finishing touches on a panel. I've never seen anyone working on wall painting so I stopped and introduced myself.

Sherman is part of a three-artist group called O-U-R, Operation Urban Renewal (Facebook page here). They don't paint in inappropriate places and deface property. Much of it is mural work done under contract.

How is the complex work put up on a wall? I may have some of this wrong (if so, Adam, please correct me). It starts with a drawing, which is then rendered with computer graphics. The color scheme is added in Photoshop. Then the whole design is printed on a grid, with each square representing a square foot of wall. The three of them work together to execute the finished product. They use special German spray paint. It costs three times what you pay in the local hardware store.

The whole work is shown in the last picture. Pretty cool.