Our Amazing Mural- Completion

We made it! After 2 months we are at completion with our first mural- “Growing Great Leaders”. We spent these last three weeks of school putting in countless hours after school and during our lunches putting layers upon layers of color and detail. After our last post here is what we began with- 

 

We sketched in details in the roots 

The weather has been getting hot and VERY humid so painting has been tough. The paint had to put down in many thin coats allowing for extra drying time, this really put us behind schedule. Here are some shots of us working  during this very important time. We counted that we worked almost 40 hours on this phase!!!!

 

Finally on the VERY LAST day at the VERY LAST minute (literally) we put the final touches on “Growing Great Leaders”. We are so very proud of the final piece and look forward to seeing you in August when we start Phase 2 of our club! 

Progress and the mural that keeps growing!

Hi everyone! Well we had to take Monday off because it got crazy hot and humid here in Chicago and our poor old building couldn’t take the heat (literally). The walls were sweating and we were afraid that the paint would bubble if we tried to add another layer. We are going to be back at it today! 

This last session really brought some great changes and differences! We are also learning about glazing and layering several different shades in order to get a rich final layer full of depth! It is a long process- but a very cool one. 

We added some new artists to our crew this week as well- huge welcome to Patrick and Rianna! We are excited to have these VERY talented painters join us! 

Here is a shot of the piece  before our last session 

Here is a shot of the piece now!

This week we are focusing on smoothing out the sky- adding depth to the foreground, adding details- and beginning the roots- the most important part of the piece. 

We have also been asked to expand our club and start more work in the building! EXCITING! 

Stay tuned for updates after today’s session- “Growing Great Leaders” 

Session One Progress Update- The Underpainting

Hello everyone!

Last night we finished our first actual painting session on the mural “Growing Great Leaders”. It went amazingly well! Shockingly in 2 hours we almost completed the entire underpainting! B an B were shocked ! ( Mrs. Baldocchi and Ms. Bodanyi ) Everyone showed up on time, listened to Mrs B explain what an underpainting was and the steps that you take to complete one. Then we learned about color and color mixing and went to the job site! It was so exciting! To let you know how excited we were we forgot that there was a HUGE box of fresh donuts for us to snack on! 🙂

Mrs. B ordered her favorite brushes- they are actually amazing quality and VERY professional. They are marketed for kids because they have this super comfortable rubber grip but they are actually amazing quality  brushes that wont break the bank! Here is a shot of the brushes and name in case you are interested in picking some up! They can withstand VERY heavy use and- if cared for properly-will last for years!

 

 

Next step was planning our attack. We mixed our paints, got our brushes and claimed an area. Here are some shots of us hard at work!

 

 

Like we said we covered a lot of ground in the first session. We also got a chance to chat with some people we normally don’t interact with at school. It was pretty cool- we are enjoying everyone’s ideas and thoughts and making new friends in the process! We have also begun to improve our attendance and grades because we have to in order to stay members of this great club! Until nest session- Paint on!

 

Phase One- Growing Great Leaders

Hello!

Welcome to our page! We are SO excited to be starting the first ever community mural project at Graham School! We have been hard at work locating the place for our first ever mural! We searched the building and decided the perfect place for our first piece would be the second floor right outside of Mr. Moore’s office. There is a lot of traffic with the washrooms right there. Sadly the walls have seen better days. Here are some shots of the walls

 

We have been studying why people paint murals and decided that this was the perfect place to spread a message and beautify an area in need of some TLC. We also just found out that the younger grades are going to be joining our building on the second floor so we designed our theme  for them. The theme for phase one is going to be “Growing Great Leaders”. Mrs. Baldocchi and Ms. Bodanyi have agreed to mentor and coach us. Here is a computer sketch of our plan!

G School Mural Sketch

Since we are a neighborhood school we will be painting neighborhood scenes in the roots- since Graham is “rooted” in the neighborhood.

Here are some shots of the primer going on! We are almost ready to paint!

Finally here is a shot of some of us at our first job site meeting!

Stay tuned for amazing things!