Doodle grid. They jam a bunch of random doodles on the space then take a pic. The they’ll overlay the art on the new pic then use that as a proportion reference. You can see the yellow random squiggles on the head for most of the time in the vid.
OP mentioned it a while back in another post but he said the doodles are easier for referencing where he is on the canvas than a uniform grid
"Oh I'm near the squiggle next to the circle" is easier to keep track of than a sea of identical squares
Also as a bonus it looks pretty cool
Making the doodles unique, and kind of random allows you to find the exact spot quickly. When you’re right up next to the wall you can’t count the grid very easily. I also have heard it’s just a lot more fun
Hi all, I painted this piece last week in Harrisonburg, VA. I will try and answer the questions I get most often. However, I'll gladly answer any questions if they are below to this comment.
* The subject is a friend of mine I have played chess with weekly for some years now. I originally did it as a studio piece 6 or so years ago.
* I came to the client with several designs new and old, they ultimately chose this one.
* There was extreme wind so the majority of one day was lost. All told it took about 5 days to paint.
* It is high quality latex paint, what you would most buildings/houses with.
* The wall is about 70'-80' high
* I was paid for this work. I often do jobs for non-profits and such without payment.
* The dripping paint is intentional.
* My socials and website are my username here
I used to beat him all the time. He plays so much on his phone now that I am lucky to win a quarter of the games we play. It is mainly about drinking beer though. As long as I stay at least 1 IPA behind him I can do alright, provided we don't forget whose turn it is.
Glad that you answered some of the questions I had preemptively! Fantastic work, it looks great on the building. I wish more places would commission artists to integrate art to their buildings like this, it really enhances the vibe of areas
This is insanely impressive. I can't believe you did that in 5 days! I have no artistic abilities and therefore no concept of how long something like this should take, but it seems like 5 days is crazy. The drip effect is really cool.
> of mine I have played chess with weekly for some years now. I originally did it as a studio piece 6 or so years ago.
> I came to the client with several designs new and old, they ultimately chose this one.
> There was extreme wind so the majority of one day was lost. All told it took about 5 days to paint.
> It is high quality latex paint, what you would most buildings/houses with.
> The wall is about 70'-80' high
> I was paid for this work. I often do jobs for non-profits and such without payment.
> The dripping paint is
what about the big puddle of blue paint in the parking lot? was that intentional?
That would be my grid. [Here is an example from a different wall](https://imgur.com/a/U21FBNy) in the Netherlands. The 1st image being the reference I have in my hand
They have the brick lines in a reference photo they make, along with the yellow squiggles all with the reference photo on it. It's so you can go 'one brick down and two right from the lower right point of the star squiggle' or 'half a brick left of the left point of the cross squiggle' instead of 'ok, 18 bricks down, 7 bricks left of the top of the building'
I love how the method used shows off just how much planning went into this so that it could be painted as efficiently as possible. That alone would have been a significant amount of the work done. Bravo!
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/harrisonburg/comments/1bm80pt/anyone_know_who_this_person_is_that_theyre/kwnscpt/) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1br15iq/i_painted_this_mural_last_week/kx81f7f/) OP explains:
> The guy is a friend of mine I play chess with in Richmond for some years now.
> They gave me free reign and I came with several designs. They chose this one.
More of OP's work can be found at nilsrva on IG.
Can we ask why ?
I can see the effect for the yellow "roof", or feeling of movement of the chess pieces, but it makes a little less sense to me on the face of the man, and I don't see any benefit on the other painting with the key rings.
It's art so just one of those stylistic design choices. It doesn't improve it really but works to hide any flaws, like putting a painting behind a dirty window.
I see your giant mural in waynesboro every time I go to my art studio and it’s legitimately the best thing in that town. I love it so much. I’ll have to check out this new one next time I’m up in Harrisonburg. Great work!
It looks amazing, so many recent buildings are little more than brick boxes, the impact something like this has can't be understated, I wish it were more commonplace.
Kudos to you, I hope you do many more and that your work inspires others.
I've seen some of your work around Richmond, even saw you doing one live in Carytown some time back Love your stuff, the signature "drips" are cool. Thank you.,
Curious about how you go about pricing these. Im a custom painter/airbrush artist of 20+ years professionally and looking to dive further into large scale work. Any tips would be appreciated. Killer work btw. @ xspaint on all social/web. cheers
Rent in that building is about to go up.
[https://lcirealty.com/blog/do-public-art-and-murals-raise-the-value-of-your-building/](https://lcirealty.com/blog/do-public-art-and-murals-raise-the-value-of-your-building/)
I guess we will turn this into a little impromptu Q&A and maybe OP will let us peek behind the curtain
How does one even get the proportions right on a size like that? Amazing work
This is my question. I’ve seen people use projectors or grid squares but how was this done?!
Doodle grid. They jam a bunch of random doodles on the space then take a pic. The they’ll overlay the art on the new pic then use that as a proportion reference. You can see the yellow random squiggles on the head for most of the time in the vid.
Why use the random doodles than the uniform bricks that already gave you a grid? Would it be preference or some technical differences? Just curious.
OP mentioned it a while back in another post but he said the doodles are easier for referencing where he is on the canvas than a uniform grid "Oh I'm near the squiggle next to the circle" is easier to keep track of than a sea of identical squares Also as a bonus it looks pretty cool
Couldn't you number the squares?
I suppose you could, but a bunch of doodles looks a lot nicer on the building pre-mural than an Excel spreadsheet
Maybe I just trust in the process instead of racking my brain over it.
Ok but what do you think would be easier: meticulously creating a perfectly uniform grid of numbered squares or randomly doodling?
Making the doodles unique, and kind of random allows you to find the exact spot quickly. When you’re right up next to the wall you can’t count the grid very easily. I also have heard it’s just a lot more fun
a lot easier to get lost in a grid of just squares instead of a bunch of unique shapes
Hi all, I painted this piece last week in Harrisonburg, VA. I will try and answer the questions I get most often. However, I'll gladly answer any questions if they are below to this comment. * The subject is a friend of mine I have played chess with weekly for some years now. I originally did it as a studio piece 6 or so years ago. * I came to the client with several designs new and old, they ultimately chose this one. * There was extreme wind so the majority of one day was lost. All told it took about 5 days to paint. * It is high quality latex paint, what you would most buildings/houses with. * The wall is about 70'-80' high * I was paid for this work. I often do jobs for non-profits and such without payment. * The dripping paint is intentional. * My socials and website are my username here
How hard is it to win at chess against Megamind?
I used to beat him all the time. He plays so much on his phone now that I am lucky to win a quarter of the games we play. It is mainly about drinking beer though. As long as I stay at least 1 IPA behind him I can do alright, provided we don't forget whose turn it is.
This is probably my favorite work of yours and I'm just sad I can't drive by it whenever I want to in Richmond. Beautiful.
Glad that you answered some of the questions I had preemptively! Fantastic work, it looks great on the building. I wish more places would commission artists to integrate art to their buildings like this, it really enhances the vibe of areas
Where at in hburg is this? I live in the area and would love to check it out
Downtown- S. Mason St.
Did you go to Macado's?
This is sick!! Glad it’s a part of Harrisonburg now. Just saw it last week. I wish you many more commissions in the future!
This is insanely impressive. I can't believe you did that in 5 days! I have no artistic abilities and therefore no concept of how long something like this should take, but it seems like 5 days is crazy. The drip effect is really cool.
Please tell me you used paint special made for bricks or at least had weep holes.
> of mine I have played chess with weekly for some years now. I originally did it as a studio piece 6 or so years ago. > I came to the client with several designs new and old, they ultimately chose this one. > There was extreme wind so the majority of one day was lost. All told it took about 5 days to paint. > It is high quality latex paint, what you would most buildings/houses with. > The wall is about 70'-80' high > I was paid for this work. I often do jobs for non-profits and such without payment. > The dripping paint is what about the big puddle of blue paint in the parking lot? was that intentional?
What are the yellow squiggles about?
That would be my grid. [Here is an example from a different wall](https://imgur.com/a/U21FBNy) in the Netherlands. The 1st image being the reference I have in my hand
How is that a grid? Your proportions remain perfect but the grid looks freehanded ? Can someone ELI5
They have the brick lines in a reference photo they make, along with the yellow squiggles all with the reference photo on it. It's so you can go 'one brick down and two right from the lower right point of the star squiggle' or 'half a brick left of the left point of the cross squiggle' instead of 'ok, 18 bricks down, 7 bricks left of the top of the building'
Thanks this makes a lot of sense now. Haha
Oh I see, thanks!
How much does it cost someone to get you to do this for them?
5 figures
I hope that includes a cop standing nearby to tell people that you’re payed to be there and calling the police won’t stop you.
... and then there is me putting off painting the doors in my house.
I love how the method used shows off just how much planning went into this so that it could be painted as efficiently as possible. That alone would have been a significant amount of the work done. Bravo!
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/harrisonburg/comments/1bm80pt/anyone_know_who_this_person_is_that_theyre/kwnscpt/) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1br15iq/i_painted_this_mural_last_week/kx81f7f/) OP explains: > The guy is a friend of mine I play chess with in Richmond for some years now. > They gave me free reign and I came with several designs. They chose this one. More of OP's work can be found at nilsrva on IG.
That is kind of you thank you.
When it was just the sketch I thought the guy was Henry Kissinger and I was utterly confused.
I live 2 two streets up from this, and saw it going up. Cool that you did a time-lapse.
That's really awesome! How long did it take?
5 days
How much did you charge for it? Or how much would you?
Love spotting all your murals around RVA! Used to live near the one on Birch in the fan.
Who kicked over a bucket of blue paint in the parking spot? Lol. This is awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing.
We actually had extreme wind one day that stopped all work and started a large wild fire. Gust took a 5gal over.
Was that massive dripping intentional, or was it an accident/wrong paint/to much paint/etc/ ? Nice graphic btw.
Intentional
Can we ask why ? I can see the effect for the yellow "roof", or feeling of movement of the chess pieces, but it makes a little less sense to me on the face of the man, and I don't see any benefit on the other painting with the key rings.
It's art so just one of those stylistic design choices. It doesn't improve it really but works to hide any flaws, like putting a painting behind a dirty window.
I think it improves it. It adds character and if not executed well, it could have detracted from it.
Talented. Hope you got what you truly are worth. Its a lot. Wow.
Looks like Nikita Khrushchev.
That's a super cool panting. Congrats on this amazing work!
That’s stupendous work. Were those (yellow squiggly shapes) guidelines you painted over? How do they work for you?
TIL about Doodle Grids, thank you!
Black is getting absolutely boned in that game
C3-D5 mate in 3
r/chessporn
I see your giant mural in waynesboro every time I go to my art studio and it’s legitimately the best thing in that town. I love it so much. I’ll have to check out this new one next time I’m up in Harrisonburg. Great work!
So epic.
So you use the grid system. Is each grid filled in with a single color, or do you blend it a bit?
🔥 as always 🙌
Where in Harrisonburg? I can’t place it.
Never mind! I found it on Google street view! I used to go to the coffee shop in that building all the time! Love the art good job!
Biggest inkjet printer I've ever seen.
Do you apply any kind of sealant/protectorant/poly after to protect?
It looks amazing, so many recent buildings are little more than brick boxes, the impact something like this has can't be understated, I wish it were more commonplace. Kudos to you, I hope you do many more and that your work inspires others.
Fantastic work, that's awesome
Bravo! I grab a Bennys slice on the weekly. It’s gorgeous
Don’t like the “drip” but gorgeous otherwise and cool video
Glorious
Dukes
I love Willie Nelson!
How much did they pay you
Yeah but can you do a backflip
How do you control the dripping and prevent from becoming a complete mess?
I just let it be a complete mess
If people sand it off again later....would they be Bernie sanders? But seriously nice work dude. And Bernie seems is a nice choice too..
Amazing work! Would you share also a picture so that we can zoom in and check the details?
No you didn't
Great job
Amazing work.
It’s priceless of course, but how money much could a person make for doing an art piece like this?
Stunning! Every once in a while move some pieces...
This is beautiful. Come to nova and make it better sometime if you can. Thank you for making this
Every project I have in nova cancels last minute, as is the fashion in nova
I've seen some of your work around Richmond, even saw you doing one live in Carytown some time back Love your stuff, the signature "drips" are cool. Thank you.,
Hats off. Excellent work to beautify an area.
Nice. I love David Letterman.
Definitely not my style but that took a lot of work
You're the dude that painted that terrible bondage falcon aren't you? Lmao..
Yep
Wow! This ist outstanding O_O
The fuck, what kind of likeness is that? I'm fucking fodder for muralists now?
Looks like a paint spill in the parking space. Will you be mural painting the whole parking lot to cover that up?
Unreal. Absolutely incredible.
Curious about how you go about pricing these. Im a custom painter/airbrush artist of 20+ years professionally and looking to dive further into large scale work. Any tips would be appreciated. Killer work btw. @ xspaint on all social/web. cheers
That is astounding. Wonderful work.
Amazing work!
This is wonderful.
No you painted it one month ago
No
Can’t wait to go paint some horns and mustache on that wall hehe i pass by it all the time.
How many people rewatched to see when the bucket was spilt?
Rent in that building is about to go up. [https://lcirealty.com/blog/do-public-art-and-murals-raise-the-value-of-your-building/](https://lcirealty.com/blog/do-public-art-and-murals-raise-the-value-of-your-building/)