I am an independent graphic designer and illustrator, and currently do a lot of my work with the freelance collective Crumpet Club (@crumpetclubhouse). Commercial branding, graphic and web design is my bread and butter, and since becoming a freelancer I’ve been incorporating more illustration in my practice. As such, most of my work is digital, and I have only ever painted a little bit before, so this has been a great experience learning a relatively new medium and working on a larger scale.

I painted an indoor mural in my study as a self-initiated passion project. It was my first ever mural painting, so a part of this experience was to also learn the craft, get familiar with painting on a larger surface and to get my hands a little bit dirty! I think it turned out great and I thoroughly enjoyed the process.

I began by measuring the wall and then drawing a rough sketch with pen and paper to plan the layout of the piece. From there I took it to Adobe Illustrator and drew a few refined layout options. The inspiration for the design was based on the theme of adventures with my dog Ziggy: it includes lots of flowy organic shapes, plants, and stars, as well as a Ziggy silhouette against the sunset.

After that was finalised, I looked on the Tint website and colour-picked all their paint swatches, and I created several versions of the layout with various colour combinations – this was a large part of the planning process as I knew the choice of colours would affect how the piece ‘feels’. I settled on five colours with a warmer pink / orange / rust palette as I wanted it to be a motivating and cheerful backdrop to where I work every day.

I cleaned and prepped the area with the tape and tarp provided by Tint, and then transferred the artwork onto the wall using the grid method to redraw the design. From there, it was all about painting within the lines and getting into a flow state! I ended up going over each colour with about 4 coats as I wanted a really opaque and smooth finish. Painting was the best part of the process and was so meditative!

If you are curious about what is involved with mural painting, or painting in general - just go for it and try it out! The best part is that you can always paint over areas or start again. It is also not as daunting once you do a little bit of prep work, like researching the proper tools and how best to transfer the designs to your surface.

My favourite thing about my fresh Tint mural is the little silhouette of my dog in front of a sunset. I also love that I am much more comfortable with this medium now and look forward to future mural painting projects!