Starting the Mural

Getting the paint ready after gridding the wall. 

Before I started painting, I had to mark the wall with a grid so I could easily transfer the design I had drawn to scale to the wall.  I was showing this curious little girl how the grid lines help me keep the design in proportion.  She asked if I had to do this.  The beauty of these kinds of projects is no! I just use the grid system because I'm familiar with it and it's more accurate than drawing freehand.  Since the design is abstract, I did make a few changes while drawing and used the grid more a a guide in laying out where specific interactive elements will be attached. 

I decided to start at the center.  I like to work on the whole picture at once rather than starting at one end and finishing at the other.  There's no one way to paint something like this, I prefer this way because it appears to evolve through different stages of completion rather than clearly being unfinished or in progress.