#muralph

Before we go, let me share a little background information on Marco Polo: One Hundred Eyes and 13 Reasons Why.  

Li Jinbao “Hundred Eyes” is a blind monk in service to Kublai Khan. He killed Kublai Khan’s soldiers and because of this, he got Kublai Khan’s attention. Kublai Khan imprisoned him and was set with the task of training Marco Polo in the beginning of the series. Li Jinbao is blind yet very skilled within the martial art of Kung Fu. 

“Years ago, you took my eyes. Today I give you the rest of me.” - Li Jinbao “Hundred Eyes” to Kublai Khan

13 Reasons Why is an American teen drama series developed for Netflix, based on the 2007 novel by Jay Asher. The series revolves around seventeen year old high school student, Clay Jensen, and his deceased female friend Hannah Baker, who has committed suicide after failing to cope with the culture, gossip and lack of support from her friends and her school. A box of cassette tapes recorded by Hannah in the lead up to her suicide detail thirteen reasons why she ended her life. (Yep, this is from Wikipedia.) Here we go.

“A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of work you go through to produce the outcome.” – Michael Jackson

I like viewing other people’s WIP posts/progress shots because it makes me feel at ease that they’re not magicians and that there’s a whole process before they achieved the final version of what they’re doing. Reading “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon has enlightened me to take people behind the scenes and share more of what I do and to not worry about everything to be perfect, “what matters is the process.”

Here’s the Bahaghari wall before the mural:

I thought I can do all of the layout and at the same time handle editing a digital version because I planned on projecting and tracing the design on the wall. I learned this from #TheScribbleWithUsMural2017 by Ink Scribbler and I figured it made the work a whole lot easier.

It did not. HAHAHA In the middle of making layouts, sketching, erasing, drinking coffee and Pinterest-ing, I realized how much work was needed to be done and that I am not capable of doing this all by myself. And so I got help from a few promising young artists from church who are into calligraphy/lettering (Hi Abi, Patrick, Yenry and Migz!) and asked them to layout a few statements. Here are their works:

I imitated their layout and proceeded to do the drafts which are then scanned and edited on Photoshop/Illustrator. Have a look at the messy scanned stuff

Here’s a gif of the digital layout. To track progress, photos below were being sent to one of our youth leaders for approval and direction.

Below are the final sketches on the wall as a mock-up and was just put there to see how it would most likely turn out.

More editing, revising, digitizing and coffee happened and the final version was done. Here’s a gif to see the progress:

Some of the WIP shots I’ve shared on Instagram stories:

Huge thanks to all my good friends who supported and helped in making this mural a reality! I was too anxious to share about this because I got too stressed out with the amount of work needed to be done, the deadline and how I thought I was alone in all this–I didn’t understand then that I had to love the process. Shout out to all the people who went with me to buy paint, to eat, and to my family who fetched me every night. HAHAHA. Tatiana Manaois said in a song “You don’t always have to be strong all by yourself, it’s okay to ask for help.”  :)

I didn’t want to post about this and make it seem like I’m taking all the credit when in reality it’s a collaborative effort. God is so good and I am blessed and so grateful that I am a part of a community such as this one. I had fun painting this mural, even though it took months from start to finish, I hope I get to do more of these in the future!

If you’re still with me, thank you for reading this far. To God be the glory!

There have been questions as to why it’s a hexagon, and why is it formed like a chemical compound. Is it about chemistry? Well… um… no, it’s not a chemical compound. It’s based on the font Cube 02™ aaaand I’ll probably explain the logo in another post, probably on Behance or something idk we’ll seeeee!