RVA MakerFest was a smashing success! I had a lot of fun (while I wasn't busy being really nervous), and I'm already excited for next year. If you made it to the event, you might be interested in seeing this play-by-play of the process for setting up my show demo.
I had to figure out how to paint a mural without painting a mural. To me, the most important part of a mural is architectural context, so I set out to fake some architecture.
Using the web tool Rasterbator (I know) to blow up a house picture I took from Cary Street, I created a 4x8' "window" to a mural. Rasterbator enlarges and then chops up the image into a stack of printable-size pages. Here you can see how a couple came off on the ride to the museum... The wall itself however is intentionally cut out to expose the primer I put onto the plywood in preparation for painting.
Thus I had a wall for my mural demo! Next I sketched a design, colored it in photoshop, and overlaid it onto my photo.
Then during the Fest I painted and talked and ran around and painted and ate and painted and talked... and ended up with something kinda like the design!
This is after I disassembled the rest of the booth.
In terms of the pure image, I have a lotta things I would change (more outlines, different colors). In terms of the demo, I think it was a great success! I even got help painting from a tiny child or two (and a couple of enthusiastic adults).
Speaking of help, I couldn'ta done this without my brother Evan who helped me set up on Friday and acted as booth-backup and gofer on Saturday, and helped me pack up along with his lovely lady Katie. Also Ross of Sure Hand Signs for his hauling help on Friday! Big things take many hands <3
Now! If you did miss MakerFest, you have a second chance to see me and my booth and my demo! I'm doing the whole thing again this Saturday at Arts on the Grove, which is in the Near West End and starts at 9am.
Details here --> http://www.richmond.com/calendar/festival/event_786029ba-24b7-11e3-a6df-1bd7f581d5dd.html