The large-scale power of the mural

The Drawing Year students came together to paint a 120ft mural on Bard Rd, W10 in London. The students were led by tutors and artists Mark Cazalet and Deanio X, who worked with them in the studio to develop and translate their drawings to a larger scale and to be viewed in an architectural, public setting. 

Mark told us, “It was suggested that The Drawing Year create a mural as part of one of their weekly core programme classes. For the mural, I found a wall near my home in North Kensington and, with the help of a local arts curator, approached the landowners for permission.

The theme was loosely one of transformations. The students divided into teams of two, three or four, and a handful preferred to work solo. Within these groups the imagery was discovered through collaborative process over two days by making template designs at 2/3 scale."

Mark's advice to artists who want to try working on a bigger scale would be: "Think about the viewing distance the work is to be seen at, who will be looking at it and the role of the materials. If you work small in watercolour, imagine your marks scaled up fifty times! You may have to exchange brushes for sponges or rollers. The feeling of walking past a mural is different to staring at a picture, so consider the kinetic sense of moving past a design, how it flows and the unity of the whole surface."

After the installation day on site, ⁠Mark told us, “It was a really fulfilling and productive day – the students felt it was a chance to engage in a different kind of professional practice and to work in a way where you get an immediate response from people passing in the street. Deanio X’s experience of working on murals and street art was invaluable. Thanks to all those involved locally for the opportunity!” 

Viola Wang, our Drawing Year 2021 alumna recently project-managed a Walk to School mural in collaboration with Cross River Partnership and Cayley Primary School in Tower Hamlets. Here she describes how she found working on such a large-scale project. 

"During my last term on the Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School, I heard about this project through the Alumni Newsletter. It was a great opportunity and I was really thrilled to apply and receive the commission. This has been the largest project I've been involved in and a steep learning curve. From the material, to the planning and producing the final mural; there were many logistic challenges throughout, such as weather, location and timing. Together with my Drawing Year 2021 graduates Allegra Fitzherbert, Isabel Garfield, and Zuzanna Pedrasik we, as a team, installed and completed the mural in May." 

The BLKBOX Collective mural project explored the theme 'We The People: Community, collaboration and hope for the next generation'. The series evoked an imagined collective memory space — a “BLKBOX” — that stores suppressed visions from the past.

In Part 1, emerging generations seek and rescue lost knowledge from the BLKBOX to nurture positive change in the present.

In Part 2, trapped spirits burst free from the BLKBOX to form new identities and pursue their dreams.