The mural I illustrated for the Erie Zoo is finally up! There are still finishing touches to be added (frame, plants, leaf benches) so it is currently closed off to the public, but the panels are up and it is so amazing to see my art at such a huge scale!
I started out drawing the layout on paper. The creative director of the project actually had the plants and animals all laid out, and it was my job to redraw it in my style – they wanted kid-friendly and whimsical :) Then I colored it with colored pencils.
After the folks at the zoo signed off on my sketch, then it was time to draw it up in Illustrator using my Wacom tablet. Drawing it up in Illustrator allowed me to draw it in vector format, so that it could be scaled to 20 feet by 7 feet without losing quality.
Here are some closeups of my illustrations:
After drawing it up in Illustrator (it took about 3 weeks) then I sent it to the printer. It took awhile for them to print it and install it. But now it’s finally up! It was so amazing seeing it in person.
This was definitely one of my favorite art projects ever! I had such an amazing time illustrating it. I’ll post more updates when the rest gets finished!