Proud of East Texas Interview

Here is the interview with Joan Hallmark for KLTV "Proud of East Texas"

Big Boy Painting, Interviews & Wrapping Up

I call this part of my life, "Getting Busy." Because of the wind, rain, cold, and short days, I had to work fast. I had small windows of descent weather to work with, so I really had to bust it to make Big Boy come to life.

A couple of days were either rainy or windy, so I tarped off a little shelter. It was actually kinda cozy in there. Once, a newspaper reporter sat in my shelter and interviewed me while I worked.

Joan Hallmark interviewed me for "Proud of East Texas" while I worked. That was a real honor. I told her that I was scared beforehand that she was going to be mean and make me cry on TV. But, she turned out to be a real peach.

Done!! Got Big Boy all rendered out, did touch-up, packed up Ole Betsy and headed down the road. On to the next deal!

I'm so proud that I didn't spill a bucket of red paint on their nice new asphalt parking lot.

One final note. During the process, I had many tell me that the mural brought back good memories. People really love 'em some Moon Pie and RC Cola. And they made sure that I knew it was pronounced "Moon Pah n Aro Cee Cola." Now, it just doesn't get anymore American than that.

Paint-O-Rama

Day's 5 & 6. Slapping gravy like mad man trying to beat the winter storm coming in. The mortar joints are really getting me down, man. Wishing now that I had floated it out just for speed. I guess I'm just glad I'm not painting on a corrugated steel building. Counting my blessings. Here's a tutorial on brush trashing.

I did get the bolt cut out of the little boy's eye - which gave him a black eye. Now we just need to fill in the bullet hole that's between his eyes. He's shot but still smiling.

A couple of real live cowboys hang out across the street. God Bless Texas!

More Red and Lots of People

Day 4 on the beast. Wow!!!! What an awesome day! A lot of visitors came over to watch me do my little freak show. I met a lot of really cool people from all over who had heard about Ben Wheeler and just wanted to come check it out. I bet 100 people came through the town because of the article written in the Tyler Courier Times last week. If you get a chance, read this story about Ben Wheeler - the little town that could.

> http://tpstage.sx.atl.publicus.com/article/20091227/BUSINESS01/912279995

I did get some work done, too. I cut in RED all day - lot's and lot's of RED. At one point, I was standing on my 2"x12" board on the top step of my of my 6' ladder (you know the step that says "This is NOT a step") and stretched over to my 8' ladder when the thought occurred to me - "If I fall and spill my guts on the parking lot while holding my bucket of RED paint, the EMT's won't know which is blood and which is RED paint. They'll just have to gig me with a stick or something until I cry out in pain in order to find the wounds." I once worked with a guy that had a whole bucket of Chromatic Bright RED Enamel Paint poured down the front bib of his overalls - and he didn't have any underwear on. I don't even want to know how he cleaned it off.

Hailee Hamblet - the official Vanna White of Ben Wheeler, TX

Vanna and the Vanna-ettes (L-R Judy Hamblet, Hailee Hamblet, Jill Hale-wife). Just some babes that stopped by to admire the artist at work. It's tough being a sub-cultural celebrity.

This little job was parked beside my mural for a good part of the day. Awesome design work, Comilo Pardo. You are a real inspiration to me. Keep up the great work.

The Sky Clears - Dark Colors

Day 3 on the wall. Alright! Back in the saddle again. The sun is shiny, and the rain is gone. Love it!

I start to hack out the darks. The mortar lines prove to be more of a challenge than I expected. They aren't nice finger joints with smooth rounded concave grooves made by a master mason. They are really deep, blobular, splorky joints made by a drunk mason in training who never mortared 2 bricks together before in his whole life before he decided to build this wall. So, it's taking me a little longer to shmootz the paint into the Grand Canyon clefts. Oh well. All things are possible at Brent Hale Illustration. No job too big, no mortar joint too deep.

Loving the colors though. This paint is so the bomb. 1 coat and that's it. Even colors like red. And the low temp reducer is working great at drying the paint in this 35 degree weather.

This cool 14 year old kid came by riding his skateboard and hung out with me for a couple of hours. I showed him some old school board techniques and he showed me how to do an ollie. He said he wanted to be an artist when he grew up, so I downloaded a little wisdom on him. He said he's going to come check on me tomorrow.

A little late night death defying ladder hanging. I kept seeing flashes in the corner of my eye and thought I was having a brain skism. But when I looked behind me there was someone across the street taking pictures of me. I'm like a trained monkey on a string. Just give me a bannana and watch me dance.

I noticed after I got a big chunk traced on the wall in the perfect position, that there is a giant bolt sticking out of the boys eye. I'm going to ask the owner if we can cut ti off. hopefully the wall won't fall over when they cut it. Keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks Aleve for another pain-free day. I couldn't have done it without you.

Light Colors First

This is actually only day 2 on the wall. There have been many days leading up to actually getting on the wall consumed with sketching, client contact, back and forth with Moon Pie and RC on logo approvals, patterns, and paint order (using Chromatic Sign enamel - rich color, awesome workability, and durability), waiting on paint. But now I get busy slappin' some gravy.

I start out with the light colors, not being to careful yet, I roll out past the logo shapes. I only want to cut the shapes out once if I can help it. I may be dumb, but I'm not crazy.

The weather is cooperating pretty well today - sunny and about 50-ish. The next day (actually today) is suppose to snow or sleet or something, so, not a good work day. I can deal with cold, but wet, not so much. I have special thinner for cold weather to make the paint more workable. It keeps it from being sticky but still allows it to dry. I need to make hay while the sun shines, though. So, looking at the weather, it looks like I'll be working through New Years Eve to take advantage of clear skies.

Here is my sketch taped to the window of my car that I take measurements from. The scale is 1/2"=1'

I have a few things on the wall that I have to deal with, but for the most part, it's not too bad. The mortar joints are my biggest challenge. The are pretty deep, which means I won't be able to get a solid fill. But, that will just add to the antique feel - right?.

It's late, I'm cold, hungry, and I gotta go to the bathroom - really BAD!!!! I took 4 Aleve in the morning, so my stupid arthritic/torn meniscus-ed knee didn't hurt too much (getting old stinks fo real). But, I took advantage of the dark and clear weather to project the logos and redraw over the cream color. That way when I climb back on the wall in a couple of days, I can start cutting in the darks. I used a Sharpy to draw the logos on so they wouldn't get rained off. I look like I'm feeding the Man in the Moon Pie. And he likes it.

Block Out

I finally get approval from Ben Wheeler, RC, and Moon Pie. So getting started on the wall, I block out the area to paint using a flat finish white Killz exterior oil base.

Then I pounced the logos on the wall to get a rough idea where the cream color goes. Pounce is an ancient method of transferring a pattern to a surface that dates back to - who knows how far. I also saw it in the old Charlton Heston movie, "The Agony and the Ecstasy" about Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. According to the movie, he drew the figures out on paper in charcoal while he was in his studio, then took a metal stylus and poked millions of little holes along the outlines. He hauled the patterns up the scaffolding and had his assistants hold them up against the ceiling. Then he took a pounce bag (cheese cloth filled with charcoal dust) and poofed the outlines up on the ceiling. Presto the outline was up there. It was in the movie, so you know it had to be true. Hollywood doesn't lie!!!!

I did kinda the same thing. We use to use it at the sign shop I worked in when I was a young buck. At my friend's sign shop, I projected my sketch onto big ole paper and traced it with Sharpy. Then I traced the outlines with an electric pen on a metal table surface and burned zillions of tiny holes in the paper. Sometimes it shocks me bbbbbut, IIIII've done thththis for years and................................................Sorry, I blacked out there for a second. And as for the pounce bag - a sock filled with charcoal dust. Crazy, right?