Spray Mural with Eddie Mo
We are loving street art, and the STA PAINT THE TOWN Street Art Festivals have created dozens of murals all over the STA Region.
We spent some time with Eddie Mo to get the T on how to paint a street art mural using paint from spray cans and rolled on.
Eddie has been painting street art for over 20 years and has achieved a mad skill level. It was awe inspiring to watch him paint at the legal wall in Yass.
Find out more about Eddie and the work he has done for PAINT THE TOWN.
LET”S GET PAINTING…
MATERIALS
- Spray Paint
- Undercoat paint
- Paint
HOT TIPS ON PAINT
- Spray paint is great to work with but an expensive form of buying paint that creates a lot of waste in the form of used cans. Use normal paint (in tins) to block in colours and for undercoat. Spray paint is available from most paint retailers and art supplier shops*
- Reuse and Recycle – Ask family and friends for any leftover paint. You will be amazed how much paint is in people’s sheds and garages. You just have to be OK with using whatever colours you can find.
- Mistints – most paint retailers have a shelf or two of mistints for sale at reduced prices. Retail places like Bunnings sell mistinted paints at a discounted place however to really save find your local trade paint shop – they sell mistinted paints for a faction of the price.
YOU WILL SAVE A FORTUNE
TOOLS
- Spray tips (for cans) There are differnet spray nozzles you can try to get differnet effects or just find the type that works for you. (See below for Eddies tips about New York Fat Caps. Perfect for fast works and juicy lines. The spray width changes with the distance to the object.
- Brushes and rollers for blocking in colour and applying paint from a tin.
- Drop Cloth. depending on where you are painting you will most likley be glad of a drop coth to keep surrounding areas free of paint.
HOT TIP: Avoid using spray paint in high wind. Makes it so much harder to get the result you are after and you waste ALOT of paint.
Undercoat a clear area to paint on. Have a reference drawing to upscale onto your mural wall.
Using your reference drawing use a light colour (like the blue Eddie is using here) to paint your outlines onto your wall surface
Start with the major feature of your mural such as the face. That way you can scale the other features such as the body and arms into the remaining space
Once the outline is done you can block in your colours. This is a great time to use a roller or brush rather than spray paint.
When blocking in colour experiment with different tones. Here Eddie is using two shades of grey to create variation in the fur.
Fill in the remaining colour such as pink for the mouth and the red clothes etc.
Adding outlines in a dark colour will give your work a comic look and add a crisp finish. Outlines will give the design impact from a longer distance – perfect for street art.
HOT TIP: Make your work come to life by adding highlights over the top with a white or light colour spray.
Remember to add your tag or signature to let people know you’re the artist. THIS MURAL IS DONE
FINDING A PLACE TO PAINT
- Don’t get caught out on a wall that’s not legal to paint. If in doubt, ask your local council.
- Or if you are in the STA Region drop us a line to get the T on places to paint @southerntablelandsarts
- The legal wall in Yass was possible because local street artists worked with council to create it. If your council doesn’t have a legal wall – ask for one!
YOU CAN PAINT ON
- Any wall or surface on private property with the owner’s permission
- Canvases, boards and or banners you own
LEGAL WALLS
- Check with your local council about legal walls in your area.
- Legal graffiti walls in Australia and around the world can be found here: legal-walls.net.
PAINT THE TOWN Dozens of Street Art Murals to visit across the STA Region. Get on the PTT Tour
GRAFFITI, SPRAY PAINT AND THE LAW *
In NSW there are laws around who can buy paint in spray cans and who can have have them in their possession. You will need to be over the age of 18 to buy spray paint from retailers in NSW.
It is legal for adults to purchase or supply spray paint for people under 18 if they believe the paint is for:
any lawful artistic, construction, renovation or maintenance activity in the immediate vicinity of the place where the supply occurred.
So if you are making art on any surface with permission you are legally allowed to have spray paint regardless of your age.
NSW Fair Trading has the full legal details about buying and having spray paint.
If you want to know your rights and the details around graffiti legal DO & DONT’S check out this fact centre at Youth Law Australia.
KNOW YOUR STUFF
Making a case for a legal graffitti wall? Here are some great resources…
Words with Joe – VLOG
PTT Creative Director Joe Quilter dishes up the T on the origins and evolution of graffiti and public murals. WATCH HERE!
Making the case for legal graffiti as a legitimate form of …
STENCIL STYLE
Before creating the freehand spray mural Eddie hosted a spray workshop for young creatives to learn how to make art using stencils. The
results were amazing.
A quick YouTube search yielded some great tutorials on making art using stencils. Here are some of the best we found…
The entire PAINT THE TOWN project is funded by the Australian Government through the Black Summer Bush Fires Grants program.
Each PAINT THE TOWN Festival and program includes the support of local Councils, business and orgs.
STA MEMBERSHIP
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Reach out to us
[email protected]
0427 938 110
Or by appointment at one of our
Mobile Office locations
PO Box 1323 Goulburn 2580
ABN 67 208 214 681
We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the traditional custodians of the lands where we create, live & work.
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