Consorcio de Toledo asked me and my illustrator colleague Esther Peces to design and prepare a mural for the inauguration of a restored antique palace and the square around it in the city of Toledo.
The idea was to paint the mural between all the people who came to the event under our guidance, and they wanted our design to be something with an important sentence on it “Esta plaza es de Toledo” (This is a Toledo square).
Illustration
References
Then, Esther and I, started to learn about the place and its history, to brainstorm a lot of ideas for the design and about how to do the activity, to look for the best materials, we made a lot of sketches, typographic tests and to prepare the colors.
Sketches
Our design was evolving during the whole process, above all, when they asked us to change the main character. At the beginning we thought about drawing Diego García de Toledo, nevertheless, the Consorcio wanted Mencía de Ayala as the protagonist. She was one of the figures who fought to save the palace and that’s why they thought we must do a homage to her.
We chose to use six wooden boards for the final mural, all together they measured two metres high and almost four metres wide. After painted them with white paint, we draw our final design on them.
The activity consisted in a giant “Paint by numbers” experience. That was the best way to make things easier for us and for all the people that were expected to come.
The day of the workshop
Finally, the inauguration day came. There were a lot of cultural activities in one place, live music, dance, theatre and, of course, collaborative painting.
A lot of people came and tried to paint, anonymous ones, different associations of the city, even a famous singer took the brush. It was an amazing experience, the people who joined us were so happy and thankful. Interesting and funny conversations brought up while they were painting, and it was a nice place for people to meet each other.
THANKS!