hey! thanks for reaching out! do you have any prior informal experience doing murals? i think having a strong portfolio is gonna be the very very first step in getting ur foot in the door, and even if it's not a mural per-se, any sort of large scale work you've done will do nothing but help ur chances of getting a mural opportunity! Before this, i had done three murals just for friends and family, so i had those to show, but i also had very large chalk drawings (think like 8/10ft squares) from chalking competitions to show. Local chalking groups are also great places to find out about calls for work, so search your local fb groups to see if theres one in your area! I know you asked about just the approaching and the paints but I'm just gonna lay out the whole process from the idea to actually gettin paint on the walls so i can refer people to this if the question comes up again. thanks for asking!
Da Process, as experienced by me, a 30 yr old cis-passing white dude in america*, replication mileage may vary
* I'm bringing my demographics into it because I want to acknowledge that my race and assumed cis-ness very well could have had a hand in getting me this opportunity, who knows how it would have gone if i was anything different, but don't let that discourage you from putting yourself out there! Being polite and confident will be the sharpest tools in your arsenal, so prioritize that.
- collect and conglomerate a portfolio of your large scale work, whether that be on instagram or a personal site, just something you can link to. if you don't have anything large you can show, you can still move forward but having that prior mural experience definitely helped me
- pick a location to approach with your proposal. I picked a library for a couple reasons: 1. they have a lot of connections to other community entities and are often staffed by artists and creatives as well, so you already have a receptive audience 2. Public libraries have hundreds of patrons walking through every day, you never know who you'll meet so it's great for networking! i've had two different admins from the local well known art gallery take down my contact info bc they just so happened to be bringing their kids in to pick out books. 3. Libraries are fuckin awesome and if any public institution deserves nice art, it's libraries. I also had been patronizing this particular branch for years so that familiarity helped build the confidence to present my proposal!
- at said location, i took a picture of an area i thought a mural would look nice in, brought it into procreate and drew a mockup over the photo of what i thought would be fun to paint! Don't be afraid to make the subject stuff you really enjoy/specialize in, as long as it's appropriate for the space. This does a couple things for you when going to present your idea: 1. it gives the client something tangible to look at, instead of placing the burden on them to come up with something, u got this ready to go 2. demonstrates your ability to design for a space and 3. by choosing the original subject, you're starting the conversation in you ballpark; worst case scenario: they want a completely different subject matter, best case: they look at it and go, word, yea that looks great, go for it, and now you get to paint something you actually like! Yippiii!
- once i had my mockup i literally just walked up to the circulation desk and got straight to the point: I was a local artist looking to establish myself as a muralist and wanted to donate a mural as a way to network and get my name out there. " Here, i made this mockup of what one could look like, who can I talk to about this?" And in my library's case, I was given the name and email of the librarys' director and was encouraged to reach out.
- so i did! This is what my email looked like:
My name is [NAME], I'm a local artist based here in [LOCATION]!
I'm reaching out to see if it would be possible for me to be able to donate my time painting a mural for one (or multiple!) of your library branches. I'm looking to build my mural painting portfolio and I figure if anyone could stand to benefit from such a venture, then there could be none more deserving than one of my local libraries. I spend a lot of time in your [LOCATION] branch so I'm eager to be able to give back.
I already have several large scale pieces under my belt (see [LINK]) and have just finished a year long contract with a local scenic painting shop, so I have a lot of time and experience to give. I've done both private and public paintings and work well with both. I already have a good amount of paints and supplies so I'd need very little in terms of raw materials. My instagram is [LINK] and my portfolio site is [LINK] if you wanted to see more of my work.
If this sounds like something you'd be interested in investing in, I'd love to set up a time for us to meet up and discuss the opportunity further! My number is [number]. //you don't have to give ur number out, just some way to reach you
I hope to hear from you soon!
- and for two weeks, i didn't hear ANYTHING. which was disheartening because i really thought they would go for it. Now! if i had left it at that and just let myself believe their silence meant they thought i was weird or cringe, then NONE of the rest of this would have happened, so i implore you, FOLLOW UP AFTERWARDS IF THEY HAVEN'T RESPONDED WITHIN 2 WEEKS! Bc that's exactly what happened to me. Here's how i handled it:
My name is [NAME], I'm just following up on a previous email I sent about two weeks about about potentially donating my time towards painting a mural at one of your branches?
I stopped by the [LOCATION] Library last night and made a mockup of a mural to give you an idea of what I am capable of. I am a scenic artist by trade, but I am trying to branch more into mural work. I have done sculpting and painting work for multiple household name companies so know that the work done would be of high professional grade.
If you are interested and would like to schedule a meeting about it, please don't hesitate to reach out here or by phone at [CONTACT INFO].
thank you! I hope you will consider giving me the opportunity to contribute!
I know making phonecalls and following up is the enemy of everyone on here but U GOTTA DO IT! because it was only after that 2nd email that i finally got a response:
For whatever reason, it looks like I never received your previous email. However, I got this one! I appreciate the sample image and the time you took.
Your scenic work is especially beautiful! I would love to incorporate more painted art into the [LOCATION] Libraries. It is amazing that you are willing to donate your time.
I honestly think that all 4 of my libraries could use murals
I had to pivot for the [LOCATION] branch with decals due to funding and needed something on the walls. My original idea was ‘Reading helps you soar’, so hot hair balloons, clouds, and I would have loved birds in flight that are local to the library since we’re adjacent to a birding nature trail. The lighting in the renovated area resembles clouds.
There is an opportunity, especially at the [LOCATION] Branch for a future mural as the building was just renamed to [NAME] building – which may be covered by legislator funds. If we can showcase your work ahead of that, it could bring some more publicity and support your way.
- GREAT! Birds are a specialty of mine so I immediately zoomed in on that and we worked together to come up with a mockup that she could present to the board to get it approved.
- And it did! The board unanimously approved the design so all that was left was to start planning! I was unemployed at the time so it was easy to sink my time into preparing for this. This is where my industry experience helped out a lot but basically to get goin you gotta know the size of the area you're gonna be covering. This is most important for pricing a job but it also helps with time estimates, so make sure you're able to get on sight to take measurements and pictures before anything else happens.
- This is where I met with the director to discuss the grits like:
timeline expectations, progress checkpoints, where i could store my supplies/ wash my brushes/ dump my waste water, what my availability was and within what hours i'd be coming in at.
- i'm not going to get into calculating the estimate based on surface area but i'm sure there are a lot of good online tutorials on the subject. since i wasn't charging for this one i didn't go further past "ok, this is a 6' x 45' wall
As far as communication goes, alls i'll say is unless they tell you to stop, keeping your point of contact well updated on the status of the project (i do weekly update emails) is only going to reflect well on you, and from what I've experienced, clients really appreciate being kept in the loop.
Random bits, vital bits highlighted in green
- speaking of loops, site-specific considerations have to be made, since this was in the kids section I had to construct simple barriers I could move around as needed and also keep children out of the work area. I made mine out of pvc tubes and rope to cordon off the area (very important) i also highly recommend getting 2 sawhorses and a large slab of MDA board to act as a portable work desk for mixing, 10/10
- track your hours, i keep a little note file going with time, date, hours worked and a brief summary of what got done
- other things to consider: GET TAPE N DRAPE AND COVER EVERYTHING, GOOD GOD. also get canvas floor covers for the floor/carpet, plastic sheeting tears and moves around
- also as far as paint goes, you can get pint samples of the paints you need for pretty cheap at lowes, i'm using flat matte exterior paint for this interior mural and it's workin out just fine. If you want the extra fancy stuff that costs a bajillion dollars, go find your local PPG store. You can also ask them about what paints they recommend for the surface you're covering but mine was just straight up regular ole interior paint on drywall. Were this an outside mural I would opt to seal it, but it's gonna be fine without a topcoat if it's inside and out of reach of little kids' grubby mitts, which mine is.
- OH! speaking of drywall!! ask if their maintenance guy has the original wall paint!! mega useful for covering up dings and smears of paint, very güd 👍
- get plastic cups, disposable gloves and tongue depressors for mixing up and saving specific colors, u can wrap the glove over the cups' rim as a reusable lid
- a heat gun is useful for testing colors on the wall and not having to literally watch paint dry, some paint dry a LOT darker and you wanna test it first before using it. just don't hold it too close to the wall.
- extension chords. vital.
- don't forget to inspect the wall first before painting, if it's greasy, paints aren't gonna spread nicely on it, sometimes you gotta sand the surface to help the paints adhere to it better/make the surface more even. bring a washcloth and a spraybottle of water/alcohol/dish soap
- in more commercial spaces they'll expect you to have some type of insurance, look into independent contracting insurance
- if ur in the US, some states will offer grants for people trying to start small businesses! look into it!
- if you can afford it, look into projectors for design transfer, i spent a week meticulously drawing out each of the birds using the doodle grid system which probably turned out better than if i projected it but for more general designs a projector is gonna be way quicker
✨ and most importantly don't forget to have fun and be yourself ✨
if you have any more questions feel free to dm me! thanks and best of luck!
