Back to School

Now that the new school year has begun ( a few weeks ago), Mrs Davis, her art students and I are diligently working on the mosaic panels.

top picture: Madelynn Perez, 11th grade, Wilber Velasco, 12th grade, Gabrielle Fuentez , 11th grade.

bottom picture: Gabrielle Fuentez , Steven Torres, 12th grade

Newspaper Article

Here is a link to the Arizona Republic newspaper that mentions the current mosaic project. The actual paper copy has more pictures of the project. I will try and scan it and post it here some time soon.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/glendale/2014/08/22/west-valley-public-art/14455163/

As promised, here is the actual newspaper article.

 

update: hair is done.I did find some additional tile pieces in another shade of brown to add some more dimension and reduce the contrast between the light and dark brown. I wish I had more shades of brown to make it look even better, but that is what I had to work with and I am not going to change it yet again.
I started on the face and we will see how it turns out. The ear is not exactly what I want it to be. After 4 tries of making it look somewhat like an ear, I quit. I will start on it again this morning, and hopefully with better results.

Another update. The arm is done. I changed the flow of the tiles to give it a more realistic appearance and I am happy with the result. The shirt is done. The hair is partially done. I added more highlights, but it still needs some work. The helmet is done, but is not quite acceptable, as the two blues need a bridging color and the grey on the bottom needs more definition.
I am hoping to finish the helmet, face and hair today. Keep checking back, as I am going to try and post daily updates.

Progress report on the mosaic today:
 hair partially done, after changing the tile colors numerous times. The last picture shows the original colors I used, which did not give it the effect I was looking for. Also the shirt is partially done. I will be adding some more highlights and switching some of the dark brown out with the lighter color. Some of the highlights look too chopped off. Extending them will give the hair more dimension and make it look more realistic. I might also add a 3rd color to the helmet, since the 2 blue shades are too different. Maybe another color that is closer to the darker blue to blend the light and dark will make it look better. Unfortunately I do not have any tiles in that shade, which means I will have to make some first.

A bit more work done on the first panel: the skin, the shirt and the helmet are partially done. Tomorrow we will start on the hair, which will be done in the same type of regular tiles as the skin, but in waves.

Managed to get part of the tile strips cut for the different skin tones and hair colors. While the rest of the mosaic is done in an irregular pattern, the skin will be done with square/rectangular pieces to create interest and movement

. I have employed the same method in one of my other mosaic projects called "The Classics in Pieces". As you can see in the second picture the whale and the boat are done in a regular, linear fashion, and so is the giant octopus on the opposing side of the table.

A little bit more work done on the panel. Today we finished the shadows on the girl's shirt and part of the bicycle helmet.

Here is a photo of one of my helpers, hard at work. She is still smiling. Let's see how long that lasts after days and days of clipping tiles ;)

Set up the mosaic at Agua Fria H.S. today. We have been busy making tiles in colors we needed for the mosaics, but could not find in stores.
Worked for just a few hours and finished the shorts on the girl on the first panel.

Here is a picture of the first backer board panel complete with the black and white glass mosaic boarder. Notice the two left corners have an area without tiles, as the new Avondale city logo is going to be placed there. There will also be 2 more logo tiles at the opposite end of the mosaic, to make it symmetrical.

Panel #1 is ready to be turned into a mosaic. I finished mounting the enlarged drawing on a piece of cardboard and also finished the black and white glass tile border on the backer board this morning.
Here is a picture of the enlarged drawing, mounted and ready to go

here is the finished line drawing of the K9 officer with his dog

not the best picture, but here is the preliminary layout of the wall. The picture on the right of the Avondale PD patch is a photograph and has yet to be turned into a drawing. The last panel shows the line drawing and still has to be colored.

Just finished revising the second panel, depicting an officer adjusting a girl's bike helmet. The background is not drawn in yet and will in all likelihood have a few orange traffic cones and maybe even a bicycle in it, as this panel is a scene from the program where police officers teach children how to safely ride their bikes.

The mosaic finally has a name : PARTNERS. 

The theme of the art piece is based on interaction of the police department with the community. It focuses more on the aspect of social interactions and less on the law enforcement angle. 

The final layout of the wall has been determined. It will consist of a center panel which will depict the Avondale PD police patch. On each side of the panel there will be two panels which show scenes from actual photographs of Avondale police officers and community members. Each panel will be bordered by a black and white mosaic border, which represents the colors of the Avondale PD.

Here is the first drawing, which is from the "shop with a cop " program. The store background has yet to be drawn.

Photograph of the wall on which the mosaic will be installed. It measures 20 feet wide and 41 inches high.