Techie Hipster with Blood Cells Mural at one40william

I also did my first big signage job for the “One40 Work” event, which I got my scissor lift licence for which was a bit of a milestone for me. It was a bit scary being up so high while painting, so before I came back to take it down, I had planned a trip to New Zealand for my Grandpa’s 100th birthday and while I was there I did the 198m jump off the Sky Tower in Auckland to help me with my fear of heights which was amazing and definitely helped me get over any fear. Although, when the Sky Jump guide asked me why I was doing the jump, he reminded me that it’s probably not a good idea to get into the habit of jumping off high things.

one40 Work

The last thing I wanted to tell you about was my latest mural at One40 which was for the Red Cross and Zetta. It’s probably my favourite mural I’ve done to date. It’s a bunch of gadget loving I.T. people and a couple of robots floating around on giant red blood cells. I love these new characters. Especially the beardy guy wearing a giant hat. So hipster.

one40william Monster Mural

Click here to see more photos in the gallery

The post Monsters and Cartoons appeared first on Susan Respinger.

Fern Goddess in New Zealand

So, because I’ve been painting like a maniac I haven’t had much time to update my website or anything so I’ve FINALLY edited all the mural photos. Sorry that some are a bit blurry. My camera’s not great …nor my photography skills.

The mural I did for my Dad was New Zealand themed and because he lives in a beautiful place in the hills of Whanganui, the window opposite the mural has a beautiful view of my Dad’s garden and rolling green hills behind it so I really wanted to reflect the natural aspects of New Zealand and give it a really calming feel as it’s in a living room. I ended up painting a lady who I’ve been calling “Fern Goddess” She has her eyes closed to give a calm, non-confrontational feel and she has native New Zealand ferns for hair and native New Zealand birds and butterflies living in among the ferns. She has a bit of a mother nature feel about her. I was really happy with how she turned out, especially being my first full mural and most importantly, my Dad says he loves sitting in that room now because he finds it very calming.

Mandalas & Zentangles at one40william

The second lot of murals that I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to do were 3 walls on the ground floor at One40 William. I was given a lot of freedom to do whatever I liked but was told to try to represent the restaurants and businesses in the complex and to brighten up the corridors and make them a bit more fun. My final idea for the walls was sort of a combination of mandalas and zentangles, using four pastel but still bright vibrant colours. Then to incorporate the businesses I put their logos in circles in black and white so that none of their logo colours would clash and they all became a part of the pattern.

The last lot of walls I did were two 12 metre long walls in the basement corridors of One40, where all the staff are constantly busy running around. I was given a brief to design some character to represent the people who work there and the hustle and bustle that’s always happening in those corridors. At first, I started drawing cartoon people but before I knew it they had turned into weird, furry monster/alien things so I went with it and luckily everyone else seemed to fall in love with them! In fact, everyone loved them so much that they asked me back to create some more! I started off with a few ideas for characters but as I got to know everyone working there they started inspiring me to create monsters based on certain individuals who work there and people started claiming monsters for themselves, saying “I’m this monster because I love riding bikes” or “I’m that monster because it seems cheeky, like me”. It was so much fun! Everyone down there was so welcoming and made me feel so comfortable, even with the freezing cold weather. It was also really satisfying to see a noticeable difference in everyone’s moods once there was a bit of colour and fun in their environment.

Monsters at one40william

Here are some of the photos. Click here to see more photos in the online gallery

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