The wall is made into a grid where the drawings are traced on the wall through a process called pouncing. A large needle is used to punch along the traced lines every few inches. These punched tracings are affixed to the wall and a dry medium is used to create a dotted outline on the scratch coat. Then begins the work of creating the underdrawings and final preparation before placing paint on the wall. The final painting surface must be neither too wet nor too dry.
Extreme care is given to mixing the pigments with distilled water.
Mulling is labor intensive, but necessary to ensure that pigments and lime crystals are ground finely enough to be drawn into the porous plaster as it dries. Long will paint on freshly spread moist lime plaster with water-based pigments in such a way that the picture becomes a part of the wall. The Statesville Civic Center is located at the intersection of Front and Center Streets in downtown Statesville. Turn right and the civic center is on the left. The civic center is on the right.