The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-25
GIANT SIGNS.
QUICK AND ACCURAfg woRK
ON BLANK WALLS.

Figures 40 Feet High Finished by Experts
I'm n Day-NethOd by which tine night
Proportions Are Fre~servcd-Nst Every
Man Succeeds In rfits Branch % AT.
How is it possible in painting . picture Of
a man, say, thirty, fifty or a hundred feet
tall, on the side OF a blank wall. to max the
figure come out all right I'm form and life
| like and natural?
The artist can't see the whole figure In fts
true proportions as he paints on Il, but only
a part OF it. He may be painting at this
1 minute on an ear or a nose or q chin or on
one OF the figures hands, and he can see
that; but how does he Know that he il getting
that in proportion with the other features
and the entire fgure2 Why doesn't he get
the head too broad or too narrow and the
whole business out Of skew?
He rs standing as he paints close 60 the
wall and on a scafTolding hanging maybe
forty feet from the ground. He cam jump
down every few minutes and run of fifty
or a hundred feet and take a squirt at the
| picture to see how he's getting on, and as a
matter OF fact be doesn't; he stays night
| there, up in the air, and slaps on the paint
| boldly and with condolences, and the picture
comes out all right.
hut how does ne ui1tlhkr W. fIbNdhV IN
the simplest way in the world.
As a model or pattern for the great picture
there il first drawn q life size portrait OF the
person whose figure is to be thus reproduced.
| and this life size portrait is then painted
precisely as it IA desired to have it sppea
in the giant reproduction. Then over the
entire front OF the painted portrait figure are
drawn eauidistant vertical and horizontal
lines, dividing the painting into squares,
like those on a checker board.
Then the checker board hat has thus been
drawn on the pattern picture is reproduced
on an enlarged scale on the wall to be
PAINTED by drawing there a corresponding
number of vertical and horizontal chalk
lines, dividing the wall space of into the
same number OF squares with those on the
portrait painting.
Suppose the original portrait painting
was six feet in height; in which case the
vertical and horizontal lines on il might be
four inches apart, dividing the painting
into four-inch squares. Suppose the paint
ing on the wall was to be thirty-six feet in
height, or six times as big as the original.
In such a case, with the same number OF
lines drawn there, the squares would be
Just six times as large as those on the orig
I1Al-IutN WOolu 10 sVNAtyhcNR III
squares.
But all over the great wall surface the
enlarged squares would correspond ex-
actly with the smaller squares in position
and relation; and so with the lines Of the
squares for a guide the work of painting
the great picture is easy-for the man that
kno ws how.
Even with the wall 30 prepared not every
man can paint one of those big pictures.
To do this work successfully the painter
must be himself a good free hand artist,
with knowledge of his art and facility with
the brush; but with those lines on the wall
and the lined-off original conveniently
beside him on the s~caffolding, the expert
goes at it with dash and vigor, and with
certainty of result. For Illustration:
On the original lined-off figure the slope
OF a shoulder may enter a certain four inch
square at such a point and at such an angle
and sweep through that square with such
and such a curve, TO go out OF II, into the
next square, at such a point and angle;
and all these things the painter repro
duces, in their same relative positions, but
enlarged to their due proportions, in the
corresponding twenty-four incl square on
the wall.
The artist might be able to paint through
4, tive vertical squares at once, sweeping from
one into the otherwhedhe could, and paint
ing up INC down, so through two he might
, sw eep from side to side Of a head as he
| progressed, getting the top of one ear and
the eyes and the bridge of the nose and
finishing that course with the top of the
other ear on the other side before he low cred
his scaff Gliding. And at that stage OF its
development the face may present a strange
appearance.
But though he must thus paint two pic
lures, so TO speak, in patches, there IL no
danger that the painter will get lost
down. 1t evil come out all right. The
artist has always the squares TO guide
him, and in due time the wall picture ap-
pears complete in every detail, a ~reproduc-
ton of the original on a giant scale.
II a number of giant figures OF the same
sort are to be painted in different places at
the same time, copies OF the original por-
trait painting are made and duly lined of
for the use OF the several painters Of the big
pictures.
Sometimes these big wall n gures have been
the work of two men, one starting on the
head of the n CURE and the other on the feet.
And these two men, one painting downward
from the sky and the other painting upward
from the earth, would meet here
about the middle of the figure, and their
work would meet there as accurately az do,
for instance, the midends Oh a tunnel built
out from either side OF a river. But while
these two painters might be Of equal skill,
there might be a diff ference in their touch.
So now, for the SAX e of unity OF eff ect, il is the
practice to rave the entire figure done by
one man.
But that doesn't necessarily mean much
delay, for a skilled expert in this work can
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