The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-03-09
PAINTING GIANT SIGNS.
aUiCk AND ACCURATE WORK ON
BLANK WALLS.
figures 40 Feet High Finished by Ex-
perts in a Day-Method by Which
The Right Proportions Are Pre-
served-Not Every Man Succeeds
In This Branch of Art

ure OF man, say, thirty, fifty or a
hundred feet tall, on the side Of a
blank wall, to make the figure come
Nt all right in form and life-like and
aatural?
The artist can't see the whole figure
"a its true proportions as he paints
n it, but only a part of it. He may
be painting at this minute on an ear
J a nose or a chin or on one of the
gure's hands, and he can see that;
put how does he know that he is get
Ing that in proportion with the 9th
)r features and the entire figure? Why
Doesn't he get the head too broad or
100 narrow and the whole business
>ut of skew?
He is standing as he paints close
% the wall and on scaffolding hang.
ing maybe forty feet from the ground.
He can't jump down every few min
ttes and run Off fifty or hundred
feet and take a squirt at the picture
p see how he's getting on, and as
matter Of fact he doesn't; he stays
Night there, up in the air, and slaps
n the paint boldly and with conf
fence, and the picture comes out all
tight.
But how does he manage it? Really
d the simplest way in the world
AS model or pattern for the great
victnre there is first drawn a life
Ize portrait Of the person whose fig
IRE is to be thus reproduced, and this
die size portrait is then painted pre-
slsaly as it is desired to have it ap
pear in the giant reproduction. Then
over the entire front of the painted
portrait figure are drawn equidistant
vertical and horizontal lines, dividing
he painting into squares, like those
IN checker board.
Then the checker board that has
mus been drawn on the pattern pic.
lure IS reproduced on an enlarged
Scale on the wall to be painted by
araWInS there a corresponding num-
ser OF vertical and horizontal chalk
ines, dividing the wall space Off into
the same number OF squares with
those on the portrait painting.
Suppose the original portrait paint
1s was six feet in height; in which
ease the vertical and horizontal lines
N i might be four inches apart, diyid- |
ng the painting into four-inch |
raaIes. Suppose the painting on the |
VA! was to be thirty-six feet in
;eisht, or six times as big as the orig |
inal. In such a case, with the same |
Aumber of lines drawn there, the |
IGCares would be just six times as
arge as those on the Criginal-they |
would be twenty-four inch squares.
But all over the great wall surface
ne enlarged squares would cores
poad exactly with the smaller squares
IN position and relation: and SO with
he lines of the squares for guide
The work of painting the great pic.
ture is easy-fOr the man that knows
lOw.
Even with the wall so prepared not
very man can paint one Of those big
pictures. To do this work success
fully the painter must be himself a
coed free hand artist, with knowledge
Of his art and facility with the brush;
out with those lines On the wall and
the lined-off original conveniently be-
side him on the scaffolding, the ex-
pert goes at it with dash and vigor,
Ind with certainty of results. For il
lust:ation:
/ On the original lined-off figure the
jlope of a shoulder may enter GER
lain 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 1t, INTO
ehe next square, at such a point ana
hnele: and all these things the paint
er reproduces, in their same relative
positions, but enlarged to their due
proportions. in the corresponding
twentyfour inch square on the wall.
The artist might be able to paint
through two vertical squares at once,
sweeping from one into the other
when he could, and painting up and
down, SO through two he might sweep
from side to side of head as he pro-
crossed getting the top Of one ear
ana 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 lowered his scaffolding.
And at that stage CT it's development
TIE face may present 1 strange ap-
Yer.@&ca.
But though he must thus paint two
Yictu.os, so to speak. in patches,
Inere is no danger that the painter
will get lost lower down. 1t will come
out all right. The artist has always
the squares to guide him, and in due
tine the wall picture appears com
pleto in every detail reproduction
or the original on a giant scale.
IL n number OF giant figures of the