Mark Stutzman had hand-painted one mural and swore he would never do it again. So when a new assignment entailing five murals came his way, he assumed he would create original art that would be digitally enlarged given the stated time constraints and the fact each map required roughly sixty-five hours of intense work in his studio. But the agency had a different solution: they hired Colossal, a company that hand paints murals from any artwork supplied. As long as he wasn’t doing the actual on-site work he was thrilled.
The second challenge was the video component documenting Mark’s work in his studio. Mark knew from experience how difficult it would be to have a crew try to film him at work in his studio. As a solution he offered to do the filming himself, which also created its own logistical challenges. Mark found it difficult to keep focus as he wondered if he was getting the right shot, and progress on the paintings was slow. Eventually, with about two-plus hours of video recorded, he sent it off to the production team at Lonely Planet who consulted on the map contents and would steer the social media. They seemed pleased with what they had to work with, and Mark was once again free to concentrate on painting. The results are stunning. To read more about how it all came together, go to Mark’s blog.
