Client: Grind City Brewery

Overview

Spray-painting a Huge Elvis Mural in Memphis
“Neon Elvis” 30 x 12′ Freehand Spraypaint on corrugated metal silo.
How I painted a really giant elvis mural In Memphis
People ask how I got the proportions right on a piece all the time. The short answer is I used a squiggle grid ( or doodle grid). Using a squiggle grid, you draw characters\words on the space you will paint. My unique process is that I use the lyrics to songs the artist I’m painted sang. In this mural, I used : ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Burning Love’, and ‘A Little Less Conversation.’ I then take a picture of the wall with my squiggle grid, then overlay my transparent reference image on top of the squiggle grid using my iPad.
*Largest Elvis Mural in Memphis!
There are a lot of Elvis tributes in Memphis, but none as large as this one at Grind City Brewing, and right by Graceland..
I’m not saying mine is the best, that’s not for me to decide.. but it is the biggest.
From start to finish, I slammed this out in 5 days, about 60 hours,

Goals

The owner of the brewery loved Elvis, which could have been challenging, since I knew there are a lot of Elvis tributes in Memphis, but I wanted to paint the biggest and the best..so, I did! There are none as large as this one at Grind City Brewing, and right by Graceland..
I'm not saying mine is the best, that's not for me to decide.. but it is the biggest.

Process

This Elvis Mural was for Paint Memphis, A street art festival that places artists with local businesses and wants to focus on Memphis musical legends.
Grind City Brewery was where I was selected to paint, and the owner there loved Elvis. He had his crew prime the building for me beforehand with a sprayer, which saved me a ton of time.
The hardest challenge about painting this mural of Elvis? The corrugated metal.
The sloped form of corrugated metal makes it difficult for lines to match up in proportion as the surface changes, so must your angle of spray to make sure the perspective is right from straight on.
It can get confusing, it seems like everything is way off until you hop off the boom lift and run 20 yards back. Needless to say, that can become exhausting and time consuming, so you really have to work with confidence that you're doing it right and fix any disproportions after the fact.
This was the tallest Mural I had done to date, which made me aim for something bigger. Now, the goal is to do the side of a 10 story + building some day!

Additional Information

This was the tallest mural to date at the time, on corrugated metal, of a character hundreds of people have painted, but still stands as one of my favorite pieces! I even had Graceland's official instagram repost the piece!