The first step in creating a mural is selecting an image. Students look for images that can be recreated on a large scale. They look for pictures or paintings that are visually striking, appropriate for our K-8 school, and will be relatively easy to reproduce. In most cases, this means without delicate or complicated elements of shading or perspective. We look for inspiration from books, classic paintings, posters and even comic books, but most of the students in the Billboard Magnet prefer to do their research online.

Our paintings are displayed on 4' x 8' sheets of primed plywood, which are difficult to sketch on freehand, so after students have decided on which image they want to reproduce, the image is printed to an overhead transparency and projected onto a "canvas" where all major lines of the picture are traced over with markers.

Lines are touched up and preliminary colors are painted in.

The painting process can take several weeks, but eventually each painting sharpens up, until finally, it is ready to be displayed.