Making a mural at the Perth Writers Festival

The Perth Writers Festival is over for another year. The weekend goes by so quick! I was very happy to be back this year as a presenter on the schools’ day and family day, and this year I also got to work on something a bit different – a massive mural.

Schools’ Day

PWF always has a dedicated day of sessions for schools on the Thursday, with the public elements of the Festival beginning on the Friday. I had a session with fellow Perth artist Kyle Hughes-Odgers where we talked about our differing approaches to illustration.

Kyle and myself with our able MC Frané Lessac

doing a digital illustration demo

Kyle doing a digital sketch demo

Then we got started on the mural.

Kyle’s latest picture book is On A Small Island and mine is The Last Viking Returns. Our books both relate to boats and water, and that’s probably all they have in common. So the basic idea was to paint a seascape – half in Kyle’s style, half in mine. Kids would help out during the festival by either colouring in a boat template we had prepared, or designing their own. Once they had cut out their boat they could stick it onto the mural. At the end of the festival we would have a collaborative community artwork.

We started off by painting the ocean. Kyle came prepared – he brought painting clothes. I did not.

What our #pwf15 live mural looks like so far! Artists @kylehughesodgers and @james_r_foley will be working on this throughout the Writers Festival weekend.

A post shared by perthfest (@perthfest) on Feb 18, 2015 at 7:51pm PST

The mural begins to take shape (no pun intended)

 The Giant Book

Visitors to the Festival could also look through a copy of the enormous book that was given to the Little Girl Giant. Kyle and I helped local primary school students put the book together late last year.

When you have a spare moment during #pwf15 this weekend, visit our lovely assistant Sarah and she will turn the giant pages of the book that the children of Perth made for the Little Girl Giant for you! #giantsperth #perthfest

A post shared by perthfest (@perthfest) on Feb 19, 2015 at 9:55pm PST

Family Day

This was our busiest day by far. We started at the mural at 9am and had a steady stream of kids helping to add boats until 3pm.

Here are some pics from the day.

We are making progress on the live mural! Colour or paint your ship and stick it into your special place in the sea #pwf15 #perthfest

A post shared by perthfest (@perthfest) on Feb 21, 2015 at 7:33pm PST

an armada appears

a longship with added Viking

An original design -a hybrid of my style and Kyle’s

a leaf boat

a forest boat

a … Judge Dredd?

painting a Viking island

my Viking island

Kyle’s island

the finished mural

I also got to do a talk for families, all about Vikings and Norse gods.

Then I got to sign some books!

While I was at the signing table, my girlfriend rolled up the sketches from my talk and brought them over to me. I didn’t notice her arrive because I was busy signing and talking to kids, but she told me she placed the sketches on the table to my right. I never noticed the sketches. They weren’t on the table when I had finished signing. But my girlfriend swore she dropped them there; she even had a photo to prove it. And when she looked at the photo again, she noticed something she hadn’t seen the first time … and everything made sense.

Thanks to the Perth Writers’ Festival for having me back this year – I had a great time. And thanks to everyone who came to my talk, or helped with the mural, or came to get a book signed.

Author: James Foley

James makes books for courageous kids. His books include 'The Amity Kids Adventures', 'In The Lion', 'The Last Viking'. A couple of these books have won awards. People have also bought copies, and for that he is grateful. His new book 'The Last Viking Returns' is out now. Follow James at www.facebook.com/jamesfoleyillustrations , @James_R_Foley on twitter and instagram or at www.jamesfoley.com.au View all posts by James Foley