“We worked with Drew to transform our VW Bus into a work of art that celebrated the SoCal lifestyle. It was great and effortless working with Drew and Maria. They had very little time to plan and design, yet the final result was more than what we could have asked for. Anyone who walked past our VW bus as Drew was painting it, couldn’t help themselves from stopping and observing. He was extremely personable and engaging, often inviting children to help with paint.” Bryan Babiartz, Art Director, Marketing Werks
CASE STUDY: Verizon FiOS at U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach
WHEN: August 2013
CLIENT: Marketing Werks (on behalf of Verizon)
MISSION: Connect Verizon FiOS with youth and Southern California community by painting a vintage VW Bus in two days, LIVE, during the famous and busy U.S. Open of Surfing event in Huntington Beach, CA.
SCOPE OF WORK: Strategize an art design that would illustrate the Southern California action sports lifestyle. Paint the design live, during the busiest event of Huntington Beach each year, onto a 1965 VW Bus.
Paint a surfboard that will be given away to one lucky winner. Give Drew Brophy surf art posters and stickers to the crowd.
Create a vortex of energy to attract people to the Verizon booths to sign up to win prizes and get more information on the product.
DETAILS: I was tasked with transforming a vintage VW Bus with spray paint and airbrush, in about 12 hours, during the Vans U.S. Open of Surf.
We gave away posters and stickers of my art, and the Verizon So Cal team held drawings daily, giving away surfboards and tablets and other great stuff.
ABOUT THE VAN and THE PAINTING OF IT: The Verizon FiOS So Cal team drives this VW all over Southern California; the bus has been outfitted with FiOS internet and tv capability, along with 42″ HDTV. Now, with the custom painting, this van will never be missed driving down the freeway! (For more info, see Press Release)
I painted the van in two days, 6 hours each side. A lot of people ask how it can be done so fast, so I thought I’d share my process:
PLANNING: Is the first step. I work with the shape of the van and the most important thing to me is composition. I’ve painted dozens of vans, and often I’ll have it in my head what I’m going to paint and just show up and start spraying. But for this one, I wanted to knock it out of the park for Verizon, so I spent a lot of time sketching out ideas and then getting their feedback.
PREPARATION: I show up with everything I need – more then enough paint and an arsenal of tricks.
MEDIUM: Spray paint is the most efficient way to get all the color on. Most of the painting is done using Mtn 94 Spray paints – they are the best. I only use quality paints and materials.
MAPPING IT OUT: I start with the background and build up to the foreground, using spray paint first. I spray on rough lines to use as my “map” of the layout. Then, I fill in all color.
DETAIL: Then I start detailing it. I finish with airbrush and stencils, and finally, highlights that make the painting “pop”.
I had a great time, it was a fun event, working with great people (thanks Verizon So Cal and Marketing Werks!) and it was rewarding to see this painting go from conception to reality.
Drew Brophy to graffiti vintage VW bus for two-day live demonstration in Huntington Beach during U.S. Open of Surf
(Huntington Beach, CA) — The Verizon FiOS SoCal campaign and professional surf lifestyle artist, Drew Brophy are teaming up to influence SoCal residents to conquer their creativity.
Drew will use graffiti-style spray paint and airbrush to customize the vintage Verizon FiOS SoCal 1965 Volkswagen bus, LIVE, in Huntington Beach during US Open of Surf Friday, July 26th and Saturday, July 27th from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. daily.
Visitors can watch as Drew transforms the VW bus, and even win a Lost surfboard, custom painted by Drew Brophy. Brophy will be executing his live artistry on the Strand, between 5th and Pacific Coast Highway.
This live art installation is part of the Verizon FiOS SoCal campaign’s “Conquer Creativity” initiative, which offers locals a unique opportunity to design and win SoCal staples. Participants can virtually design graphics for a beach bike, skate or surfboard, and enter those designs in the sweepstakes. With a unique, computer-based design template, users can integrate colors, personal photos and text into their designs.
Each week, one sweepstakes entry will be randomly selected, and the winner will receive the item he or she entered – a surfboard, skateboard or beach cruiser – with graphics inspired by their design. The winning sweepstakes items will be custom-made by local craftsmen.
For more than 25 years, Brophy’s bright, colorful art has appeared in hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers and on numerous products, including Converse Shoes, Nirve Cruiser Bikes and Liquid Force Wakeboards.
Having the freedom to experiment with many different surfaces and products allowed Brophy to grow tremendously as an artist. Brophy’s artistic inspiration comes from surfing and traveling the globe with his wife and son.
About the Verizon’s FiOS SoCal Experience
Verizon’s FiOS SoCal Experience team is meeting with Southern California where they work, live and play in uniquely tech-laden FiOS SoCal Experience vehicles traveling throughout Southern California through the summer of 2013. The Experience fleet includes an iconic 1965 Volkswagen van that has been transformed into a mobile entertainment experience, custom-fitted with FiOS internet and FiOS TV capability, along with a 42-inch HDTVs.
To learn more about Verizon FiOS; discover daily locations of the FiOS SoCal Experience fleet; find ways to support local community causes; and learn how to win by conquering creativity through custom design, visit http://fiossocal.com/. To learn when the team will be in your neighborhood, follow us on Twitter @VerizonCA and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/VerizonCA.
About Verizon: Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with more than 98 million retail connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500. A Dow 30 company with nearly $116 billion in 2012 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of 183,400. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.
About Drew Brophy : Drew Brophy has been a professional surf lifestyle artist for over 25 years. An avid surfer and world traveler, Brophy’s career exploded in the late 1990’s when he began painting his edgy artwork onto surfboards. Now his art is printed on hundreds of different products and his original artwork is collected worldwide. Drew’s mission is to inspire your imagination through his paintings, and to remind people that life is good. For more information, e-mail info@drewbrophy.com, or log onto https://www.drewbrophy.com.
“When you set a goal, you usually hit it.” Drew Brophy says of determining what he’s going to accomplish each morning before he starts on a project.
Drew’s busy painting this huge wall mural, so he asked me to write this post for him!
Drew was commissioned to paint a mural on the side of Lulu’s Cafe in downtown Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The owner, Misty, wanted to transform her restaurant’s 61′ x 16′ wall which faces the main Ocean Blvd.
To see an amazing time-lapse video by The Digitel of the first few days, Click here.
THE DESIGN: Misty and Drew decided upon a theme of “A day at the Beach” where the mural would depict the elements that make Myrtle Beach special. Everything in the sketch is meaningful to this area, right down to the turtles and the banner plane.
THE PAINT: We started this project by ordering 404 cans of Mtn 94 Spray paint, in over 60 different colors!
The paint shipped from San Francisco and arrived 8 days later to Myrtle Beach on a pallet weighing 440 pounds.
Drew prefers Montana Mtn 94 spray paint because it dries fast, holds up great in weather and the colors are vibrant and bright, much like the Uni Poscas that he likes to paint surfboards with.
Below is a recap of the first six days of the mural painting. Drew still has about six more days to paint, if everything continues to go smoothly.
(DON’T MISS this amazing Time-Lapse of the beginning phase of the mural, generously shot by The Digitel Myrtle Beach: Artist Drew Brophy Mural Time Lapse )
The Mural Map
DAY 1:
GOAL – Break it all down into a grid so that the art is applied in proportion. Apply chalk lines in a one-foot by one-foot grid on the entire wall.
It took over six hours, just to chalkline the wall. Drew and his Dad worked at it together, using rickety ladders, and climbing up and down the roof.
We didn’t rent the double decker scaffolding, as we didn’t think we’d need it yet. In hindsight, it would have been a good idea to have on day 1!
Why did Drew create one-foot squares rather than two-foot squares? He said that it would make his job easier on Day 2 to have smaller squares – it would be clearer where to intersect the elements of the outline.
The grid is Drew’s map, which he will refer to a lot in the next 2 days.
Day 2 – Painting the sketch outline
DAY 2:
GOAL – To get the entire mural sketch transposed onto the wall. Also, to work out the logistics and problems (such as scaffolding) so that on Day 3 the painting could flow.
There are things y0u don’t think of when painting a mural of this proportion. For example, the scaffolding. Someone has to build it. And that someone is you, or in this case, Drew!
Before he could even begin the sketch on the wall, he had to get the scaffolding up. And wouldn’t you know, the rented equipment didn’t come with pins in the wheels! Rather than allow that to slow him down, Drew stuffed screwdrivers in there instead, and taped them on. You have to be resourceful!
Then we ran into another problem – the scaffolding wasn’t rolling because the space against the wall is dirt, with big potholes left from the people who dug out the bushes. At one point the scaffolding came crashing down and luckily, there were people there to help catch it.
Now, onto the most important goal of the day: transferring the “map” of the sketch onto the wall.
It was crucial here that Drew matched the squares in proper proportion. It was painstaking and time-consuming, working in sections, Drew holding the gridline map in one hand while “sketching” on the wall with spray paint in the other.
Drew discovered that he had to change one thing in the sketch – the dolphin had to be smaller than planned, because his nose was being cut off.
Interviewed for the evening news
DAY 3:
GOAL – Get left side of mural color filled in; solve the problem with the scaffolding
We brought rakes this day and got all the pine needles swept out so the scaffolding would move easier. The weather was so hot we must have drank twenty gallons of water.
It was a Friday right before the holiday weekend, so a lot of random friends, fans and family members stopped by to watch.
A TV crew came from a local news channel, so Drew took a little time out for an interview. It aired later that day on the 6:00 o’clock news! Watch the video of it here.
It was an exhausting day for Drew, climbing up and down the scaffolding all day in the blazing hot sun and humidity. It was very physical work, and he realized that he needed more help to conserve his energy for painting. So we hired someone to come and help Drew the rest of the week.
Drew reached his goal; he got most of the color on the left side. That night, we camped out under the stars with family and enjoyed paddleboarding under the blue moon.
Drew and Maria enjoying the progress
DAY 4:
GOAL – Get right side of mural color filled in.
We camped out the night before, and were feeling a little less eager to work today! But, we rallied and got to the Wall about 10:00 a.m. for another full day in the sun.
We hired a local artist named Ian to help. His job, as I put it to him, was to be right next to Drew every moment, ready to hand him a color, help him move the scaffolding, and to help set up and tear down each day.
It was a huge help having Ian there. His assistance meant Drew would have to climb up and down the scaffolding less, and would be able to use more energy for painting.
First order of the day was to organize the colors and sort the caps. It’s crucial to have a clean cap ready when doing detail. If you’re disorganized and your dirty caps get mixed with clean ones, you may have a problem.
Dad painted the sandcastle and the sand today. I think he had fun using the spray paints, though later that night he said his fingers hurt!
Caps make all the difference
DAY 5:
GOAL – Fill in the color of the water, on the bottom; work on the wave
Since he was focused on the bottom part of the wall today, he would be on the scaffolding less. So Drew was happy that he could wear his Keen Flip Flops with the toe protector, instead of those hot hiking boots he had been wearing every day!
This was Sunday of a three day weekend, so there were a lot of people checking out the mural. Drew’s nice and says hello to everyone, but it was slowing him down quite a bit.
We put out postcards with information about Drew for people to take, since so many showed interest in knowing more about him.
The Sun News Myrtle Beach came and did a story on Drew and the mural. There were also a few magazines taking photos and lining up interviews.
DAY 6:
GOAL – Paint the surfer on the wave, start adding other details
Ian has worked out to be a huge help. Painting a mural this size, in the blazing hot sun and humidity, takes it’s toll physically. Ian saved Drew a lot of energy by handing him paints up on the scaffolding, helping him move things around and he even helped painting.
On this day, a local TV news Anchor, the beautiful Lisa Edge, came by and interviewed Drew. It aired on the evening news Channel 15. Click here to watch.
WHAT’S NEXT: About 6 more days to completion. We will post an update after it’s finished.
Please, leave your comments or questions for Drew in the comments!
PHOTO CREDIT: Most photos were taken by Gregory Letts, local Myrtle Beach Photographer. His photos have his watermark. Visit Greg’s website here!
Rough sketch of “A Day at the Beach” mural painting for Lulu’s Cafe
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
ANNOUNCEMENT: Lulu’s Cafe in Downtown Myrtle Beach commissions surf lifestyle artist Drew Brophy to paint a colorful, energetic sixty foot wall mural. Three generations of the Brophy family will team up to paint the mural using spray paints and airbrush.
PR Log (Press Release) – August 28, 2012 – What do you do with 404 cans of Mtn 94 Graffiti Spray Paint?
Ask Misty Coan, owner of Lulu’s Café, who commissioned popular surf lifestyle artist and Myrtle Beach native Drew Brophy to paint the mural, titled “A day at the beach.”
The mural rendering depicts the allure that draws residents and tourists to Myrtle Beach; beach umbrellas, children building sand castles, a surfer in the waves and a banner plane flying above. (more…)
“When you set a goal, you usually hit it.” Drew Brophy says of determining what he’s going to accomplish each morning before he starts on a project.
THE PAINT
