Wall Art

Mayan Wall Art

Roxie and I decided that the block wall surrounding our back yard was boring. We love South American art, so we're picking random images to paint on our wall. Our first image was a glyph from the Mayan's written language. We didn't worry about what it means; we just like it.

We started with a simple graphic stolen from an online database of mayan glyphs. We loaded that into a graphics program, filled it with some colors, added some grid lines, and printed it on a sheet of 8 ½ x 11 paper. Then, using a chalked grid on the wall as a reference, I copied the outline of the bird from the paper to the wall.

[Bird glyph] [Bird with colors and grid] [Bird drawn in chalk]

It only took half an hour or so to paint the bird. Roxie is really good with a brush, plus it's rough work so you don't have to worry too much if a line is a little off or if a bit of wall shows through.

[Bird on wall]

Including the computer time, chalk lines, painting, and cleanup, we spent somewhere between 1 ½ and 2 hours. We're very pleased with the effect, and plan to cover the wall with beautiful images.

[Snake glyph]] [Snake on wall]

[Scorpion from codex] [Wayne painting the scorpion] [Scorpion on wall]

[Talking dude from codex] [Talking dude]