Today, I joined Adobe Creative Community on Clubhouse to talk about hand lettering and mural mockups to showcase your dream project. I talked about why mural mockups are important, how to showcase your dream project using mural mockups and where to find resources for creating mural mockups. For those of you who weren’t able to make it to the clubhouse chat live, here’s a recap!

Three reasons why you should create mural mockups:

1) Mural mockups help you build your portfolio. It’s no secret that portfolios are our creative weapons. Our work samples are what we present to potential clients as a proof of our capabilities and talents. But when you’re early in your career or when you have switched your career, you don’t have many work samples to showcase. This is where mural mockups come very handy. Create mural mockups and start building up your portfolio. Don’t feel shy or hesitant to share mural mockups -- all muralists have “humble” beginnings!

2) Mural mockups help you visually communicate to your potential clients by putting artworks into real life contexts. As visual artists, we’re extremely good at visualizing without actually seeing. However, this is usually not the case for the clients. We have to connect the dots between art and context for the clients. In order for your potential clients to commission you a mural project, they have to see that you’re capable. Meaning, you need to have mural projects in your portfolio. Of course, you would actually have to be capable so create mural mockups in the realistic scale that aligns with your skill sets.

3) Mural mockups help you hone in on your craft and stay motivated. When you’re used to creating small scale artworks, large scale murals can be tricky at first. I used to have a hard time getting just the right amount of details that don’t disappear with distance. Mural mockups help you get a sense of the scale because seeing the artwork alone vs seeing it within the context can be very different. Mural mockups also help you stay motivated. Landing on your dream project can be a long-time process. Creating mural mockups lets you visualize yourself as a muralist, which gives you refreshed motivation.

Let me share with you my personal story as an example. In 2018, I switched my career from industrial design to graphic design, focusing on hand lettering. By mid 2019, I fell in love with mural painting after taking Efdot’s workshop at the Letter West conference. I wanted to get more mural painting commissions but I didn’t have any work samples.

For this reason, I started a self-initiated project called #MuralThis, where I created a series of mural mockups for my dream brands. I gathered photos of my dream brands’ physical stores to create mural mockups (I either found photos online and asked permission to use for mockup purposes or shot the photos myself.) Since then, I’ve painted two murals (see below)!

Resources for creating mural mockups:

First way I create mural mockups is by using free royalty free images. Websites like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay have a great selection of high-quality images in which you can download and use freely -- thanks to all contributing photographers! The only downside is that you have to fiddle around in photoshop or procreate to make it realistic but hey, it’s free! I keep a list of wall photos on Unsplash and everyone’ welcome to use it.

Second way I create mural mockups is by using free mockup files. Websites like MrMockup (my favorite), Unblast, Freepik and The Designest offer free mockup files in which you can download and use freely -- thanks to all contributing mockup makers! The downside is that the selection is small and you may not find the kind of mockup you’re looking for but it’s free so we can’t complain.

Third way I create mural mockups is by purchasing high quality mockup files. Creative Market has a large selection for mural mockups and is usually my go-to place for any kind of mockups. Lauren Hom recently released high res PSD mural mockups, which I think are one of the top quality mural mockups out there.

Hope this was helpful for you! Let’s create mural mockups and land on that dream project!

- Julisha

Why You Should Create Mural Mockups