(upbeat music) - My name is Aimee Bruce, also known as highonyoursupply, and I am a local artist/muralist/illustrator/designer working and living within 757 Virginia.
Yeah.
I graduated in 2016, and then right after that, you know, my first job was working as a mural artist for the city of Norfolk.
So we put together a mural working with high school students.
It was kind of cool.
(upbeat music) Brian Zawacki, the co-owner of Zeke's in Norfolk, he contacted me, but he was telling me about how he got into here and he was like, "Hey, it would be cool if you were like the monthly artist for October.
And I was like, "Awesome."
And then he approached me again, he was like, "But also, if you can paint a mural on the back patio, that would be cool too."
And then I also got a chance to hang up my art.
So typically I start off with some like rough sketches, some rough doodles in my sketchbook.
From there, I transfer them onto my iPad.
I digitize them, and then I can start figuring out definite line work, and like the color schemes.
Depending on what the client wants, or sometimes depending on like how I feel, it kind of vibes with the aesthetic.
Once I figure out the color scheme, the sketch itself, the next step would be to somehow transfer the image onto the wall itself.
So either using like a projector-- I sometimes like to use the grid method-- but more recently I've been dealing with using the lazy grid technique, whereas like you start off with crazy shapes and doodles on the wall and then you just put your image overlaid and then draw it accordingly.
It's a different way of thinking.
From there, I just lay down the base colors, the line work, finishing touches, and then boom, it's done deal.
Helping hands at Mount Trashmore, I wanna say that took about two weeks, and that was just because the first week it literally snowed.
It was like the end of April, and then the next week it was the heat wave, which I just kind of knocked everything out.
Really working with the weather out there, it can be so crazy.
So there's a lot of back and forth in the planning process, you know.
Sometimes the clients are like, "Let's go with that."
Awesome.
Others, they take their time, they play around with the colors.
They're like, you know, little in and out, on the fence about things.
But once we figure it out, I mean, it's a good, good deal.
So it depends.
So when I'm not painting murals or I'm not completing commissions by clients I'd like to make my own merch.
And I like to go to markets, like art festivals.
I have stickers.
I make buttons.
I make prints out of my original artwork and a lot of other stuff too.
Like I'll paint on skateboards.
I'll have painted glassware just to spice it up.
Yeah.
Because of the pandemic I lost my job.
Everyone got laid off.
It was a weird time.
And so I think that gave us enough time, enough pause for me to really think like, "Hey.
I think I should just go full force with this.
Be creative and just keep creating and help inspire others."