One Piece Mural Process

one piece mural process

This is my One Piece x Nintendo mural! I always wanted to paint a mural and I really enjoyed designing and making this. I took a One Piece picture and adapted it to fit my videogame theme. I did all of the tracing, inking, and painting myself. Below is the process it took to create this mural, as well as a description of the details I put in the mural.

-process-

I based the mural off of this One Piece picture.

One Piece is a manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda.

This is the cover picture from Chapter 843.

There were thousands of possible pictures to choose from,

but I liked this picture because all of the characters were standing and happy,

almost like they were cheering me on while playing a videogame.

I started by adapting the picture to fit my wall. The wall I was going to do the mural on was wider than tall, so I adapted the picture to make the characters more life-size.

My focus was also on the characters, not on the background images.

I needed to move both Sanji and Usopp from the top and add them to the row of characters.

I also wanted to add Jimbei, who will soon be the newest member of the Straw Hat Crew.

I found a picture of him that fit the theme and added him in photo editor.

Then I drew the missing limbs and pieces of the characters.

I had access to an overhead projector, so I made both pictures into transparencies.

This allowed me to project the image on different walls to see what it would look like.

The picture below is from the beginning, when I was looking for which wall to use.

I don't have a photo of the transparency on the wall I decided to use.

The first step to putting the picture on the wall was to trace the outline.

I used a pencil to trace the entire picture.

I skipped over things I didn't want to include (like Franky's bear hoodie).

After finishing the outline, I went back and added in the pieces I wanted.

I highlighted all of the details and additions at the bottom of this page.

This picture features Luffy outlined (in black ink), but you can see all of the tracing around him.

It was very hard to see from a distance!

I used a Sharpie Black Paint Marker to outline the mural.

Luckily, because the mural is based off of a manga, the outlines were mostly thick lines.

This would have been much harder if I were making a photo realistic mural.

I did use different thickness of markers depending on the intricacy of the design.

I also used the marker to color in the black areas,

although doing so made me go through several markers.

I printed out the picture above so I could test out different colors.

I wanted to make the mural colorful, but I also didn't want to rely on too many colors or use colors that the characters don't normally wear. Luffy's shirt was the hardest to decide on.

Luffy is typically (and most known) wearing a red shirt, however,

I wanted to put the Superman logo on Luffy, therefore it couldn't be red.

After a lot of consideration, I swapped Luffy's typical blue and

red and made the shirt blue and his shorts red.

I also toiled over whether or not to put a background for the mural.

I thought about possibly doing a Mushroom Kingdom or something from Zelda,

but the more I looked at it, the more I felt a background would distract from the characters.

I used a large variety of acrylic paints to make the mural.

After finishing the painting I went back and retraced all of the lines.

It was easier then trying to stay perfectly off the lines while painting.

Here is the finished product in Nerdvana.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

Continue reading to see some of the specific details I added into the mural,

and how they relate to my love for Nintendo!

-DETAILS-

I wanted to make a One Piece mural, but I also wanted to incorporate the videogame theme.

I decided to let each character represent a specific videogame console and my favorite game from that console. I also added some additional details on several characters.

Below is a description of all the details I added to the mural.

Let's start with Luffy! As the main character (and my personal favorite), I wanted to give him my favorite console of all time: the Wii. Luffy's personality works perfectly with the Wii.

He would definitely enjoy actually swinging around the controller and would be someone you required to use the wrist strap! I put a Wiimote in his hand (with no wrist strap).

On his other hand is a Star from Super Mario Galaxy, my favorite game of all time!

I also added a Pokémon Go Plus on Luffy's wrist since I am a huge fan of Pokémon Go.

On Luffy's chest is the Superman logo. I wanted him to wear a Superman shirt,

and I thought it would be cool to make it a "Super Nintendo" reference.

I never played the SNES when I was young, so I don't have a favorite game from that console.

If I had to pick one, it would probably be Super Mario World.

Next is Chopper, our loveable mascot reindeer!

I wanted him to hold something small, so I gave him the 3DS.

I've had a lot of fun with the 3DS library of games, but my favorite has to be Pokémon X.

I put a big X on Chopper's chest in the color of Xerneas.

I also put the sunglasses that the main male protagonist wears on Chopper's hat.

Finally, the red stylus (which I use) is in his paw. On the 3DS screen I dated the mural,

signed my name, and drew a One Piece pirate flag personalized to me!

On a side note, Chopper's fur was an incredibly difficult color to find.

A lot of browns don't quite look like the color on the container.

Also, depending on where you look (anime, manga, different pictures),

Chopper's fur is a different shade of brown.

Eventually, I mixed three colors together and made something that was close.

Here we have Zolo (I go by then English Translation of "Zolo" rather than "Zoro" because that's what I'm used to reading). Zolo's character is very simple, and he gets so easily confused with directions that I thought it would be best to give him the most basic console: the NES.

Also, Zolo's pre-time skip color design was mostly black and white,

so I felt it matched the NES color scheme. I put an NES controller on Zolo's shirt.

I also did not play the NES when I was younger, but I have played since.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is my favorite game on the NES so I included a

Tanooki tail coming out of Zolo's red backpack.

Zolo is a master of the three sword style. In the original picture I didn't have Zolo with his swords. After I finished the mural, I decided to go back and give him the Master Sword.

I wanted to give him 3 swords, but since I was adding this afterwards,

I didn't have enough room to fit any more (it was hard enough to fit the Master Sword).

My other two swords would have been Pit's blade and the sword from Wii Sports Resort.

The next character is Nico Robin. I decided to give Robin the WiiU because her hand worked

well with holding the Gamepad and there was space available between her leg and Zolo's.

Robin is another character who I think fits her console well:

Robin is sophisticated and not quite everyone's taste, which was very true of the WiiU.

The WiiU had a lot of hidden gems during it's reign, but my favorite was Super Mario 3D World. The 4 player mode was seamless and I loved the Cloud Flower, which is why I included

it on Robin's shirt. I also decided to put the Super Smash Bros. logo on the Gamepad.

I like the Super Smash Bros. series, but none of them are my favorite games on a system.

I had the space on the Gamepad, though, so I thought it would look good there.

This was the only piece of the mural where I blended different colors together.

Usopp is all about nostalgia and collecting things, so I knew I had to give him the Gameboy!

The Gameboy Color was my first ever console.

I put my Gameboy Color (the see-through purple version) in Usopp's right hand.

On his overalls I included his 6 Pokémon that would be in his party

(2 Poké Balls, 1 Great Ball, 2 Ultra Balls, and the Master Ball).

I put the cover art of Charizard from Pokémon Red on Usopp's shirt because the Pokémon games were my favorite on the Gameboy. I also included a Gameboy Advanced in Usopp's pouch. Again, he has the same version that I had (the see-through edition).

Usopp's color scheme is a reference to the original Pokémon Games:

Red and Blue from North America, Red and Green from Japan, and Yellow for the Pikachu version. His earphones also have gold and silver for Pokémon Gold and Silver.

Brook is the only character who I didn't assign a console.

I already gave Luffy the Wii, but I HAD to make Brook a reference to Wii Music.

He would have loved that game, and probably would have been the best at it!

I put the Maestro from Wii Music on Brook's shirt. I designed the Straw Hats based on

their post-time skip designs, however I decided to keep Brook with his violin.

For one, he had it in the original picture so it was easy to add. However, I also found that because it's up at his neck, it was very visible compared to the other characters due to Brook's height.

I kept Nami's design very similar to her original design. I placed a GameCube controller in her hand. My favorite GameCube game was Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I put a tiny Paper Mario on Nami's dress. He's holding a map, which is a great connection to Nami loving maps and being the ship's Navigator. I drew the outline for Nami's Log Pose, however I decided to transform it into the top of a Toad head. I also gave her Triforce earrings.

The Nintendo 64 was my first home console videogame system. The first time I started reading One Piece was during the Baratie saga, which is the introduction of Sanji. Therefore, I had to give Sanji the N64! I had a lot of fun with Mario Kart 64, especially with my brother and friends from the neighborhood, but my favorite game was Yoshi's Story. I remember seeing a banner for it on my local Toys R Us when I was a kid and I was so excited to play it! It was one of the few games at the time that I could beat 100%, including unlocking the special White Yoshi and Black Yoshi.

I put a Yoshi egg on Sanji's shirt and a red N64 controller (my favorite) in his hand.

Sanji is not following his usual color scheme here, but I had to adapt his color scheme based on the characters around him. The hardest part of his design was perfectly tracing over the multiple circles on the N64 joystick.

Jimbei was the trickiest character to add because he wasn't originally in the picture.

I used the picture of Jimbei from the chapter cover of Chapter 532 as a model.

His hand position made it perfect for him to hold a DS. My favorite game on the DS was Pokémon HeartGold. I had not played a Pokémon game for almost 10 years until getting back into it with Pokémon HeartGold. I added the Poké Walker in Jimbei's other hand as a reference to the game. That being said, I don't think Jimbei would have been very successful with it because it was not water proof (I know, I put 3 through the wash). Jimbei also likes to wear kimonos with different designs. I decided to us a Triforce design for his kimono.

The final character is Franky, our soda loving cyborg! He's typically the most flashy of the group, so I felt the Switch (the flashy new console) would be a perfect fit for him. Franky has the

ability to change his hair into various shapes so I made his hair out to be a Switch controller.

Due to Franky's massive size and arms, most of his body is obscured by the other characters in front. I liked this pose of him because I could see his arms. Franky normally has a large star on each arm. I changed the star into a Power Moon in reference to

Super Mario Odyssey, which is currently my favorite game on the Switch.

I also added a Blue Shell from the Mario Kart series above Franky's head. I love the Mario Kart series, but none of the games are my all time favorites on a console, so I needed to find some way to reference it. The void above Franky's head was a good fit for the Blue Shell. Also, Franky would be the kind to prematurely celebrate a win before getting knocked down by a Blue Shell.