Designed on Surface: Transforming a school ground with Noir in Belgium

Some 40 kilometers outside Brussels, Belgium we worked with Noir to transform the grounds of a local elementary school with a mural for the Designed on Surface project.

Originally from the Liege area of Belgium, Noir masters the art of beautifully hand-drawn and spray-painted murals that look true to life. What initially drew us to Noir’s work was his explorations and large scale murals of hands.

Noir uses a combination of traditional paints and brushes as well as stencils and spray paint to create these incredibly detailed drawings. When we started working with him on his concept for the mural, I loved that we were going to put this piece of art on school grounds.

In the Surface team we believe, above all, in the power of the pen. Seeing Noir work with Surface Pro 4 and the pressure-sensitive Surface Pen was fantastic. Seeing him create a mural that details the power of the pen at work – to create something beautiful – was even better.

We were able to follow Noir around for a day and capture his process in a short video. Check it out here:

Noir’s work is, by its nature, a very time intensive process. The steps involved to get from early sketches to the stencils and grids he uses to create his mural take a lot of time. With Surface he is able to work much faster through his workflow, and because he has access to all his sketches and source files, making changes on the go is easy.

If you want to learn more about Noir’s work and how Surface helps him do great things, and to read about the other artists that participated in the Designed on Surface project – visit us at www.surface.com/art.  We are going to be back next week with another look at the artists behind Designed on Surface.