"City of Champions: Football"

Summer of Work and Learning 2013

Outdoor mural 21ft x 54ft

While I love flowers, sports and portraits are always at the top of my list for favorite themes.  I was over the moon to get the opportunity to design a football themed mural with the Patriots and Brockton Boxers for this incredible wall.  It took me 4 years to get approval for this wall, and it was absolutely worth the wait!  It's located at the corner of Belmont and Main Street on The Money Market building (245 Main Street, Brockton, MA 02301). 

The mural's backdrop is Brockton High School's Marciano Stadium, including the 2 ton, 20ft statue of Rocky Marciano.  The mural includes Brockton standouts Greg McMurtry (top right) and Jason Vega (bottom left), both of which spent time with the Patriots.  Coach Colombo, the winningest coach in Massachusetts history over his 34 years with BHS, celebrates on the shoulders of his players.  He is flanked by Patriot legends and Super Bowl Champions, Tom Brady and Tedy Bruschi.  Gillette Stadium (top right) and one of the many state championship trophies (center) also appear in the mural.    

 I am so proud of my interns' dedication and hard work, and I had another amazing summer with Nan Shea. It's our biggest wall yet, 21.33' x 54' and required me to learn how to operate a scissor lift!  I'm excited to see what the 2014 Summer of Work and Learning has in store for us!

Sports Posters

For the past three years, the Oliver Ames Basketball Boosters have asked me to create custom sports posters for the boys and girls basketball teams and cheerleaders for Senior Night.  The posters hang by the entrance with words and quotes that were provided by their parents. 

To create the posters, parents, coaches and teammates are asked to provide descriptive words and a quote to describe the graduating senior, as well as a head shot and a picture showing the athlete in an action pose that represents the player's style or signature move.

Above are examples of the reference photographs that were submitted for the creation of the posters.

I hand draw the bodies for the posters, so the action shot is very important to capture the essence of the athletes.  The head shot needs to be high resolution, clear and with good lighting to ensure it is not pixelated or blurry when enlarged to about 6 inches on the poster. 

The final images are 18" x 24" laminated posters.

Here are the posters for the 2013 Basketball seniors and cheerleaders:

OA Girls Basketball:

OA Boys Basketball:

 

OA Cheerleaders:

 If you are interested in having posters created for any team sport, please contact me at Laura@LNDstudio.com.

On the road to Love...

"Follow Your Heart"

Valentine's Day Card Illustration

SCM Transportation, Somerville, MA

Mixed Media

© Laura DeDonato

The amazing people at SCM Transportation have a great program they run every Valentine's Day called "Paul's Ride."  A gift of $30 underwrites round trip transportation for a rider to visit his or her sweetheart in the hospital or nursing home and $100 covers five round trips.

This year, SCM asked me to create an illustration for their Valentine's Day card to support Paul's Ride.  I had fun creating a custom heart box filled with little chocolates in the shape of the SCM vans.  To create my reference for this illustration I had to take chocolates from different boxes and make the little ruffled cups from muffin tins.  You can view some of this process work on my twitter and instagram @LNDstudio. 

I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day with those who you love, doing the things that you love to do!!