Excelsior District Art Commission piece- getting ready

I picked up my board that will be used for the Excelsior district art commission piece - as it was a solid piece of wood 4 ft X 8 ft,  I needed help loading my Mini.

I made it safely back to the studio, a 5 minute drive, going quite slowly.  I strapped it on the car rack but it was so heavy, I don't think it was going anywhere.

and here it is, safely in it's temporary home.  I was told that I have until April 2013 to finish this which shouldn't be a problem. 

The next step was to look into paints and so the obvious place to visit was Precita Eyes, San Francisco's go to place for mural supplies.  I bought a few containers of paint, two that I would use for the base and then 3 more to test out the saturation compared to Golden and Utrecht acrylic paints.  The tests so far revealed that the Precita Eyes paints have better saturation than either of the other two tested.  Additional added benefits are:  good for indoor/outdoor use, colorfast, resists elements, easily maintained when used with Sheercoat Varnish.

I will continue to test the colors, comparing with the colors i have in the studio.  But, I can at least start with my basecoat.

Here are the colors they offer - so difficult not to buy them all!