Toronto artist creates major Avengers mural
It was nearly a superhero feat for Toronto artist James Raiz ahead of Friday’s opening of Avengers: Infinity War.
In only a month, he had to draw a towering mural and capture the entire creative process on video for an international, in-theatre Avengers: Infinity War art installation. And he did it all in the basement of his home, where he lives with his wife and three children.
“I pretty much had the camera going 24 hours a day, no sleep,” Raiz, 39, said. “In the end it turned out to be around 250 hours of work … I didn’t leave the house for about a month.”
Measuring roughly five metres wide and five metres high, the installation has two sides and is in Scotiabank Theatre Toronto as well as cinemas in China and the U.S. One side has screens showing him drawing the entire piece. The other is a mural representing characters in each of the 18 Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
“You can’t do this project without being a fan,” Raiz said. “To put all that work in a matter of a month, unless the money is insane, it’s really hard to do.”
Raiz, who grew up in Brampton, works as a professional artist, focusing on comic-book characters with a realistic, cinematic feel. His You Tube channel, The Box Office Artist, has more than 66,000 followers.
Raiz was commissioned to do the Avengers installation after creating a major Star Wars mural for his YouTube channel that got the attention of Marvel president Kevin Feige. Raiz started the Avengers installation with hand drawings, using pen and ink on bristol board. He then scanned the images and coloured them digitally.
“There are going to be people online who are going to go over everything with a fine-toothed comb,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s always a worry but at the same time, I’m just happy that I got this opportunity to draw something like this for Marvel. If this is the last piece I ever do, I’m happy.”