A scissor lift is ideal for a job like this. It easily carries two workers and equipment for painting. The surface of the parking lot appears to be hard and flat in the photo. And you can rent scissor lifts practically anywhere.
Bucket truck, scaffolding, even pick-and-ladders will work, too, though pick-and-ladders is not legal in many areas (a pick mounted on pump jacks usually is, though). But for a wall of this size and height, a simple scissor lift would be my first choice. Set up is easier than scaffolding and it is less costly than the four-wheel-drive rubber-tired rigs.
Transferring the graphics to the wall
Sketching by hand from a scale drawing is the traditional way. Use artwork at 1-1/2 inch to the foot for the scale and draw a grid on the printout for accurate transferring. 1-1/2" scale lends itself to the use of a yardstick (1/8 inch equals one inch). Snap long lines with powdered charcoal in a chalk box (carpenter's blue chalk will be messy). You can snap long lines by yourself by taping the end of the line to the wall with duct tape, or Gorilla tape if your background color is bonded well. Of course, it's much easier to snap lines with two people and two ladders.
Pounce Patterns
You mention stencils? You are no doubt referring to pounce patterns.
Using pounce patterns is an excellent method, especially if hand drawing on the wall from a sketch is not your strength. I like tiling vertical patterns whenever possible. Vertical patterns can simply be taped at the top and unrolled from top to bottom, taping as you descend in the lift. Start with the center pattern, making sure it is placed accurately, then unroll successive pieces on either side of it, butting the edges. This can easily be done by one person.
Of course, a long line of text may lend itself to a horizontally placed pattern. Two sets of hands can be helpful for this.
Projecting directly?
It is very common, but you will have distortion to correct. And you will need to project at night...UNLESS you have or have access to a digital art projector, such as those made by Artograph.
These machines are incredible. If you use one of these for the first time you will be amazed. Depending on the model you will have anywhere from 500 to 1000 lumens of powerful light. You do not need to wait for darkness and you can project IN COLOR from a digital file. You don't need to make a line drawing on a transparency. The detail that can be cast onto the wall has to be seen to be believed. And distortion can be adjusted from the projector with the "keystone" function.
A Walldog project was loaned two of these projectors by the Artograph Company two years ago in Wisconsin, and everyone who saw it was impressed. If I weren't close to retiring I would buy one of these immediately, in spite of the price tag.
Which paint?
The Walldog projects I have worked on no longer use One Shot of any other oil-based lettering colors. It just doesn't hold up. The go-to paint now on these projects is a water-based acrylic mural paint made by Nova Color in California. Nova offers a large selection of colors, plus blending mediums for pictorial work. If you are used to doing wall jobs with traditional lettering paints, Nova Color takes a little getting used to (after all, it's latex), but it's worth it for the color retention. Sables and synthetic brushes work better than fitches and bristle cutters. And, of course, a high-quality water based acrylic will almost always outlast any oil paint on masonry. And Nova Color is heavily pigmented. I can letter black Sunbrella fabric with white Nova Color and get excellent coverage with two coats.
Brad in Kansas City
