Reading a mural one eye at a time

From across the street this mural is a face. From the pavement it is a set of decisions: an eye drawn in three browns, lashes laid on like single brushstrokes, and the brick left to show through the orange so that the wall itself becomes the skin.

I asked the painter how long the eye took. A day, she said — the rest of the face took two. The eye is where people look first, so it is where the wall has to be right.

It is a good rule for anything with a focal point. Spend the time where the viewer will spend theirs.