New mural designed to draw eyes to Crayola Experience

As attention-getters go, it's difficult to beat a bright yellow and green canvas the size of a football field plus crayons that are bigger than grown men.

That's the strategy for the exterior of Crayola Experience, an interactive attraction set to open on the east end of Florida Mall in July. The space, which will also include a retail space for Crayola products, is jarringly visible from the BeachLine Expressway. The business will be taking the majority of space vacated by Nordstrom in August.

Right now, a mural featuring anthropomorphized crayons and markers is being created by a two-person crew. The characters are hand-drawn and will be placed around the entrance to Crayola Experience.

Muralist Cat Badger, who created a similar piece for the original Crayola Experience in Easton, Pa., says painting in Florida presents challenges.

"As far as the paint, it dries incredibly fast, so if were wet blending something for the three-dimensional shading, we work double fast," Badger says. "Some days its impossible."

On Wednesday, she was working on the portion of the mural with characters flying on a paper airplane. She starts with a chalk outline of the art.

"If you make a mistake you can wipe it off," Badger says. "We usually set to the wall with hairspray. Otherwise, it would eventually blow off or wash off with the rain."

The wall and entrance eventually will have three-dimensional figures interacting with the action on the wall.

Badger and her assistant Tessa Meier work 10-hour shifts and take the occasional day off, usually coinciding with rainy days. The large flat blocks of green and yellow paint were applied by contractors.

Badger owns Pennsylvania-based CB Scenic Studios and earned a bachelor's degree in two-dimensional fine arts from Moore College in Philadelphia.

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New mural designed to draw eyes to Crayola Experience