(will update this continually in the coming days)
Thursday 11 October: sorry everybody I am off work today, so I don’t have any updated photos at the moment. It is raining here at the moment so I don’t suspect they’ll get terribly far today, but I will post updates as I take them.
Friday 12 October:
you can see the scaffolding is missing from the left side now, so that side is done; the wires are hanging on the right side; they have to whitewash the wall first, then draw out the design before painting.
they did the whitewash so fast!
how to draw a billboard on the side of a building! the art is printed on some paper, they roll it out a couple feet at a time, line it up, and do a rubbing. sort of like a giant paint by numbers.
by evening, nothing new to report really. they finished the template art and obviously paced themselves to take a solid day to lay it down.
i might add, those guys are having so much fun! they hoot and holler at streetwalkers and are just making the most of being 30 feet off the ground painting a building! it’s hilarious to watch.
Saturday 13 October:
morning! Indeed, they are at work today. I too am at work and will step out a couple times to take some extra snaps. unfortunately in the template art that is on the wall, I don’t see any text. but the graphic-to-be looks incredible!
Sunday 14 October:
unfortunately I won’t have another update today because I’m going kayaking in the East River and won’t be heading to that part of town! so I’ll leave you to mull over how it was at dusk when I left work on Saturday, yesterday. will they be working on Sunday anyhow? actually, probably, yes. I’ll have images up Monday then!
(she’s got those big brown eyes…. hey, is that a cherry she’s popping in her mouth?!)
Monday 15 October:
updated photos coming shortly. you should all be quite pleased with the progress!
finish tomorrow??
Tuesday morning 16 October:
you can see the building, and thus the billboard, from a couple blocks away!
walking back to work I overheard on the street,
man 1: Whoah. Is that paint?
man 2: Yeah.
man 1: Holy shit!
it’s a very impressive piece of work! but it looks like it will take one more day yet. Lola’s cleavage is done but there’s still a fair amount of hair to paint, the Rockstar logo, and touchup on the ‘V’ in ‘IV’ for the game title.
Wednesday 17 October:
overcast and cloudy day. they’re finishing up on the logo, then will probably blaze through the rest of the right side. unfortunately i can’t say i see room for a release date or any last-minute guerilla tactics, but it’s still a fucking impressive ad campaign!
lunchtime:
nearly done!
packing up the gear a little after 7pm. I wasn’t able to get a ‘finished’ shot in the daylight because they were literally still touching up at dusk, and didn’t remove the scaffolding and equipment out of the shot until after sunset. will post completed shots ASAP (i’m not supposed to be at work tomorrow, but maybe I make a special trip for all of you!).
Thursday 18 October:
Finished, final shots. This post is officially closed! Sorry it was an overcast day again, so the photos aren’t saturated with color. But you get the effect. It’s an impressive billboard. It’s been fun watching this thing transform, and I really appreciate all the visitors and comments. But alas, we wait for a release date, and more importantly, to play! GAME ON!
update:
one more final shot that shows the building in good sunlight with saturated color, and also exemplifies the number of pedestrians who parade up and down Canal Street every day – tourists #$^!&*!! and thanks to Patrick from WikiGTA.org for the animated gif!
(see here for previous incarnations)
(or here for these images larger from my Flickr)
Update 2 Jan 2008:
As you can see, the billboard has been painted over. It ran for just over two months. Thanks everyone for watching!
looks like they are putting up another gta billboard, as the pic behind has a gta-ish artwork look to it.
π
Thank you for keeping everyone updated on this. There’s no other GTA IV news right now, so this is what everyone is keeping their eyes on. Thanks.
—
Jordan
PlanetGTA.com
Hi, thank you. Please keep updating!!! I love this game, and we barely kno anything about it!!! I really like how they are painting it on.
Hey.
Great work, when do you think you can get new photos?
thanks for the comments everyone!
Max hit refresh in the post – I am putting up about two new photos a day. And will until they finish the wall!
Thanks for this keep it up. What street is this on?
The buildings address is “334 Canal Street” in New York City.
Thanks!
NW corner of Canal and Greene.
Here you can see the bulding in google map
http://maps.google.com/maps
and search for this >> 40.720837,-74.003375
wow, i would love to see the release day when they finish it!!
Cool!! a few more days, and we’ll kno what it is….. maybe a release date?
Great job man, for one second you’re loved by millions of GTA fans who are desperate for getting new info on the game.
Keep them coming!
ok cool i was wondering what had happened been waiting for new screens all day lol cheers for letting us know updates tommorow maybe???
Thanks 4 the update!…. yeah, my friend in NY said its raining like crazyyy
PS: you know you made the home page of planetgta.com right? good shit.
Thanks for keeping us updated. There’s a topic on this at gtaforums.com in the GTA IV Official News section, BTW. No info for months so it’s cool to see at least something.
I gotta say though, I don’t think it’ll say anything else on it, and if it does, it’ll probably just be ‘coming soon…’ But we’ll see. Thanks again.
absolutely i’ll have updates tomorrow! I’m at work tomorrow and Saturday so if they do any more painting, you’ll know as soon as I do!
thanks everybody for the links, and for hitting refresh. my stats are through the roof!!!!!k1!
ooo updates, PLEASE!
damn im actually going out today so il have to check them out later if there is writing on the right hand side updated us asap i need to know what it says, also just incase you didnt know GTAIV i suppposed to have 16player multiplayer according to a new article
this is a very clever ad and process. they obviously began on the left side intentionally. exactly because it has the title on the left side, so while they’re finishing the right side, which has the majority of the graphics and any additional text, you can still see the logo from blocks away!
Why aren’t they working on it now?
delayyyyy lol
very nice π
anything new? its 8 oclock over here on the east coast but did you manage to get any new shots before it got dark? keep up the good work!
your about to get a lot more hits dude, its on n4g.com now…. i’m gonna submit this to digg……
digg it http://digg.com/gaming_news/The_Evolution_of_a_GTA4_Billboard
thanks Dan!! hahhaha!
this will end up being nothing special
well it’ll still end up being a beautiful piece of art!
that is true π
Looking good hope to see when it comes out π its killing most of my mates and i lol
cmonnnnnnnnnn lol im so desperate for news right now this billboard is like the only thing sustaining me nick do you have a 360 if so whats your gamertag mines xX bOsSiE Xx hit me up and we can play sometime
Awesome work their doing. Its well 1 am now. So i’m guessing today you’ll update and show pictures of yesterday?
kayaking in the East River? THE EAST RIVER?!?!? are u crazy? take some pictures of the dead bodies that u run into and post them here lol j/k…… how many hits on this page do u have? (just curious)
hi,
lol amazing they’re working on sunday? I made your blog my temporarely homepage, just curious about how the billboard will look like when they’re finished π
I am also surprised, that they don’t rest on sunday π But it’s theyr problem π . I am looking forward to the end.
Hey nice to see you updated. Btw GTA Fans have already seen the art work which is of a girl, Lola, and she seems to be licking a red lolipop. No not that kinda but the candy. Dirty minded Rock*
lol
aaa gtra 4
skoda ze neviem po anglicky
LOL π – sak sa nauc π – ale je to cool…
jj .. pak to mΓ‘à ‘ o moc lehΓ?ΓΒ π
Nice work! I think they are finish on 16th october (old release)Maybe we will get a third trailer π
OK the last update is just cruel! (updated photos coming shortly. you should all be quite pleased with the progress!)
You’re killing me!
sorry Nanook! I need to get my card reader that’s all! Hahhha! COMING SOON!
you sure this guy doesnt work for R*?
Can’t wait to see this… let me guess… they have (or are going to) put it all up except for a little text box/ blank square that they are going to fill either overnight or tomorrow… Still can’t wait to see it.
Nooooooo! So close to finishing! This must have nothing to do with tomorrow being the 16th…
Still no text, damn. I live all the way over in Denmark, but I can promis you, that im jumpin’ on the next flight, with nothing but a spraycan. Then you get that somewhat very wanted release date..
Best regards
MAX
Oh No π I hope they planed something very special for us… No Screenshots, No Informations, for a so long time – tomorrow we already have the 16th october, so maybe we get a big surprise (third trailer??), and if not I doesn’T guarantee