See how the Vancouver Mural Festival has transformed the city

"This is definitely the biggest mural I've painted," saidDrew Young, an artistand arts director for theVancouver Mural Festival.

"It was approximately a week and a half to paint it,"Young saidof his giant mural located at Main Streetand Broadway Avenue.

Drew and fellow artistJay Senetchkoordered 100 gallons of paint and used 80 cans of aerosol paint, but it is not the biggest of the festival.The largest mural covers 12,000 square feet of the Hootsuite offices at Eighth Avenueand Ontario streets.

The festival curator estimates that Vancouver's public art collection has grown by over 10 per cent,thanks to the 35 works his fellow mural artists created.

"When you have a survival economy in a lot of these areas, it's hard to go and find organic artwork, so to see that there was actually an initiative dedicated to trying to liven up these areas It's really inspiring."

"So far I'm up to 14.I think at the very least, it starts making the city more visually appealing from a uniquely artistic perspective."

Every artist in the festival was paid for their work with grants from the city and the help of many sponsors whocovered the costs of othernecessities, such asinsurance and scaffolding.

The festival is looking forward to bigger plans next year.

"We're going to make it an annual thing, most definitely," Young added.

With files from Rafferty Baker and Tamara Baluja