Big art on walls changes public spaces and can change people's moods for the better, says Caleb Dude.
Since the age of 16, the talented mural painter has helped turn his hometown into the street art capital of Australia.
The 23-year-old is one of more than 20 creatives taking part in the Darwin Street Art Festival this week, with more than 160 murals adorning the city's streets and laneways.
This year the festival is adding 23 murals to the sides of buildings, giving the Top End capital one mural for every 950 residents.
That's a higher concentration per capita than Melbourne at one for every 1500 residents, Sydney with one for every 3445 and Brisbane one for every 3800, festival organisers say.
Painters have been busy clambering up and down the sides of buildings to add the extra murals, and big splashes of colour to Darwin in the process.
"I get people coming up all day, taking photos, saying hi, saying thank you for beautifying the city," Dude told AAP.
"Art changes spaces and it can change people's moods and therefore change the entire feel of a city."
People are more friendly to each other because their environment is more beautiful," Dude reckons.
Fellow artist George Rose travels the world painting murals and in Darwin, is depicting a crocodile and other deadly Australian creatures on the side of a hotel.
"Street art festivals are such an important part of being a muralist. It's an isolating job, you are always painting on your own," the 40-year-old told AAP.
The festivals held across the world provide a platform for the muralist community to come together and share ideas and stories, she said, and the Darwin festival has a good reputation globally.
The number one question she gets about her work is how giant murals are painted to create a whole picture that matches an original small design.
'You just get use to painting at scale. I started off on small walls then moved to bigger and bigger ones," Rose said.
She paints free-hand, not using a projector to cast an image on a wall to paint by but using reference points on walls to guide her, reshaping the design as she paints.
Caleb says mural scaling techniques are "really not that mystical".
He uses what are known as "doodle grids" or "squiggle grids" where random squiggles, numbers or letters are lightly spray painted or chalked on a wall, which is then photographed.
The mural design is then digitally imposed on the wall photo, allowing artists to align parts of their design where they are shown intersecting with the random marks on the wall.
The Darwin festival, now in its 10th year, was initiated by local artist David Collins, who pitched the idea to the NT government, which is helping fund this year's event.
