Painting Murals: Would You Like to Express Yourself by Painting a Mural on an Empty Wall?

STARTING WITH AN IDEA

You probably already have an idea of what you want to paint on your wall. If you do great your search will be a little less involved. If you don't have an idea then you need to think about a theme for your room. A child's room is easy just use what they love. Trees are good for the end of a hall. A friend had me paint a beach scene with Adirondacks chairs with names painted on the backs of the chairs with a table between and glasses of tea on the table. If you like painting people you can put people in the chairs. I had the sand with palm trees, the ocean, and dolphins playing in the water. A boat sitting off in the sunset. Hibiscus flower plants around with vines climbing up some of the trees. She and her husband loved it. I have painted several murals. A daycare also wanted palm trees and beach scene. All you need basically is a gallon of white inside house paint, or if your mural is on the outside then you will need a gallon of outside white paint. I used acrylic art paint as tints for the different colors.

A big question is what do I do after I get the paint? Daydream about how you want the wall to look. Look at the wall really see what you want there. My mom was my biggest critic she always wanted to tell me what I needed to do or to change. Very funny. She didn't know what was in my mind, and I had already had a plan going in my mind. I would kindly tell her please mom when I am finished I will be glad to have your opinion. So, the point here is just kindly push opinions away and stick to your plan, or you will get frustrated.

First thing you need is back ground color. Example, if you want to do a beach scene you need to decide where you want the sky line to meet the water line and then the water lapping upon the sandy beach. Divide the wall in pretty much three (3) equal parts from the ceiling to the floor. Then mentally place the things you want to see in your mural such as: trees, plants, hammock, Adirondack chairs, shells, little creatures like crabs and things you might see on the beach.

ITEMS YOU WILL NEED TO PAINT YOUR MURAL

Great, now hopefully you have already penciled a drawing to keep these things in mind. Using pencil you can always make changes which I can tell you now you will make changes even after you have started painting. So, now you can start the fun part painting. I always use a plastic paint pan and a bucket of soapy water to be able to wash your brushes out, and a second bucket of plain water to get the soap out of the brushes. You may need to change from light to dark colors or the other way around, so you may want to wash your brushes to do that, but sometimes it is better to blend the colors together so as not to have a straight line look effect. It is wise to use a paint that all you need to do is use soapy water to clean your brushes, so that you won't have to use harsh chemicals to clean your brushes. That paint is sinus friendly. I have sinus problems so I have to be careful what type of paint I use, and I like things to be easy too. Paint brushes are easy to decide which ones to use. A large house paint brush and a medium house paint brush is a must for applying the back ground colors, and for blending colors. An assortment of quality large canvas painting brushes are important also for the detail work on your mural. Make sure that at least one of the brushes has a flat lined edge on the bottom edge of the brush this will help to make fine lines. You won't be able to use these for canvas after painting on stucco walls with them because they will be to flared for fine painting on the canvas, but they can be used for applying back ground paint on canvas. You will also need a charcoal stick to mark shapes of objects on the wall, and you can get these at most craft and art supply stores along with acrylic paints and brushes.

This will get you started thinking about what you need to get ready. Make sure you have lots of small acrylic paints this will give you plenty of colors to choose from to make your tints and shadows. My next capsule will help you to start putting color on your wall if you should need help.

GETTING STARTED PAINTING

Lets get started painting. I usually start at the top at the ceiling and paint down to the floor. If you want, say the sky color blue as a predominant color and shade other colors in then start with that color. If you want to kind of showcase with a center focal point as your mural then I would paint the whole wall a solid pastel color then shade into that color with your sky color if you are going to use a sky in your mural. Pour about 4 cups of the white paint into your paint pan then add the tint color until you get the desired color you want. Keep in mind that house paint will generally dry a little lighter color than when wet.

When you have the background just the way you like it then let it dry. Make sure that your colors are blended and shaded well, so that there will be no sharp edges. Now, stand back look at the drawing you made (hopefully you did), and mentally place the things in your drawing onto your background. This will be the best time to make changes to your drawing if you should choose to make any changes. Keep in mind that you can make changes any time, but you will have to make sure that you keep your colors true because just one shade difference can change the whole look.

Taking a charcoal stick draw in the items you would like to paint into your mural. They don't have to be perfect just the approximate shape of the item. Place lines or circles or dots in the shapes to let you know where you need shading to make the shape realistic when you paint the item. For example: a bird would need a wing, legs, eyes, beak, and feathers with different shading to tell them apart. I keep a lot of pictures with good detail of different things, so all I have to do is choose what I would like to paint. Having a lot to choose from gives you a variety of things to keep a mural from being boring. Some people use a projector to put a picture of the item up on the wall this way you have a great way of painting exactly what you want. Just have fun painting. I free hand almost all of my art work. I may sometimes make a charcoal outline from transfer paper, and I trace the outline of an object I want to paint on the place on the wall. I then use the picture that it was traced from to get the shading I want.

RELAX AND ENJOY MAKING YOUR WORK OF ART

I hope that this has given you a great idea of how to paint a mural. Like I said earlier JUST HAVE FUN it will show in your mural when you do. I love to paint murals I just love to paint. Painting is a great expression of yourself so enjoy no matter how long it takes to paint your mural it will last for years. Be sure to put a coat of sealer on top to help retain the colors.