18 June 2009

Wall Murals - How To Paint One Yourself!...

Salle des illustres, ceiling painting, by Jean...Image via Wikipedia

By Anna Meenaghan

Have you ever really thought about doing this? The idea of it might be a bit awe inspiring at first, but if you don't fly into a panic, of course, this is possible. Now, all you need is a subject for your mural.

I would recommend that before you make a start on this, that you put in some groundwork on your wall. After all, you will need a clean surface to work on. So, I would say give your wall a good wash down first, this is to make sure that you have no unwanted grime or grease on it.

Do let it dry thoroughly. Personally, I would apply a primer first, like you would to a canvas, or simply apply just one coat of paint. This can only be an asset.

Second step, so now you have prepared your wall. How do you go about it? On the assumption this is quite a large area, I would recommend that you use a grid. For this you will need to work this out on some paper in the first place. Get a sheet of A3 paper and make a grid, draw 2 inch square boxes on it. Once this is done you need to work your design on and over the grid. If you have followed me so far, now you need to transfer the grid to your wall.

You can do this by using a chalk that will show up on the wall and you should not encounter too many problems when you try to remove this later. So, if you take each 2 inch square from your sheet of paper as a 2 foot square on the wall, you should get the gist. If your area is small you could do 1 inch to 1 foot! Whichever you do, the amount of squares need to be exactly the same as the grid you have drawn.

It is quite easy to fall into the trap of making the grid too small and thus making it hard to remove the chalk when you want too. Please bear in mind what you want to put in the grid, as it will need to have generally strong lines.

Basically, using this method you need to copy your sketch onto the matching squares on your wall. It is important too, before you paint, to consider which is the best type of paint to use. In most cases a good make of acrylic paint should work well, but, depending on the size of your mural, this could work out to be quite expensive.

However, you could also use an ordinary type of paint you would use for the house, for the large part of your painting, the background etc. The important parts could still be painted with acrylics, but do use a good brush.

One important fact to be taken into consideration, when you paint a mural, is that you are painting right on top of it all the time, so you need to take stock of it from a distance as you go along. It may well be that the sun will reflect on your work, so you would need to choose a paint with this in mind.

Anyway, you will not want the sun reflections coming off your work, so choose a paint with an eggshell finish or matt. You also could, when it is complete, brush on a clear varnish. Not only will this make it easier for you to keep it clean, but it will also act as a layer of protection.

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