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Mural Painting 101 Introduction

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Welcome to Mural Painting 101

Painting a mural can be a fun way to brighten up a room, and/or to get lost in some scenery. They can take up a whole wall or a portion of a wall.

You can see how I did mine, along with some mural painting tips. Then you can browse mural painting books, pre-painted murals and wall appliques that you can add to your wall(s).

Basement mural

The first murals that I painted were in our basement. For this one I used a picture from a Lowe's ad for my inspiration, and didn't do any preliminary sketches. The pond didn't come together just right, so I decided to make it look more like a stream.

Mural I painted on our dining room wall

After painting a few murals in our basement, I got braver and braver. Then I painted one on our dining room wall. My confidence and bravery were growing.

When painting a mural, a plan is helpful.

Here is the process I used when I painted this mural at a local establishment.

My first plan was to get ideas from the people there. I left two sign up lists; one was of desired items to be in the mural, the second one was for favorite colors..

From those lists, I went to work on a sketch. Given the area I had to work in, I decided on a 5' high by 6' wide mural. I made a sketch 5" high by 6" wide to keep the dimensions the same.

Drawing the mural on the wall

When measuring, I used low tack painter's tape to mark my corners. I then taped in the rectangular area with more painter's tape. Then I marked off each foot with a small strip of painter's tape that extended outward from the original rectangle. This gave me the scale I needed.

I used watercolor pencils for drawing the picture on the wall. I find them helpful in that they can easily be wiped off with a damp paper towel afterwards, and/or easily be painted over. They also provide an easy color scheme to follow.

The base coat

Once I got the drawing sketched in, I used a base coat of the preliminary colors. For the larger sections, I used a sponge to apply the base coat with. When painting with acrylics, I always wet the sponge and/or brush first, squeeze out the excess water, before dipping it in the paint.

A quick time saving tip that I've found helpful, especially for successive coats, is to mix my artist varnish in with the paint, before applying it to the wall, instead of applying the varnish separately afterwards.

The next layer

After the base coating, I then added my acrylic varnish mix using brushes, sponges, etc., whatever was appropriate for what I was painting. Part of determining what was appropriate is asking, how close to the foreground is it. The closer to the foreground, the more visible the details. So with distanct trees, sponges were great. For finish details of close up grass, a fan brush gave great results.

The painting is looking smoother and coming more alive.

Completing the second layer and adding more details

As I applied successive coats, I kept working forward, from the sky and mountains, coming down to the forefront. I changed colors as the second layers were added, providing more depth and dimension. As one area was drying, I worked on details in another, i.e. various shades of yellow were added to the flowers as well as stems. I added visible trees that are nearer to the viewer, the more distant trunks being darker, the mountains now definitely appear in the background. I also decided on a group of trees right behind the horses instead of a single tree to the right.

Note, the color of the trees in this picture are a little different from the actual painting; they are actually various shades of green in the painting, not silvery looking. That's from the camera affect.

The mural is completed

I have added trees to both sides, finished all the second layers, added details to the animals, and a fence which also gives more of a sense of distance and interest.

The white horse has blotches of gray which also adds some more visual interest, and can be seen in the actual mural.

May you have found some helpful information.

Favorite Mural Painting Books

For the artist in you: Would you like to paint a mural?

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Projection Stenciling by Linda Buckingham

Projection Stenciling by Linda Buckingham

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Wall Murals that you can order

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Mural Painting Blog Posts from Google

Jackson Pollock's 'Mural' set to be restored, possibly tour Iowa
A detail of Jackson Pollock's ?Mural,? shown at the U of I Museum of Art. / Iowa City Press-Citizen file photo Jackson Pollock's ?Mural? hangs in the corner of a University of Iowa painting studio in the 1950s. / University of Iowa photo IOWA CITY, IA.
How & Nosm, German Graffiti Wonder Twins, Paint the L.A. Weekly Building
This is their third wall for 2012 -- on their way to a self-imposed goal of painting 100 murals a year -- and they will finish another here before they leave for New York at the end of the month. They've also just come off the successful "BoneYard ...
Sachem Students Paint Mural for SCPD
By Chris R. Vaccaro Art students from Sachem High School North completed a mural painting at the Suffolk County Police Emergency Service Section Thursday afternoon. At least one dozen teens spent more than 100 hours since October sketching and painting ...
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