Disney mural tips

I'm an artist so I have a large selection of brushes and paints to work from. If you start with a simple mural and limit your colors you will only need a few materials.

Brushes can be -- anything really. You probably have lots of great things laying around the house you can use to apply paint. Here are some things you can use for brushes:

• Old toothbrushes


• Old washcloths and socks


• saran wrap


• cotton balls & q-tips


• sponges - new, clean sponges of all types


• good quality paper towels


• sponge brush kits


• rollers or big paint brushes for large areas

You will want painter's tape to mark out the borders of your mural and any sections of the mural with big straight lines. The biggest cost will be paint. Check the type of paint you have on the wall. If it is a latex or acrylic you have many choices on the type of paint you use. If it is an oil based paint, you will need to either use oil based paints or treat the surface by removing the existing paint where you will be working then adding a base coat of acrylic wall paint. You will need a clear varnish to protect the mural. The varnish can be added to the paint as you work or applied to the surface after the mural is dry.

Other useful items:

• Paint trays


• clean, empty egg cartons or styrofoam trays


• clean cups

I looked at several different pictures of tinkerbell before I began painting. I then grabbed a couple of watercolor pencils (regular pencils are fine - they will wash off with water) to roughly mark out the size and general shape of the whole painting area. I decided it would be about four feet tall by 3 feet wide. When I drew a quick grid using inches on a drawing the daughter gave me, it worked out fine.

OK - I have been drawing since I was 6 so I went ahead and sketched out where the arch, wings, face, and body would go without any big guide lines. If you are nervous, use a big straight edge/ruler/piece of cardboard to make quick lines across the area you will be painting.

Draw rough shapes on the surface with a pencil or even a light shade of paint. You can easily make corrections, so don't worry if it isn't exact at first. Step back and take a look. Does everything look to be about right? If you're not sure, find digital camera and take a quick picture of the sketch then look at it. Anything you want to change?

Go back to the sketch on the wall and make any corrections. Choose your biggest area of color and start blocking that in. Then move to the next, etc. Work from the background to the front of the painting.

For example, in the painting I am working on now the sky would be the furthest back, so it should be done first. Then any plants. The character should be last. After everything is roughly painted in with larger blocks of color, its time to check the painting again for any issues.

Go back in to add any background image details. Plant leaves, tree bark, etc. are all examples of this. Get ready to take a break and mark your progress. Things are about to get exciting.

Now it's time to add whites to eyes and teeth. You will need to allow time for the paint to dry, which gives you a good excuse to step back and take a look at your progress.
I'll post my progress tomorrow here so you can see how the painting is coming.

It's time to add shadows and highlights to the skin, and other more precise details to the central character such as the eyes.

When you are done with the shadows and highlights, draw surrounding outlines for cartoon figures, add eyelashes and wing glitter, place all the small details on the painting to finish it. If you are worn out and need to take a few hours or a day away from the painting, do it. The detail picture in the Polaroid module above shows a close-up of the left hand of the fairy. You can see I will need to go back in and tighten that area up to match the other hand in shadow and highlight. I will also need to add eyebrows and additional highlights to the face, including the eyes.

Add decorative borders or frames to the mural. Allow the paint to dry for the time recommended on the varnish container. I would wait at least 12 hours.

This mural should finally be finished on Day Three. I spent about 1 1/2 hours on it today.

Take a picture of your mural and share it with all of us. I would love to see what you've done.