How to paint simple forms in a kid’s mural?
If you want to paint a mural for your child and don’t feel very confident about your artistic talents, you might want to choose a very simple design.
Despite of the drawing, you could even transfer it using a projector, the process of painting has two major challenges: being able to outline the figures and creating a rich tonal range.
To outline simple figures you might try to use masking tape. This might work really well if your wall is not textured. If your wall is slightly textured you should sand it first. Don’t forget to use a mask and goggles to protect you from the dust. Then you prime the wall using at least 2 coats of primer.
Let the primer dry several hours between coats and then you can trace your design. You can use masking tape if your have straight or almost straight lines, it doesn’t work very well for curves since the paint can bleed through the tiny wrinkles formed by the tape when you twist it.
After you finish securing the tape, you must go back to flatten it very well. The paint can pass trough very small spaces that you can’t even see and the result will be a line with a very rough border.
The only way you have to ensure a perfect line is to press the tape border against the wall, making sure that not even a tiny drop can bleed trough it.
If your wall is textured you can not use masking tape.
If your lines are not perfect or if you want to achieve a cartoon look, you can outline the figures with a black or dark permanent marker.
The second problem you can have is to be able to give the figures a good tonal range. To avoid this, you can paint flat surfaces. If you look at the first Disney’s cartoons you can see that they didn’t paint any shadows. The figures were flat and if they had to create shadows, they used a darker color but outlined and separated from the first one.
This is a much better form to create depth than trying to recreate light and shadow. Latex and acrylic paints are not easy to mix together if you don’t have the practice.
For any question or information please contact me: Victoria@FunMurals.com
Tags: children, kids, painting, Painting, techniques