How to Cast Shadow for Wall Mural

Shadows and highlights can make or break a paint, whether it be a wall mural or a painting on canvas. It is especially important to wall murals because your audience can get so much closer to the painting, and the detail is more true to life in both size and appearance. Use the following steps to paint shadows on your wall murals.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Brushes of various sizes
• Paint
• Brushes
• Ruler or yard stick

1. Determine a light source. Shadows in real life can't be created without a light source, and neither can a shadow in a mural. If there isn't a real light source you wish to use, decide on an imaginary source to use, and ensure that all shadows on your mural correspond to that source.
2. Use a ruler, or yard stick to draw lines representing the angles of your shadows from your light source. These lines need to take into account the depth of the light source as well. Remember a light source will have width, depth, and height as well.
3. Mix your colors for your shadows. Since black is always too dark, you should mix purples, since they are the complementary color of yellow (the color of the sun) into the colors used to paint the surface on which the shadow is cast.
4. Use a stipling affect to match the texture of the surface the shadow is appearing on. If the shadow falls on a stone wall, you need to recreate the appearance of the stone, but in darker shades in the shape of object casting the shadow.
5. Blend the colors together as they appear in life. As you recreate the texture of your surface in the colors of the shadow paint, don't let your paint dry while you are working, this will help the blending process.

Tips & Warnings

• Never use straight black for shadows, unless you are painting a cartoon. They are invariably to dark and solid colored to appear as visually congruent shadows on your mural.
• If your shadows are appearing to both sides of an object, then the mural will look incomplete to your audience. This will diminish the sense of reality that you are trying to obtain.
• Cast shadows rarely exactly match the object which they are cast from. They may be taller, shorter, fatter or thinner depending upon the location of your light source. If you are unsure what type of shadow your object would cast, test out a similar shaped object in real life with an uncovered desk lamp.

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