How to Paint a Forest Wall Mural

A wall mural is a great way to stir excitement in a classroom, library or even a child's bedroom. A forest wall mural can provide a mysterious backdrop for story hour or provide an exciting place for your child's imagination to run wild with visions of forest creatures darting about the woods. Painting a forest wall mural can be done relatively easily provided you take the right steps in preparation and break the forest down into easy-to-paint sections.

Things You'll Need

• Dark brown interior paint (1 gallon) Forest green Interior paint (1 gallon) Yellow interior paint (1 gallon) Light green interior paint (1 gallon) Pencil 4-inch-wide flat brush 2-inch-wide trim brush Newspaper

Instructions

1. 

   Draw trunks of the trees with 8 thin cylinders that start at the ceiling and end at the bottom third of the wall. Add the grass with a line running diagonally up the right-hand side. Create the blades of grass by adding small, thin cone shapes on the top line. Draw the bush with a wavy line that starts in the middle of the wall goes up 1 foot and then diagonally across to the left side of the wall.

2. 

   Paint the wall with a thin coat of dark brown interior paint. Test this to make sure that the pencil lines show through the paint.

3. 

   Paint the light green paint on the wall with a flat brush for the grass. Go back in and use the trim brush to add grass blades. Use the flat brush loaded with forest green paint and apply the paint with a loose hand for a natural look.

4. 

   Mix 3 cups of dark brown paint with 3 cups of yellow to make a light brown. Use the flat brush and paint the trunks of the tree.

5. 

   Mix 1 cup yellow with the light brown paint. Dip the dip of the flat brush in the paint and dab it off slightly onto some newspaper. Turn the brush sideways and push the brush against the tree trunks to create bark on the trees. Mix 1 cup yellow with 1 cup light green. Dip the tip of your trim brush in the paint and wipe some of it off on the newspaper. Lightly draw highlights with quick diagonal lines across the grass.

6. Dip the flat brush into the light green paint and wipe it off slightly on the newspaper. Push this onto the bush section to give the impression of bush leaves.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep a loose grip on your brush when you are painting. Don't worry about keeping everything neat. This is a landscape, and some uneven brushstrokes can add to the texture.

• Always make sure the area you are painting in is ventilated.