How to Paint an Outdoor Mural

Step back periodically to make sure your mural looks good from afar.

An outdoor mural is an artistic expression that typically has some meaning to the location where it is painted. For example a town might paint a mural of the skyline, area attractions or even a sports team. A store might paint something in relation to what it sells, such as a mural of people eating at a soda shop. No matter what the mural is about, the way it is painted is basically the same.

Things You'll Need

• Grid paper or picture and ruler
• Paints
• Paintbrushes
• Measuring tape

Instructions

1. Measure the wall and transfer that measurement to grid paper. Let each square on the grid paper be 1 foot or 1/2 a foot. The choice is yours. Draw out the lines of the wall on the paper.

2. Draw the outdoor picture on the paper so that it fills the wall outline.

3. Measure out the wall in feet or 1/2 feet depending on what you decided for the grid paper. Use a pencil and straight edge to draw the grid lines on the wall. For a darker wall or material where pencil won't show up well, try using chalk to make the grid. It is highly visible and can easily be covered up by the paints as you do the mural.

4. Fold the paper drawing into quarters and then unfold it. The center of the fold lines indicates the center point of the picture. Measure the wall to locate the corresponding center point.

5. Start painting the wall. Follow the grid patter on your paper and transfer onto the four sections of the wall. Paint one section at a time using the center point on the wall as a way to locate the sections. Step back away from the painting from time to time to check the dimensions of the painting. Sometimes it might look OK up close, but not from a distance.

References

• Murals: Scaling