How to Paint an Illusion
The art of painting an illusion is referred to as "trompe l'oeil," which in French translates as "fool the eye." Trompe l'oeil is a painting technique that has been used since ancient times to paint a visual deception of reality on a flat surface. By employing the technique you can paint an illusion of a three-dimensional image on a flat wall. Trompe l'oeil technique is used as a decorating technique for wall murals to create a super-realistic image such as a faux window, landscape or pillars.
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Things You'll Need
- Drop cloth
- Reference photo
- Pencil
- Acrylic paint set
- Paint palette
- Paint knife
- Paintbrushes
- Paint sponge
Instructions
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Place your drop cloth on the floor where you will be working to protect the area.
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2
Locate a photo of the scene or image you want to create to use as reference.
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3
Sketch your design onto the wall using a pencil. Refer to your reference photo and create a very simple sketch to outline the features you want to add onto the wall.
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Mix your acrylic colors onto your paint palette using a paint knife. To achieve a painted illusion, the key is to layer colors and use a range of colors from very light highlights to very dark shadows. This extreme from light to dark creates the illusion of depth. Mix the colors with their complementary colors for a shadow color, and add some white to lighten them.
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Paint your base colors onto the wall with a broad paintbrush. The base color should be the medium hue in the range of colors you see. For example, if you are painting a brick on the wall, don't start with the lightest or darkest shades of the red-brown color you see, but paint a base color that falls in the middle.
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Paint your shadowed areas with a medium-sized round brush. Your shadowed areas are the darker areas, such as in cracks and crevices or shady areas. Brush the paint into smaller areas with a paintbrush, and then lightly dab larger shadowed areas with a paint sponge.
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Paint your highlighted areas with a medium-sized round brush. Your highlighted areas are the areas being hit by the most light. Lightly dab your lighter colored shades of paint onto the highlighted areas using a paint sponge.
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Step back and look at your painting. If you feel that there needs to be more depth to your painting, add another layer of a darker color to shadowed areas and a lighter color to highlights. The more layers of light to dark you have, the more you will achieve the illusion of depth for a realistic appearance.
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Tips & Warnings
Complementary colors are green and red, purple and yellow, and blue and orange. Add a small amount of the complementary color to the color you are using to create your shadow colors.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit painting on the wall pavlovsky palace image by Irina Rotmanova from Fotolia.com
