How to Paint a Nature Mural
A nature mural is a painting that depicts nature's scenic beauty. Natural murals are sometimes referred to as "landscape art." The paintings have scenes of natural grass, trees, rivers, or oceans in the background. The foreground of nature murals tend to have more detail, with the back sections of the paintings blended or depicting larger aspects of nature, such as mountains. Sometimes mountains within a nature mural can be the focal point when detailed.
Instructions
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Decide what kind of nature mural you want to paint. Think about seasonal paintings, and what type of scene you are interested in, such as a winter scene or summer scene. Choose paints that will help you accomplish the task, including titanium white paint for winter scenes depicting snow.
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Pick the size of your canvas. Canvas boards come in small, medium and large sizes. Nature scenes can be painted on canvas board which comes in flat sheets, or on stretched canvas, which has a more flexible cloth surface than canvas board.
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Pick the types of paints you wish to work with. Oil paint is good for canvas--the oily texture dries quicker on cloth canvas fibers. Acrylic paint is an easy paint to work with, for unlike oil, it does not require thinning and the paint dries within hours. Some oil paintings may take a few days to fully dry depending on the thickness of the paint. Use acrylic paint on both canvas board and regular canvas.
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Choose acrylic for less messy painting. Oil paint is hard to clean from paint brushes, and acrylic paint easily cleans up with water. Oil paint requires special paint chemicals to properly clean the brushes after each use.
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Divide the painting into three horizontal sections. Take a No. 2 pencil if working on canvas board, and measure a few inches down the painting. Make a mark. Draw a straight line across from the pencil mark using a straight edge ruler if needed.
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Draw a second line across in the middle section, a few inches lower. This will give you a top sky section, a middle ocean or river section, and a lower sand or grassy section. Practice drawing and painting flowers and trees.
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Use art technique magazines that show diagrams on how to draw flowers and trees, if not artistically capable to draw these objects at first. Once you have the hang of it, you can confidently begin painting.
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Paint the foreground colors first. Use bigger paint brushes to blend colors in sections. Use various shades of blue for sky. Don't put too much paint on the canvas. Use just enough for your brush to easily spread the paint as needed.
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Blend colors at the lines so that the lines aren't visible, and they look natural. Paint the middle section next. Paint mountains, trees or a combination. Paint the bottom of the canvas with flowers and grass. Sign your painting in the lower right or left corner when finished.
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References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
