Murals for Halloween
Halloween provides wonderful inspiration for decorating projects and murals are a great way to a create spooky atmosphere on an indoor or outdoor wall. Even "washable" paints can leave a stain, however, so if you do not wish your mural to be a long-term feature, and wish to avoid having to repaint your wall afterward, consider using masking tape to attach cheap white wallpaper to your wall and painting on that instead. Your mural can then be removed after Halloween and used again next year. Acrylic craft paints should work well on most walls and paper. (see ref 1)
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Spooky Gathering
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Stencils are the perfect way to create spooky silhouettes on a mural. Draw the outlines of witches, skeletons, ghouls and ghosts on pieces of stiff card or cardboard and cut them out using a craft knife. Paint your wall a murky background color such as gray-green to create a ghostly atmosphere then dip a broad brush in watered-down white paint and lightly brush in patches to give a misty affect. Next use black paint to create a few trees (with spindly branches and no leaves) at each edge of the mural. Tape your stencils with masking tape to the wall to form a group of spooks in the middle and paint through the stencils with black paint. Ensure the paint is entirely dry before removing the stencils to avoid smudges.
Perfect Pumpkins
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Give your pumpkin mural a real glow with the help of fluorescent paint and fairy lights. To create a stencil, draw a pumpkin shape on stiff card or cardboard. Draw bands down the pumpkin shape to divide it into segments. Now cut out the sections between the bands so you are left with a pumpkin "skeleton." Paint your wall midnight-blue and allow it to dry. Fix your pumpkin stencil on the wall with masking tape and paint through the stencil with fluorescent orange paint. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly before removing the stencil. Paint the pumpkin's face with the same dark blue used for the mural. When the pumpkin is dry, place a few picture hooks around the edge of the pumpkin and attach fairy lights. This will give your fluorescent pumpkin an even brighter glow.
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Mirror Shock
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Buy a selection of flat, oval, unframed mirrors. The mirrors should be about face size. Paint a selection of life-sized ghosts, ghouls and witches on your wall, but where their faces should be, affix the mirrors to the wall instead. Paint hair and hats around the mirrors. You can also use face paints to add spooky features to the mirror glass, but leave blank spaces for the eyes. When your Halloween guests look at your mural figures, they'll see a moving face and real eyes looking back at them.
An Invisible Mural
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An invisible mural is a great way to surprise Halloween guests after dark. Luminous paints are available from craft stores and are invisible in bright light but will glow in the dark (these paints require exposure to a certain amount of light during the day to be properly bright at night). This is a particularly effective medium for painting ghosts, which usually have free-flowing outlines and are easy to paint free-hand. Skeletons, which also look great in luminous paint, are trickier. Trace around a skeleton cut-out with light chalk to transfer the outline to your wall then paint inside the outline with luminous paint. You can paint a gathering of spooks in the center of a large wall, but it is also fun to have a few spooky characters peeking out from behind furniture or beside a door frame. Turn off the lights in the middle of your party and your paintings will seem to leap out of the darkness.
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References
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