Painting a mural is not like creating your average art project.
These large indoor or outdoor paintings require unique materials and painting techniques to truly make them pop and stand the test of time.
Read on to learn about some of the most popular mural painting techniques along with some other tips for creating these massive works of art.
5 Mural Painting Techniques to Try
While there is no one right way to paint a mural, there are a few popular mural painting techniques used among artists. These are just five of them, in no particular order:
1. Sponging
Sponging is perhaps the most well-known and easy mural painting technique. All you need is a sponge, excess water, and acrylic paint (which is the best for creating wall art). After wetting your sponge and wringing out excess water, simply dip it in your paint, blot it on a paper towel, and get to painting your mural.
This technique isn’t the best for fine details but is good for creating a sense of texture and depth in a mural and filling in large areas with color. Because it can easily cover porous surfaces like brick and concrete, this is one of the best outdoor mural painting techniques.
2. Stenciling
Stenciling is another popular mural painting technique because it’s easy to complete with minimal materials needed. All you need to do is purchase a stencil of what you want (or easily create your own with cardboard or plastic - it’s pretty straightforward) and use painter’s tape to adhere it to the wall you are working on. From there, you can paint in the color with your acrylic paint while being careful to avoid any build-up or bleeding.
With a stencil, you can choose to utilize it as an outline to add details to later or for more fine-line work. Because it’s a more accurate method, it’s a great indoor mural painting technique. From faces and animals to letters and logos, stencils can do it all.
3. Stippling
Adding detail to a mural can often feel time consuming. A stippling technique, however, can make it much easier. With this method, dots of different colors come together to create more depth and character without the need for meticulous blending of hues.
Though this method is often used for pen and ink art, applying it to a mural is surprisingly easy. While the paint is still wet, dab it with a dry stippling brush and dab a new color around the layer until it is stippled (like a lot of little dots). This mural painting technique is ideal for creating illusions like fields and woods without much work.
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4. Glazing
If you want your acrylic paint to “stretch” more over the wall, try this mural painting technique. Mix your acrylic paint with an acrylic medium glazing liquid. It will make the mixture more translucent and allow the color underneath to show through.
This is ideal if you want to add more dimension or shading to your mural.
5. Painting
Of course, we can’t overlook the benefit of painting your mural with a classic paint brush and acrylic paint. While this may not be sustainable for filling in large areas with color, this classic method is great for adding details, fine lines, and personal touches. Perhaps the best part of this mural painting technique is that you can have many hands helping.
If you’re working on a mural with other artists (or students, or the community for that matter), you can easily equip them with a paintbrush and paint so they can help to personalize this large work of art.
Acrylic Mural Paint From Nova Color
Want to learn more about artistic wall painting techniques? Need some inspiration for mural painting designs? Nova Color Paint has been offering artists with the best materials and advice for murals and more since 1965.
No matter if you’re an experienced muralist or are putting together a team to create a community mural for the first time, you can count on Nova Color to deliver the acrylic mural painting materials you need to make it pop. With over 80 colors to choose from, you’re sure to find some that will help bring your vision to life.
Use these popular mural painting techniques as a starting point and then try different methods to see which works best for you!
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