Muraling.....Part Six......by Joyce Oroz

Muraling…..Part Six
The windows in the photo are an illusion, painted on flat dining room walls.

With a screwdriver, take off all outlet and switch plates. These are usually made of plastic, but some are wood or metal. All types can be handled the same way. The switch plates should be sanded with medium weight sandpaper until the shine is removed. A minute or two of sanding is usually enough. When all plates are sanded, wipe the dust off with a damp cloth, dry the plates and paint them with white primer, brushed on or sprayed. An hour or so later, go back and paint each plate with the wall color. When that coat of paint is dry, screw the plates back in place on the wall. When you paint your mural, you will treat the plates as if they are part of the wall, and they will disappear into the picture......................


Your tarps are down, the walls are taped, the plates are prepared. Now you can recreate your sketch, only bigger, on the wall. The first mark is the hardest. Remember, it’s only a mark and you can always erase it or fix it. With chauk or pencil and a numbered level, draw the largest features. A chauk snap-line works well for a horizon line. Use as little drawing as you can get away with, and use very little pressure on the pencil. Sometimes lead is hard to cover with paint. Some pencil lines can be erased when the painting is finished and dry. Never use felt pens or magic markers, as they are almost impossible to cover with paint.


When designing your mural, try to keep the top and bottom portions of the picture relatively simple because near the ceiling and close to the floor are the most difficult parts of the wall to reach, unless you are a pretzel.


When you are finally ready to paint, make sure you have mixed large enough quantities of each color. If you run short of a color, it might be difficult to mix your paint into that exact shade or tone. The shade is the degree of color, how dark or light, and the tone is the quality or intensity of color. Jade green is intense, teal is not. Fire engine red is intense, burgundy is not. Orange is intense, peach is not.