The Business of Murals: How to Paint a Quick and Easy Mural

When painting a mural for your client, it helps to have a few designs you can do quickly that will impress your client. I painted the mural in this photo in about 6 hours (with help). The ribbon took longer than the globe part. Doing it alone, you could finish it in about 8 hours. Because of the simplicity of this mural, I would save it for a client with a tight budget.

Painting a quick and easy mural step 1: Start with a clean pre-painted wall. When I have clients of a tight budget, I always suggest they save money by making sure the wall is freshly repaired and painted. That way, they do not have to pay me for prep work.

Painting a quick and easy mural step 2: Find a globe photo that both you and the client like. In this case, the image was part of the businesses logo, so they had rights to the image. In addition, I did not use the exact image, I altered it a bit. After all, it is basically the globe, which cannot be copy written. (Whatever image you choose, be sure either that it is in public domain, or that they have permission to use the image. )

Painting a quick and easy mural step 3: Using an overhead or presentation projector, project the image onto the wall, and trace the outline with a pencil. This is a detailed image, and I chose not to transfer every microscopic bump. It is a representation of the globe, and not necessarily geographically correct.

Painting a quick and easy mural step 4: Choose coordinating color to paint your mural impression. Because I chose a color only two shades darker, it looks embossed onto the wall. Your color choice will dictate your overall look. Had a chosen a dark color, it would have “popped” out from the wall.

Painting a quick and easy mural step 5: Add a little something. In this instance, the business logo included lines similar to the ones in the mural, so we added loose translation of those lines. You can add letter stencils, or any other simple feature to the mural.

Notes:

~This technique will work with many images like people, houses, horses, or anything else with a very recognizable shape.

~See www.ahermitt.com for this and other images you can use for your murals.