How to paint a tatty teddy mural

This adorable tatty teddy mural adorns the wall of a special little girl's bedroom. Painting a mural itself is not difficult - it all depends on the design you choose. Tatty teddy took 4 days to complete, but the result what oh so worth it.

 

 

Painting a wall mural adds an adorable touch to this new nursery. Rather than apply wallpaper, which can be extremely difficult to remove later on, a large teddy mural was painted onto the wall using acrylic craft paints. What's nice about painting a wall mural is, like using vinyl wall decals, it can be easily painted over if you want to update the room at a later stage.

YOU WILL NEED:

Design printed in transparency
Overhead projector
Soft pencils and eraser
Acrylic craft paints
Scumble glaze
Assorted paintbrushes
Rags
Stepladder - for larger designs

HERE'S HOW:

The easiest and simplest way to add a wall mural is to use an overhead projector. Once you find a suitable design, print this out on a transparency that can be placed on an overhead projector and reflected onto the wall being painted.

Using an overhead projector means that you don't have to worry about your lack of artistic skills, simply follow the outline of the projected image to transfer the design onto the wall with a soft pencil. A soft pencil is preferred, as this is easier to rub off if you need to make any changes.

To start painting any wall mural think back-to-front. Flat and background areas are obviously the first areas that will be applied. In this case the nose, inner ears and pads are a single grey colour.

 

The next obvious area to paint is the background body of the teddy. This is a darker grey colour and as you apply paint, make sure that the brush strokes follow the direction of the shape. The reason for doing this is so that any visible brush strokes in the finished mural appear as part of the actual design and add texture. If you were painting a balloon, for example, the brush strokes would go in a circular pattern.

You can use the original image to start applying layers of paint for shading. If you add scumble glaze to the paint, this extends the drying time and allows you to blend shaded layers together. Add 50/50 scumble glaze and paint.

After you have completed the shading, let the fun begin! This is where you start adding detailing to the design. This adorable tatty teddy mural took 4 days to complete and the most difficult part was the minute detailing for tatty teddy's coat. Each hair was painstakingly painted to give teddy his complete look.

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