Mural Painting Information

[OldGreyEagle]

Whether its the practicality of wool pants or whats going on in Scouting, I know I can always depend on the regulars in here. The Venturing Crew I am in just did a service project, we built some playground equipment at a shelter for abused children/wives. The area has a large distinctly dirty cement wall, and we are throwing around idea's on how best to paint it. A suggestion was made for a mural. But is there any place that has plans for a large outdoor mural? A kit to buy with the plans, etc? ALl I can find are places that will paint murals but not any exterior do it yourself kits. Can anybody help?

[Mike Long]

Mural painting kits aye?

 

The best thing I found to help you out was this.

http://www.muralsplus.com/

They have a message board with lots of people asking the same questions that you have. I didn't look too deep but it looks like a pretty knowledgable community so you will have to wade through some pretty heavy conceptual stuff to get what you need.

 

Here's the best I can personally give you.

I hold a Bachelors of Fine Art degree in Painting and Drawing. My wife and I have painted murals and I know people who do it professionally.

 

First off I can't find anyone who makes mural kits. I'm a little doubtful that they even exist but hey, this is America, someone out there will eventually.

 

Design- Seeing that this is a shelter for abused women and kids (BTW- Hats off to your crew for a great project) why not let the kids design the mural? Lots of schools hold contests to let students design murals at their school. Just set a deadline for submissions, copy entry forms with a box that has the same dimensions as the area to be painted (that saves you from having to streach or distort a design to fit the space) and let the Board of Directors (or whatever governing body runs the place) pick a winner. The selectors just need to keep your painting abilities in mind.

 

Prep- You need to pressure wash the wall twice and prime it with a compatible primer to the final paint you are using. It is best to stay within a paint system. You never really know how paints from different manufactureres will react in the long run so be safe and stick to one system. After all, Leonardo DaVinci had several murals literally melt off the wall and he was a master painter.

 

Paint- It's been a while since I've done a mural and technology constantly improves. Talk to the paint guy and tell him what you are doing and the conditions involved (concrete wall, sun exposure ect.) They are the pros and will set you up with what you need. Heck, ask nice and they might even donate it!

 

Transferring the design- Make a copy of the design and draw a grid over the design. This is much like how topographic maps are gridded into quads--Same thing here. One the wall draw out your grid TO SCALE. You can use the grid to draw the design on the wall and be reasonably accurate. You might want to practice this with a photo you have to get a feel for what I'm talking about. Just be sure that you are making you copy bigger than the original. IMPORTANT- Paint the grid and rough outline of the design on the wall don't draw it with a marker or contractors pencil. If you do you have just put dirt on the wall and the first place the mural might fail is where your grid and rough outline was. Also don't grid and outline in black or a dark color its hard to cover up you lines. Instead use a light tan color just dark enough to see what you are doing its easier to hide.

 

Actually painting it- Work from big areas of color to small detail elements. The work will go faster that way. For example if the background is mostly one color just paint it all at once, don't get caught up in painting hair on a dog. Also paint from light to dark. Once again if you go dark and mess up it's harder to fix.

 

Just talk your time and enjoy being creative.

A mural can be as involved as you make it. It might even be considered as a separate project.

Hope this helps.

 

Oh yeah, wool pants are acceptable paintng attire.(This message has been edited by Mike Long)

[OldGreyEagle]

Thank you Mr Long,

 

The intent was always to have the crew conceive and develop the design, its getting it on the wall I wanted information on and I am not sure I will need more info than I just have recieved form you. I will however check out the web pages you referenced. Yeah, it was a great project and the kids had a lot of fun and were proud of the results. Sometimes being a scouter is the best feeling in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD...

[OldGreyEagle]

Oh, and I hope it was implied, but after I read my results I am not sure, so THANK YOU Mr Long for the time and energy you put in your response. Its Scouters sharing knowledge that makes it BSA the premier youth program going

[Mike Long]

Any time, glad to be of help.

 

[eisely]

Here's another angle. Don't let your scouts incorporate any copyrighted characters (e.g. Mickey Mouse) into the design without consent of the owner of the copyright. There was a pre school in Florida a few years ago that had to wipe out an unauthorized mural of Disney characters in particular. Hannah Barbera came to the rescue in that case and even provided the paint for the new mural.

[OldGreyEagle]

Well, actually the early plans call for a waterfall and a pond with hot air balloons containing the BSA, GSA, and Venturing Logo's and clouds forming the scout law and girl scout promise in an ethereal fashion. Do you think BSA and GSA would get upset? I sure hope not but you just never know. Thank you Eisley, the use of copyrighted charactors is a good point and we will be sure to steer clear of them. I can challenge our artistic team to be original and not "copy" anybody or anything already out there

[Mike Long]

Very important point Mr. Eisely! I'm glad you posted it. Copyrights are something most people don't consider and can get in worlds of trouble over.

 

BTW-My lovely wife suggested that if your budget allows it you might want to consider renting an opaque projector to project your design onto the wall and tracing it that way. It is a very fast method of transferring graphics.

[eisely]

I would expect both the BSA and the GSA would be more than happy to have their symbols and words used in the manner described. Copyrights held by non profit organizations are viewed differently by those owners than copy righted information and characters created to earn a profit. I would still make appropriate inquiries.

 

Several years ago we participated in camporees in Southern California where the youth members submitted ideas for camporee patches. One year the winning design came out with three well known cartoon characters in it. I doubt that the owners of those copyrights were ever aware of the infringement, but I cringed when I saw it.