By Robert Bucknell
Throughout history, artists have supplemented their incomes with mural commissions. And yet I’ve known skilled artists who were too timid to try such large paintings. So today I’d like to share some tips for painting realistic murals in a timely manner. For example, this 23” x 29” still life below took 4 weeks (160 hours) to paint:
Whereas this 15’ x 20’ mural painted on location for Cabela’s Sporting Goods took a week:
My Background in Painting Murals
I began painting signs while taking art classes in college in the 70’s, which led to a career as a freelance commercial artist. Here’s the first mural I painted 50 years ago in Sacramento:
After moving my family to Nevada in the late 80’s I began painting murals for casinos, museums, schools, and restaurants. When opportunities arose to paint landscape and wildlife mural backdrops for natural history museums and Cabela’s Sporting Goods stores, I was able to earn a living from mural painting for the next 20 years.
Many of the murals were done on very large canvases in the shop and shipped out for installation. The canvas murals ranged in size upwards of 12 feet high to 250 feet in length. But many murals were painted directly on the walls and ceilings. Over the next two decades my wife and I traveled to work on location in 18 different states plus South Africa. Over the course of my career I’ve painted hundreds of murals, one project alone consisting of 1500 linear feet, the equivalent in length of 5 football fields.
I have since retired from mural painting and now work full time in my studio doing fine art, which was always my goal. But mural painting can provide an excellent added source of income for the studio artist.
The following information may be helpful if you’re contemplating doing mural work.
Painting Murals: The Work-Up
Prepping the Mural
For interior and exterior murals painted on site, check with your local paint store for the appropriate primer for that particular surface. I use water based house paint to primer most interior murals.
If your murals are on canvas, consider buying raw canvas rather than primed because it’s much cheaper. Professional wallpaper hangers can install these. The largest canvas available is 12 ft high by 150 ft long. Start by constructing a 2”x 4” frame for your canvas in your studio or workshop. The 2 x 4’s should be attached edgewise in order to create a 3 ½“ space between the canvas and wall. Staple your canvas about every 6” and do not pull and stretch as you go, as you would on a small painting. Simply pull gently to take up the slack.
Next, prime your canvas with ordinary house paint. I buy mis-tints to save money. Apply the paint with an airless paint sprayer and then back-roll. If you don’t have a sprayer you can roll it, though it takes longer. When spraying it’s essential that you always finish with the roller. From there the process is the same as painting on a hard surface.
Painting the Mural
Most artists are aware of the grid method for producing your basic drawing. When painting murals outdoors the grid method works best. For indoors a projector is more convenient. If you’re doing a large landscape, snap a horizon line at 5’ 3”. Below the line paint dark brown and above the line paint sky blue. I use flat house paint for this step.
For the rest of the mural I use Nova Color mural paint, which is good for both indoor and outdoor murals. For clouds I use various sized spray guns. Everything else is done by brush. Muralists sometimes make the mistake of departing from their photo references. It’s okay to do that but only if you’re confident in what you’re doing.
I’ve developed some techniques to speed up the painting process. For example, if you’re painting a forest in the distance, you can tape several brushes together and produce multiple trees with one stroke. Another technique is to use a 4” bristle brush for painting long grass in the foreground. I quickly brush upward producing many grass blades per stroke. Afterward I come back and paint in individual blades to create a realistic effect.
For texture on rocks or tree bark I use a smaller bristle brush to employ a scumbling technique. Occasionally I’ll use a rag roll but I never use sponges because they leave an obvious sponge look.
Painting techniques like these are examples of how an artist needs to be an engineer in developing whatever method is needed to do the job.
Just a note regarding the comparison of the still life painting to the elephant mural. It may appear there’s more detail on the elephant than there really is, but up close it’s actually very impressionistic. Keep in mind that most murals are viewed from a distance so you don’t need to paint every little detail. You can be fairly loose and it will still look fine. You’re probably going to have a deadline and if you tried to paint a mural the way you would paint a small painting you’d be working on it forever.
Here are a couple of murals from my last commission for a natural history museum in Idaho. The project consisted of 16,000 square feet of murals with 30 feet ceilings and was completed over the course of 5 years:
I hope these ideas have been helpful. If you’d like to see more of my mural work or have any questions, please visit my website at www.robertbucknell.com.
