SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND

DESIGN
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIROMENT
ENGLISH 1 [ENGL 0105/ENGL 30505]

NAME: WEE SUE WEN

STUDENT ID: 0322633

LECTURE: Thivilojana S.Perinpasingam

TITLE : PROCESS OF PAINTING A MURAL

WORD COUNT :802

SUBMISSION DATE: 29TH APRIL 2015

3. Identify the steps involved in producing an attractive wall painting or mural art.
then, write a process essay to describe this process.

Prewriting

-plan the details of the project

-produce a scaled down version of the plan draft
-prepare the wall and materials
-measure the location of specific features for thr mural
-paint the base coat of the background
-more layers of coating and details toning
-touch up and do line works
-clean up the place

Process of Painting A Mural

With few hours in the toilet cleaning up myself, i finally get to relax and lay down
on my floor and admire my first masterpiece of mural in my room's wall. What is a
mural? Chang (2003) stated that a mural is a painting completed on a wall. This
term comes from the Latin word murus , which means wall. The creation of a
mural is created in public, by the public and for the public. Mural arts are usually
time-consuming, challenging and stressful, but the feeling of succession of
completing a mural is priceless. By following the few steps such as create a plan,
start painting the wall, touch up and clean up.

Firstly, create a plan. Create a design as the plan is what you want it
exactly on the wall. Print the plan out with grid so that the measurement can be
done easily. Materials require for the next step is measuring tape, one meter
ruler, 2B pencil and a kneadable eraser. Clean the wall by wiping it with a semiwet cloth and then start measuring the wall. Divide the wall in to 10 times 10
centimeter squares. Then, replicate the plan onto the wall by following the printed
plan. Although this method uses up a lot of time but it is very effective. During the
replication, focus on the only square you are drawing and replicate every single
line exactly to scale according to the plan. Take a step back and have a look with
your drawing make sure everything drew in whole after every details are done
perfectly. Prepare varies type of containers to mix different colour of acrylic
paints, a drop sheet and different sizes of brushes. Use the roll of painting tape

and tape it around the edges of the plan as an end point of the paint. Then, place
a drop sheet on the floor to avoid paint dropping on the floor. Choose at least
three different sizes of brushes for you to paint a large area, touch up the colour
tones and do lining on the edges. After that, get ready to paint!

Now, start painting the wall. This is where mural painting get interesting.
Begin your painting from the back which is the background, then to the front
accordingly. Each of the painting have to do two to three coating. There are few
important things you have to learn before painting your wall. Firstly, you cannot
remix a exactly same paint as the last one you have. Make sure you prepare
more than enough paint for the area where you are going to cover because there
might be some mistakes occurs and you need to cover it up using the extra paint
left. Next, always allow each colour to dry before proceeding to the next adjacent
colour, because the paint looks darker when it dries up. Therefore, make sure not
to overdo when mixing the darker color for shading or toning, because when it
dries up, it will become even darker. If you paint a wet darker tone to a dry lighter
tone, they will look almost identical but give it five minutes time and it will drop
into tone and be a lot darker. Last but not least, don't rush. Be concerned that if
you are trying to finish work quicker will lead to ruining up the work. "Patience
and time do more than strength or passion" quoted by Jean de La Fontaine.

Lastly, touch up and clean up. After doing all the basic colour tone, you
need to do line works. Tutorials usually recommend permanent marker for

linings, Brooks (2014) encourages one to use the same type of black paint which
is used to paint the wall to do the line works. This is because permanent marker
has different kind of glossy texture compare to acrylic paint. Nonetheless,
prepare a small cup of water and a cloth, dip it into the water and wipe away the
mistakes. Use the cloth and push upwards to avoid smudge of the colour, and
dripping of the black paint. After this, you will have to let the paint dries up and
then remove the painting tape with a blade between the paint and the tape. By
doing this to prevent the paint to tear of with the tape and as colour cannot be
remixed is mentioned before. Work is done just like that.

In the long run, a simple tips for creating a mural is the more accurately
detailed the replication of the plans to the walls are, the easier it will be to
successfully finish your work. Because painting in large proportion may skew
your sense of proportion, scaling individual identifiable points is helpful in
maintaining these proportions. Again, artwork always requires patience, passion,
creativity and confidence. Enjoy the process and have fun!

References

Caruso, H.Y. & Caruso, J. (2003). Mural painting as public art. Electronic
Magazine of Multicultural Education. Retrieved April 25, 2015 from
http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme/2003spring/art_reviews.html
Josiah B. (June 9, 2014), How To Paint A Mural. Retrieved April 25, 2015 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMB1nAmgn1A