Making Murals

As professional mural artists, we want to share with you some of the techniques and styles we have learned over the years designing and painting projects for Living Wall Murals. This book is designed to be a source book of inspiration and a technical step-by-step guide for anyone wanting to design and paint a mural in their own home.The word mural comes from the Latin muras, which means wall. Mural painting is unique because it is, of course, a_ected by architecture, scale and is a permanent piece of artwork. From the early Renaissance, masters like LeonardoDa Vinci were painting murals, which were often a re_ection of day-to-day life. Throughout the 20th century, artists such as Diego Rivera in Mexico became celebrated for their elaborate scenes of life in South America. Street murals became a widespread means of spreading social or political messages, from the post-war Berlin wall, to Northern Ireland during the Troubles, to the images on the Palestinian/Israeli separation wall, to today's street art and gra_ti culture epitomized by artists such as Banksy. Domestic murals follow trends in interior design - for example, the recent popularity of hand-painted Chinese wallpapers has filtered down to more accessible wallpaper styles. Making murals is not just about beauty - it is about expression, spreading a message and wanting to be seen! This is why we love what we do. The freedom and the scale is exciting and daring. For this book, we have chosen some mural styles we think would work well for everyone.There are plenty more to explore, of course, once you have mastered the techniques in this book.The book is divided into clear sections. First are the materials you will need to get you started, which includes practical items such as ladders, brushes and rollers. We then move on to technical considerations, such as choosing which paints will work on particular surfaces or various finishes. The next section of the book discusses how colours a_ect light and mood,

Clara Wilkinson and Mary West make up the design team, Living Wall Murals. They both studied fine art and share a similar aesthetic for art and design. Their collaboration began back in 2017 when Living Wall Murals was born and they started to combine their love of colour and scale to create mural art.