. . . like to know! Cousin Maggie asked me some great questions about mural painting and indicated that others probably are wondering the same things. So, here we go on a mural tutorial!
- PAINT: Acrylic paint by a company called Nova Color is the paint preferred, no, REQUIRED by the Exeter Mural Team. It is highly pigmented so that it resists fading, and I have chosen the primary colors with the highest lightfast ratings for my mural. In addition to the primaries, I chose Burnt Umber for use on the sepia toned “postcards”.
- BRUSHES: Nadi Spencer is very very good at murals and she does the entire thing with a very small cheap brush. Steven Ball is very very good at murals and he said, “Brushes don’t matter”. Say what?? So far I have used a 1-1/2″ brush from the hardware store and a smallish stiff round brush that I might have had since college for most of my murals (all three of them!) I use a few others too, and have to keep reminding myself to choose the largest ones possible in order to keep up the pace.
- PERSPECTIVE: Because the shapes are projected and traced, the sizes are correct. I paint up close for awhile, then I back up and see if it is right. It usually needs a little tweaking, but not much.
- WEATHERING: The paints are lightfast but murals do fade, depending on the exposure. Northern ones last the longest, Southern ones fade the fastest. Bummer, mine faces south. When I was on the Mural Team, our consultant advised against coating the murals for several reasons. Now I think there are new materials available, but this is the Mural Team’s part, not mine. Because the project started in 1996, they have rehired artists to refresh their faded murals.
- HELP: I can get help for the first layers that just need to be covered in paint. (Someone suggested putting numbers in the spaces like a paint-by-number!) The parts that require detail and my style can only be done by me, as per my contract.
- SCAFFOLDING: It is heavy, but once I get used to how it works, I can probably move it. And there are very nice strong men working in the building who helped me on Wednesday.
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