Anyone ever done murals??

Murals are what I started out doing......I did some research when I started and most murals start at $25/square foot depending on complexity of the design. Other factors such as, height of wall, prep work, etc. also factor in. I live in a small community and all of my work is local for friends, family and churches. So, I've never charged them that rate, but that is the starting rate of most muralists. Here is jungle mural I did a couple of years ago....the client liked the images of "tatouage" but wanted it hand-painted........

Nice work

Okay!!! Well - that is beautiful!!! I love the banana eating chimp and the lazy napping leopard!! great shading and expressions.....How long did it take??

Fanie wrote:Wow, Ashley, your mural is so nice! Is it airbrushed?

Here's a link to my Flickr gallery to the Jungle mural I did:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fanieart/sets/72157611870266591/

I was wondering the same thing as I may do another mural during January. :-/ Last time, I did an exchange of service. But I need to charge for the next one.

Yours is really cute!

Some of the shading on the elephant is airbrush and some of the white in the water, but every thing else I did with a roller or a paint brush.

WyndyO wrote:Okay!!! Well - that is beautiful!!! I love the banana eating chimp and the lazy napping leopard!! great shading and expressions.....How long did it take??

Thank you. The vine goes all the way around the top perimeter of the room with a few spider monkeys, a tree with a snake and tree stump with 4 parrots. It took me a week working about 6-7 hours a day. I worked on it during Christmas vacation from my job. The chimp was my favorite to paint! I like the way the banana tree turned out too. I've been wanting to paint one like that at my house, but you know how that goes! I have so many unfinished projects at my house....too many ideas, never enough time!

Freckles wrote:I've been thinking about doing a mural in my room as well. Can you guys tell me how to prep the wall? It's of course sheetrock and my room is painted with water based paint and bathroom with oil base paint. Is there different prep work that needs to be done? I'm not sure if I'm going to airbrush or use brushes does it make a difference on the prepping?

I use acrylics and flat wall paint, they are both very forgiving and hide any problem areas in the drywall. As long as the wall is in good repair, I've never had to do any prepping. It takes more coats to cover higher gloss paints, so if you use a brush, you might want to use white acrylic or flat white wall paint to "block in" your design.I do mostly children's rooms, daycares and children's areas in churches. So, after I'm done, if it is in a high traffic area, low enough for little ones to touch, I put a clear coat on with water-based polycrylic. It not only makes it washable (with a damp cloth) it also makes the colors seem more vibrant. I also did a faux finish on the laminate countertops in my kitchen. I used water-based paints and oil-based polyurethane for durability without any adverse affects to the paint. So, water-based acrylics on your oil-based walls should be fine. The idea someone wrote about sanding it a little first is a good idea. I use brushes and sometimes it takes several coats of paint. I do not have any experience with air brushing, but it seems like you might get a smoother finish that way. I would think prepping would be the same. Hope this helps a little.....please post pics of the finished work!! Happy painting!

I did murals as one of the ways to help pay me through University - mainly in clubs & pubs, or cafe menu board edges etc.

I sort of charged time (once a design was agreed and they knew more detail meant more time), plus cost of equipment/ products. Mainly as several of the clubs wanted special glitter or UV paints that weren't in my normal kit.

One of my requests was that the are be newly (ish) painted in water-based wall paint, usually pale. Meant I had a nice clean hopefully flat surface to start on and didn't have to waste time sugar soaping/ scrybbing off oils and dirt etc.

I used home-made custom stencils a LOT for bigger areas, speeded things up.

And yes I varnished the finished ones in areas people could touch/ reach, though if I had used glue then glotter (far sparklier than glitter-glue or glitter paints) that did take the sparkle off.

Cat x

Those are great murals! I did one years ago for a friend and it was just simple stars and their dog in the baby's room. I never took pics but heres a baseball dugout where I painted the team logo on it.


Theres tons of lettering and years that they won this & that on there too but haven't taken a pic of that yet...and boy was that alot of work! I said never again after that lol.

This is not on a wall but a daycare sign I did a few months back...now this one was fun and more of what I like to paint-

Nice, how long did it take to paint?

The daycare one? I really didn't keep track of my time spent but it was like a few hours or so a day, can't remember if I worked everyday on it but I had it done in about one week.

wow. You guys are amazing. I've been asked to do murals, but never had the courage.