Nursery Tree Mural - How to

Creating a Simple Nursery Mural
I just wanted to share a few steps on how I created the above simple-nursery-mural trees.

My client and I sat down with a color chart and chose 3 different greens and 3 different browns that went with her daughter's bedding, area rug, and accessories. The greens were for the leaves and the browns for the tree trunk and branches. It is so much easier when you paint a mural with just a few colors. It is much less intimidating. My local paint store mixed the paints in small 2oz. samples (many paint stores are now offering this, so be sure to ask about it).

I started by doing a simple outline, with white chalk, of the tree trunk and branches. I then started painting and filling in my outline. I used the medium toned brown for the majority of the tree trunk color, the darker brown for the shading, and the lighter tone for the highlights. This did not take long at all.

I had previously, sat down with my client to discuss what shape she wanted the leaves to be. I did a few drawings and she decided on an almond shaped leaf. So, I used the 2 lighter greens to paint the leaves, randomly doing one lighter and one darker. I used the darkest green to add a faint outline on each leaf. I also added a vein through the middle on a few. This gave the tree some depth, bringing the lighter leaves to the front and pushing the darker leaves to the back.

The mural was completed in only 4 short hours. The majority of my time was spent on painting the leaves. I would suggest using a 3/4" artist's angled brush for the leaves, that way you can paint each leaf in only 2 strokes. The tedious part is adding the outlines, shading, and highlights, which you can probably get away with not doing at all.

I hope this has helped you realize that you CAN paint a mural with only a few paint colors, 1-2 different brushes, and a little imagination. Happy Painting Everyone!! DAWN





Click Here to see more pictures of Dawn's children's murals.