Types of Tree Murals

www.joansmurals.com

There are many different ways to paint a tree mural:

• Simple
• Realistic
• Soft pastel colors
• Dark defined lines
• Cartoon trees
  
• Thin budding branches
• Autumn leaves
• Bushy and full
• Sparse winter trees

Here are a few examples that may help you better understand how to choose what kind of tree you would like to paint or have painted.

This mural is more realistic. It has a lot of detail, yet is is soft. The colors almost blend with the background.

www.norling-wakemanstudios.com

This tree is simple - not much detail. A few different color greens were used to highlight the leafy areas which gives the tree some dimension and almost makes it pop out of the wall.

www.muralworkstexas.com

This is an example of a thin budding tree. The leaves are painted individually on each branch.

www.naomiannec.com

This tree is a detailed tree, but done with darker colors and defined lines.

www.kattatz.com

This tree was painted in warm autumn colors.

www.muralmarvels.com

This tree would be considered simple, but has a little bit more detail/shading in the trunk and branches. The leaves were done by colorwashing shades of green and then doing separate single leaves on top to bring dimension and depth.

www.rkbrushworks.com

This last mural is a good example of a cartoon style mural. Cartoon murals can also be done with black outlining.

www.multi-sensory-room.co.uk

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.