Reptile Week Murals: Nixon Park
a messy education in paint slinging and sponge glopping
Once a year, Nixon Park's visitor's center is a zoo... really. Dozens of reptiles and amphibians fill aquariums and cages, ready to educate the public on these slimy and scaly wonders. To create backdrops for several of the animals, we created murals in a class designed to teach anyone, with any skill level, some fun techniques.
We started with cotton sheets, in some cases, fabric glued together for larger sizes. You might tape these to a wall (with plastic dropcloths behind) which is how I drew the sketches. for painting, we laid the sheets over tables with dropcloths all around. Tables create issues with cracks, bumps and wrinkles. You have to remember to remove the tape holding edges to paint that part. You can also hold a part of the fabric as you do a brushstroke so it doesn't move or wrinkle. Sheets on tables allow everyone to get all the way around the pieces. You will have to paint upside down on some parts, just put your reference upside down.
Start with basic shapes/colors. Try not to be too gloppy. You can do dry brush techniques, putting a minimum of paint on the sheet and letting the white show through, as in a watercolor painting. You can do acrylic techniques, covering all the white with the opaque paint, painting light colors over dark, or dark colors over light. Use sponges, rollers, sponge brushes clipped into shapes that create textures, big bristly house painting brushes.
Add detail/texture. Sponges are great for texture. Different sponges create different kinds of texture. You can stomp/pound a big bushy house painting brush for textures, drybrush a bristly brush for grass or tree bark.
Finish the little details. Get out your little nylon pointy brushes and finish stuff. You don't want limp natural hair brushes here, you want nice pointy springy brushes that will apply paint to a wiggly sheet.
Don't even try to use artists' paints unless you're very rich. Artists' acrylics are translucent, and designed to mix beautifully and create luminous, glowing paintings. House paint and craft paint are opaque and designed to cover objects. They do not mix as well. You can use them, but be careful how you mix colors. Experiment on scrap paper.
Try out brushstrokes and colors on scrap paper.
It's opaque paint, you can paint over mistakes.
Foliage with lots of dark shadows works best if you start by painting the darks, the shadows, then begin painting the green foliage over that. Go from back to front, from dark to light.
For the rest of your landscape, work from back to front, do the sky and put the trees in front of it. Do your big shapes then your details.
Use fans to speed drying, and keep yourself from choking, even though it's only latex and acrylics. A hairdryer on nuclear blast setting will also help.
If you're the teacher, demonstrate actual brushstrokes and techniques. Tell everyone to ask questions as soon as they think of them or don't know what to do next. Ask them if they've got questions when they don't ask questions.
Black is dead: with art paint, in watercolor or acrylic you avoid using black to darken colors, it's made of dead stuff. More live blacks and greys come from mixing burnt umber and ultramarine blue and other opposites. For mural paint, go ahead, use the black, it actually works pretty well. None of this paint is translucent glowie stuff like you'll see in watercolor or a good acrylic painting. It's a different effect. White and yellow lighten and brighten nicely. Have a few different versions/shades of the colors you need. Mixing them yourself gives limited results.
Wrinkling the sheets and using a small roller over it with lighter colors creates nice rock textures. Paint the basic rock dark, sponge medium tones over it, wrinkle and use roller with light color over that.
We started with cotton sheets, in some cases, fabric glued together for larger sizes. You might tape these to a wall (with plastic dropcloths behind) which is how I drew the sketches. for painting, we laid the sheets over tables with dropcloths all around. Tables create issues with cracks, bumps and wrinkles. You have to remember to remove the tape holding edges to paint that part. You can also hold a part of the fabric as you do a brushstroke so it doesn't move or wrinkle. Sheets on tables allow everyone to get all the way around the pieces. You will have to paint upside down on some parts, just put your reference upside down.
Start with basic shapes/colors. Try not to be too gloppy. You can do dry brush techniques, putting a minimum of paint on the sheet and letting the white show through, as in a watercolor painting. You can do acrylic techniques, covering all the white with the opaque paint, painting light colors over dark, or dark colors over light. Use sponges, rollers, sponge brushes clipped into shapes that create textures, big bristly house painting brushes.
Add detail/texture. Sponges are great for texture. Different sponges create different kinds of texture. You can stomp/pound a big bushy house painting brush for textures, drybrush a bristly brush for grass or tree bark.
Finish the little details. Get out your little nylon pointy brushes and finish stuff. You don't want limp natural hair brushes here, you want nice pointy springy brushes that will apply paint to a wiggly sheet.
Don't even try to use artists' paints unless you're very rich. Artists' acrylics are translucent, and designed to mix beautifully and create luminous, glowing paintings. House paint and craft paint are opaque and designed to cover objects. They do not mix as well. You can use them, but be careful how you mix colors. Experiment on scrap paper.
Try out brushstrokes and colors on scrap paper.
It's opaque paint, you can paint over mistakes.
Foliage with lots of dark shadows works best if you start by painting the darks, the shadows, then begin painting the green foliage over that. Go from back to front, from dark to light.
For the rest of your landscape, work from back to front, do the sky and put the trees in front of it. Do your big shapes then your details.
Use fans to speed drying, and keep yourself from choking, even though it's only latex and acrylics. A hairdryer on nuclear blast setting will also help.
If you're the teacher, demonstrate actual brushstrokes and techniques. Tell everyone to ask questions as soon as they think of them or don't know what to do next. Ask them if they've got questions when they don't ask questions.
Black is dead: with art paint, in watercolor or acrylic you avoid using black to darken colors, it's made of dead stuff. More live blacks and greys come from mixing burnt umber and ultramarine blue and other opposites. For mural paint, go ahead, use the black, it actually works pretty well. None of this paint is translucent glowie stuff like you'll see in watercolor or a good acrylic painting. It's a different effect. White and yellow lighten and brighten nicely. Have a few different versions/shades of the colors you need. Mixing them yourself gives limited results.
Wrinkling the sheets and using a small roller over it with lighter colors creates nice rock textures. Paint the basic rock dark, sponge medium tones over it, wrinkle and use roller with light color over that.
