how to paint a mural with kids

This will be a quick and easy lesson on murals with kids. Most folks probably are not like me. I will, without hesitation, give up my dining room wall to the higher call of art. No matter that the artist is a small child. A five year old..... my sweet Max, pictured here with his huge pet grass-hopper.  This mural is from a few years back, as Max is now 12. We are working on another one now, too, and I will post it soon, but this one is fun and the technique is so simple and no fail on the child's part. 

This was totally inspired by Max's love of drawing and all the odd little creatures and 'towns' and portraits that he would do at this age. He was a prolific drawer and each drawing had a story that he would explain in great length. 

One day, about 500 sheets of paper into this obsession, I gave him a pencil and told him to just do it on the wall. The dining room wall. And he did. See below. There was no plan or design, just the mind of a five year old holding forth.....all in pencil.

This is where Momma comes in. Hhhhmmmm. Of course, I loved his drawings. His anaconda, and our cat Woodles, the map of Mexico and Port Townsend, the vase of flowers for me, the alphabet and the volcano, his sister rendered as a sea turtle and a cat town. I also love lots of color and wanted to preserve his little drawings. 

Here's what I did. With my acrylic paints and water, Max and I washed color over the whole wall. We both chose and didn't worry about much of anything. Do be careful about the colors you squeeze out. Kids like to mix it up and it can all quickly turn brown if you're not careful. The main thing that mattered was that our paint was thin enough to see his pencil drawings through. It ended up looking like oil pastels, which I love.

Now. The next step happened while children slept. With black paint and a small brush, I traced all his drawings. This could probably be done with a sharpie but I wanted it to look painterly so I went with a brush. It took a while. Max was so excited to see his drawings emerge.

Max helped again with more painting and filling in. I coached him on how to mix colors and add texture and blend things together. It was a fun way to show him some techniques, as we worked together.

In the end, I came back with white paint and a small brush and highlighted lots of the black lines to make it pop and look more polished.

And voila! Very permanent five year old art. This could also be done on a large canvas. I always think that, with kids, the most important thing is letting it be their process and not the end result that matters. Sometimes, it's going to look awful. Be good with that. 

And sometimes.... it's going to look awesome.

Was he cute or what?!