The Inspiration...?
These dinosaur prints

These beatifully framed dinosaur pictures are great inspiration for a dinosaur mural.
Click here to see more details of these posters by the artist Sophie Harding

A Children's mural- the basic Idea
Pick one of your child's favourite dinosaurs from these prints and ask your mural artist to enlarge it onto the childs' wall. The artist will no doubt be able to come up with lots of ideas for you.
Figure 2) gives you a starting point.

Wall mural Idea
A painting idea for kids rooms.
Use the colours in the pictures to paint the other walls. Perhaps paint each wall a different colour, or continue the background scene over to the other walls. Hang the framed pictures in a group on one of the walls.

Wall Mural Idea
Using the sky colour from the mural, continue onto all the other walls and paint in the clouds. Hang the posters in a group on one of the walls. (figure 3).

Wall Mural Idea
For a smaller mural have the mural artist use the dinosaur only and paint it in an area of your choice. For example above the bed, peeping out from behind a cupboard or door, walking along the top of a chest of drawers etc.

Pull the room together with the group of framed prints on one of your walls. Click here to see more details of these posters

DIY Wall Mural
If you think you'd like to paint your child's wall mural yourself, here is a guide on how to go about it.

You will need

• Acrylic paints in the colours chosen from the posters. (Use tester pots or artists arylic colours)
• Wall paints for your background in your chosen colours
• A small paint roller to fill in the bigger areas of paint
• Masking tape to mask off your skirting boards
• Tracing paper or overhead transparent film
• Paint brushes of various sizes

If you are not Leonardo Da Vinci, just keep it simple. (Figure 3) Paint the walls in matching colours, paint the ground in 'rolling hill' shapes. A lighter green with a darker green for the foreground, a blue sky with clouds the same simple shapes as in the pictures.

Hang the framed pictures onto the wall - let the prints tell the story, you provide the simple background interest.

Painting the dinosaurs
Unless you have a reasonable amount of artistic ability, I would suggest you make use of an overhead projector to enlarge the dinosaur onto the wall. You may be able to borrow or hire one.
Trace from the posters onto transparent film and project them onto the wall where you can trace the outline.

Here are some steps to help you.

1. First, paint the walls in your chosen colours, a different one on each wall perhaps or choose on of the combinations shown above..
   If you find the colours in the picture too intense for your liking find a paler tone of the colour.
   
   
2. Trace the dinosaurs onto either overhead transparent film or tracing paper if you want a small mural.
   Project the designs onto the wall or use a photocopier to adjust the size of your tracings and make a number of copies.
   
   
3. Work out a rough design on paper to decide where to position the dinosaur. Project your image onto the wall and trace the design with a coloured crayon.
   
   
4. If using photocopies, transfer the designs to the wall using either transfer paper or by first rubbing the back of the paper with a soft graphite pencil. When you draw over the lines with a ballpoint pen, the design will be transfered to the wall, but first tape all your photocopies to the wall and make sure you are happy with the layout.
   
   
5. Paint the dinosaurs in colours to match the ones in the print.
   The colours are flat and the shapes simple. This is the charm of the design.

If you find the colours in the posters too intense for your liking, tone them down by choosing the colour in a paler tone.

Good luck, and if you do this design, please send me photos of it so I can include them in the website.
Click here to Send your photos to me

TIPS
If you use a graphite pencil to draw the design on the wall, do it very lighty as it can show through the paint and be impossible to remove

Use tester pots of acrylic wall paint available form DIY and paint stores. They come in small quantities and are inexpensive. Mix them with white to create a subtle version of the colours in the posters.

The painted kid's murals

1) Dinosaur on the loose!

2) One for a mural artist!

3) The simple no fail alternative.