How to Paint an Outdoor Mural on a Wooden Fence

While a beautiful mural painted onto the side of a wooden fence can add significantly to your landscape, the idea of creating a painting of this impressive size can be intimidating. Taking a small sketch and making it become a very large painting on an exterior surface requires a unique approach to painting. To complete such a project, you must first determine how to prepare the surface, what kind of paints should be used and how to copy a small sketch onto the fence that is to be painted.

Drawing paper
Pencil
Ruler
Outdoor acrylic primer
Acrylic white exterior paint
Paint roller
Level
Chalk, dark color
Outdoor-use acrylic paints
Paintbrushes, assorted sizes
Acrylic varnish

Instructions

- 1
  Pressure-wash your fence and fill any blemishes on its surface with wood filler.
- 2
  Mark a sheet of drawing paper with a grid of 1-inch squares. One square inch on your paper will equal one square foot on your fence.
- 3
  Draw a sketch of your design on the paper grid and color it in lightly with colored pencils.
- 4
  Apply two coats of acrylic primer to your fence with a roller.
- 5
  Apply one coat of acrylic-based exterior white paint to your primed fence with a roller.
- 6
  Use a level and dark chalk to draw a grid of 1-foot squares on your fence.
- 7
  Using your small drawing as a reference, copy the drawing, square by square, onto your fence in dark chalk. If you transfer your drawing one individual square at a time instead of viewing the drawing as a whole, it will be easier to copy onto the large grid.
- 8
  Paint in the chalk outline with the outdoor-use acrylic paints. Match the colors used, square by square, to the colors used in your small drawing.
- 9
  Paint two coats of acrylic varnish over the fence with a roller to protect your painting from the elements.

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