In my previous post, I dealt with planning and sketching out a mural. All that remains is to paint the real thing but, just before we get into that, you need to draw a grid over your sketch. This can be as fine or as coarse as you think best suits the drawing, but I hope that you’ve chosen a design that is simple enough for just eight to twelve cells in the grid to cover adequately.

The grid separates the picture into several smaller areas that will be easier to deal with one at a time. Now scale up the grid to full size and sketch it on to the surface to be painted. So, if for instance your sketch has squares of one inch per side, you might have squares on the wall or pool bottom of one foot per side.

Now we can begin to paint, outlines first. Study each square of the grid so that you see the shapes contained separately from the whole picture. Using a small brush and a light color (so that it is easy to cover with another color if you make a mistake), repeat the shapes in outline within the corresponding square on the full size grid. When you have done that, move on to the adjoining square and repeat the exercise. And keep doing that until all the squares are filled.

Now when you stand back to get an overall view, you should see your originall drawing magnified upon the surface of the wall or pool. If there are areas that don’t seem quite right, adjust the outlines by re-painting them, then painting over the errors with the background color. When you are happy with the outlines, go over them with a black or dark grey so that they stand out.

Finally, it is merely a matter of mixing to get the colors you decided upon and filling in the relevant shapes. If you’re doing a pool bottom, watch where you’re putting your feet so that you don’t stand on a line and smudge it. Work from the top of the drawing downwards and you’ll not have to stretch over a recently-painted area to reach something in the middle.

And that’s all there is to it. You should now be the proud owner and creator of a huge work of art. Congratulations!

Have you ever wanted to paint a mural? Or maybe the bottom of a swimming pool? It’s not nearly as difficult as it seems and, even if you’re a bit short on artistic talent, the results can be very effective.

The most important part of such a project is planning. Measure the area you have to paint and then draw a rectangle to scale on a piece of paper. Decide on your design and sketch it out, then fill in with color.

The simpler the color scheme, the easier it will be to achieve once you come to paint the real thing. Probably the best is to aim at a cartoon style with its flat areas of color and no shading. The reason for this is that the more colors are used, the more mixing of paint you’re going to have to do. When working with large quantities, that can be very messy and time-consuming if you’re struggling to get subtle nuances of hue. Cartoons also outline everything and this is easy to reproduce as the basic sketch on the final surface.

When I say cartoon, don’t think I mean the kiddy Donald Duck/Mickey Mouse kind of thing. As an example, years ago I was asked to paint a picture of a mermaid and dolphin on a swimming pool bottom (it’s hard holding your breath long enough to do that - no, I lie, the pool was empty). I sketched out the design and then emphasized the important outlines with bold lines, filling in with flat color afterwards; it wasn’t Walt Disney but nor was it Rembrandt. Think of it rather as simplified reality.

Don’t be too fussy over exact shades of color to be used. When you get to the store to buy the paints, you’ll have to accept a few basic reds, blues and yellows that you can mix to get the colors you want. Theoretically, you should be able to mix any color you want with those three but it can be a painstaking task to get precisely the shade you want. Go for a few more colors that are at least close to what you had envisaged. Be sure to get a couple of cans of black and white too.

Okay, now you have the sketch and the paints (and your trusty brushes that you cleaned so thoroughly after decorating last week) and the daunting surface you’ve decided to release your artistic endeavors upon awaits. Frightening, isn’t it?

But be of good cheer - once you get started you will enjoy it immensely and in the end you will have something to amaze your friends with. But that must wait until my next post…

Now that we have the walls painted, it’s time to do something about the doors. That means gloss paint and it’s a very different technique that we use here. Essentially, our aim is to cover with one coat, even if the new color is lighter than the old.

So we need to get a good thickness of paint on in one go and yet avoid the dreaded runs and drips. We could do it the hard way and build up with two or more thinner coats but the idea is to enjoy your work - after you’ve painted a door that many times, you’ll never want to see another again.

So let’s do it in one. Using the same wrist style as we used on the wall (well, okay, we can go straight up and down a lot more here if it’s easier), slap that paint on. As soon as you’ve finished the first area, run the brush lightly downwards over the surface of the new paint. Now run it across the paint horizontally until the painted surface is entirely cross-hatched.

Keep doing that until the door is covered and then wait until it’s dry. Then you can run your fingers across the surface and experience the joy of a completely smooth paint job without runs. This cross-hatching works every time, giving a hard, flat finish that looks great - and no brush strokes will be visible. And it takes no more than a few extra seconds!

This is an easy craft for kids to do with a little supervision and makes use of simple things and the natural products of crisp, fall days.

Have the kids go out into the yard and find the prettiest fall leaves they can. Give them each a paper bag or plastic shopping bag to collect them in. The hard part of this activity is stopping, since yet another beautifully colored leaf will always strike the eye. When they have gathered enough, it is time to begin.

For this project gather together the following:

* Roll of white freezer paper or kraft paper
* Roll of clear Con-Tact paper
* Scissors
* School glue or glue sticks

Measure the size of your placemats by cutting equal size sheets of Con-Tact paper and the kraft or freezer paper. Con-Tact paper backing is marked off in inches so this makes it easy to do without rulers. Cut the Con-Tact paper first and lay it on the kraft or freezer paper to measure equal size sheets.

Next, have the kids glue the leaves to the paper, arranging them with their own artistic eye. They can add other items to their masterpieces, such as construction paper cut-outs of pumpkins or pieces of ribbon. They need to leave space between the items so that there is contact between the adhesive side of the Con-Tact paper and the bottom sheet. To make the mats personalized, you can include a wallet size picture (such as a school portrait) or have the children write their names on the paper. Make sure they secure the edges of the leaves with glue to make it easier to apply the Con-Tact paper smoothly.

The last step is where they need Mom the most. Peel the backing paper off the pre-cut pieces of Con-Tact paper and press it over the top of the creation. Go slowly and smooth carefully as you go, working out air bubbles. If you want to, you can put another piece of the clear Con-Tact paper on the bottom to seal the mat and make it last. For a nice effect, trim the edges with pinking shears.