Time: 4 hours over 11 days
“You can paint the walls, Darlene. But if you plan to paint it anything other than white, please let me know!”
These were the words of my superintendent when I first moved into this apartment. She wasn’t very happy when she saw I had painted a picture of a hairy man on the wall while she was showing my apartment to a potential tenant at the end of my lease term.
What inspired me to draw this epic portrait was my desire to break free from my own comfort zone. I am so used to drawing at my desk on a small pad of paper. So drawing on the wall was a fun challenge I very much enjoyed. The process though, was not smooth at all! My first try was a complete disaster, as I struggled with the new medium and couldn’t find out how to make it work on the glossy surface of the living room wall.
This portrait was created with Artist’s Oil Color Paint Tube Color: Lamp Black mixed with some sewing machine oil. It was done over the span of a week. So as I reached the end of the week, the oil paint was starting to dry up which made it more difficult for me to work with. To make corrections, I would have to use dish soap to remove the paint.
The technique I used was smearing the paint with a rough washcloth to create gradients instead of mixing black with white to make different shades. I used only black because I had it lying around from previously trying out the dry brush technique on paper; which I discovered on youtube.
I hope I’ll be able to paint another wall portrait like this soon. It was a lot of fun!
Darlene created RFA In 2013 with the goal of sharing simple yet detailed drawing tutorials with other artists on the world wide web. She is a self taught pencil portrait artist and Youtuber.
I have to say that’s one nice wall drawing. You’re very talented.
Wonderful work. I was interested to see some. Your advice and tutorials really will help many people learn to draw regardless of age. Thank you for your work.