The Circus

One of my daughter's friends has two little boys who share a room. She has made needlepoint pictures with a circus theme for both of them and wanted to carry that through in their bedroom. She asked me to paint a strip across one wall of circus themed characters. She provided the templates but I couldn't get them to come out the way I wanted so I painted the characters freehand.

It was a lot of fun and I am happy with the
end result. The characters are cute and they
match the needlepoint pictures

I used simple acrylic paints which are durable
and washable - important for a boy's room!

The older boy really loved the balloons and
talked to the mural as he lay down for his
afternoon nap. That was very rewarding
to me! The mom loved the end result, too,
but I was especially happy that her toddler
liked it.

If you want to do something like this, either freehand or with templates, purchase the best acrylic brush you can afford. That is a really
important point as it makes the painting so
much easier to paint.

Then go to a good craft store and get fresh acrylic paints. Fresh paint flows better and doesn't clump up.

I used a pencil to outline (lightly) the shapes
and then filled in the colors. One of the brushes
I used had a flat, round tip. I dipped that tip in the paint and touched it to the wall for the clown's round balls. A really easy way to do
round shapes.

The background (painted by the mom) was masked off with blue painter's tape, first for the white, then, when that was thoroughly dry, the red was masked and painted.


The designs repeat on the right and left. It is about four feet off the floor, just above the top of the changing table on the wall one sees as you walk into the room.

If you can find templates for any design you want you, too, can paint a mural on a wall!