Wall art is very much in fashion, but it’s not always easy to create it from a small picture. We show you two methods to enlarge a picture against a wall.
Method 1: Overhead projector
You will need:
• overhead projector
• design of your choice
• A4 sheet of acetate
• thin permanent marker
• soft pencil (such as 4B)
• paint in the colour of your choice
• thick and thin artist’s paintbrushes
• drop sheet
• masking tape
1 Enlarge your design to fit onto an A4 sheet of paper – it must be large enough to project clearly. Use masking tape to stick the sheet of acetate on top of the printout and trace the design with a thin permanent marker.
2 Place the sheet of acetate with the design on the overhead projector and adjust it until the projected image on the wall is clear and the correct size. Make the lines darker if necessary.
3 Trace the design with a soft pencil onto the wall. Switch off the overhead projector and check that you have traced all of the design.
4 Now you can start to paint. Place the drop sheet on the floor and first paint the outline of the design with your thin paintbrush. Fill in the rest using the thicker paintbrush. TIP Keep a wet cloth on hand in case you accidentally paint over the lines and need to wipe away your mistake.
Method 2: Block method
You will need:
• design of your choice
• soft pencil (such as 4B)
• spirit level
• long ruler or tape measure
• paint in the colour of your choice
• thick and thin artist’s paintbrushes
• plastic sheet
• masking tape
1 Enlarge your design to fit on an A4 sheet of paper. Measure the height and width of the design and then draw a block around it that you can divide into equal-sized squares. We used two columns of six squares each. Number the squares along the side.
2 Use masking tape to mark the width and length on the wall at a right angle according to your chosen scale, for example 1:10 (each 1cm of the paper design equals 10cm of the wall design). Now use a ruler to mark the individual blocks on the masking tape.
3 Stick strips of masking tape to mark the rest of the blocks. Number them according to your design, once again on the masking tape. TIP Remove unwanted pencil marks from the wall with soapy water.
4 Draw your design block by block on the wall with a soft pencil. Use the blocks as guides and, if necessary, measure proportions inside the blocks with your ruler. Remove the masking tape when complete. Follow step 4 of the overhead projector method to paint the design on the wall.
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