Marvelous Murals You Can Paint [Paperback]

Gary Lord (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2001

With these completely illustrated, step-by-step techniques, anyone can paint spectacular murals for the home. Master muralists Gary Lord and David Schmidt present 15 magnificent projects - from mountains, woodlands and waterfalls to musical "swing" themes, underwater motifs and farm scenes, all accessible to the beginner and easily customized. The projects start with simple-yet-effective techniques and progress to more elaborate murals, broken down into a series of mini-demos. The book is filled with expert tips for great results - including various ways to paint skies, the most popular mural subject. The "drawing - impaired" will especially appreciate the authors' trick for using stencils to create the look of a hand-painted mural.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

From cave painting and Pompeian houses to the wallpaper scenery of a quarter-century ago, murals have come and gone from the home. These two books are evidence of a recent resurgence. Marvelous Murals is a good, straightforward manual for mountain scenes, woodlands, waterfalls, musical themes, underwater motifs, and farm scenes. Beginners will appreciate the progressive difficulty of the exercises, starting with room preparation and simple silhouettes and advancing to complex textures and perspectives. In Trompe l'Oeil Murals Using Stencils, Royals hopes to make it possible for the novice to achieve the heightened reality of the genre using the simplest of tools and methods. She begins with preliminary tryouts and small-scale projects for faux surfaces, like used brick, stone blocks, velvet drapery, and marble. Six major projects take on arched brick windows, lattice windows, limestone niches, etc. Both of these books are recommended for crafts collections. More advanced artists will also want Sarah Hocombe's challenging Fresco Painting for Home & Garden (LJ 7/99).
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It's not quite the same as paint by numbers--artists Lord and Schmidt tend to instruct readers in more general terms--but it'll net a similar effect: a uniform and realistic trompe l'oeil or mural that enhances any room. Much of their narrative is strictly common sense: protect the room before prepping walls; add 10 to 20 percent water to paint in the spray gun; and get a good grasp on color theory and perspective before mixing colors. Their 15 projects progress from the simple to the more complex, from silhouettes of Venetian boatmen to a panoramic landscape; each features the requisite list of materials as well as step-by-step close-ups of critical spaces. A sprayed sky, for instance, begins with applying a basecoat on the wall, laying in and sponging clouds, and from there adding and subtracting and blending to create highlights and shadows. Nothing's out of the box here, but sure and steady will win a place in the home. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books; 1 edition (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891349693
• ISBN-13: 978-0891349693
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Interior Design > Painting & Wallpapering
  • #68 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Interior Design > Style

More About the Author

Gary Lord has been a professional decorative painter and has owned his own decorative painting contracting business, Gary Lord Wall Options and Associates Inc., since 1975. Wall Options specializes in faux painting, marbleizing, wood graining, Venetian plaster, dimensional and embedded techniques, murals, furniture, cabinetry, concrete, metallic foils and hand-made wallpaper finishes. Wall Options has won seven National First Place Awards for the Best Faux Finishing Company in the United States from 2002 to 2006 from both the American Painting Contractor and the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America. Wall Options has also garnered hundreds of first place awards in local and regional home shows over its 35 years in business. In 2007 Gary personally received the honor of being the top choice for Who's Who in faux finishing by the America Painting Contractor. In 2008 Gary was also awarded the Who's Who spot for interior decorative painter by Stratford Business Services. www.walloptions.com

Gary also owns and operates Prismatic Painting Studio, a decorative painting school that teaches hands-on workshops and classes for the decorative arts. Prismatic Painting Studio has been in business since 1992 and teaches how to faux paint walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, cabinetry, countertops and concrete techniques. Gary has taught thousands of faux painters in a very easy to understand and clear format enabling them to perfect their skills. Gary has also sold over 10,000 VHS and DVD videos showing how to faux paint dozens of different techniques. www.prismaticpainting.com

Gary has launced a educational web site with inexpensive or free downloads on decorative painting technique. www.itsfauxeasy.com


Gary has appeared on over 100 different national television shows as a faux painter and demonstrated a wide variety of paint room finishes. Some of the shows on HGTV were The Carol Duvall Show, Decorating With Style and D.I.Y. On PBS he was a guest on Paint! Paint! Paint!, For Your Home and Paint Paper and Craft. On The Discovery Channel he has appeared on the Christopher Lowell Show and Home Matters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

127 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good for Beginners, January 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Marvelous Murals You Can Paint (Paperback)

"Marvelous Murals You can Paint" is a good book for beginners in that it explains very basic techniques and materials. Line drawings and coloring book-type children's murals are illustrated. A very simplified way to do clouds with spray paint is demonstrated. If you're looking for realism or professional techniques, you will be disppointed with this book. The gallery is inspiring, with beautiful photos of wonderful wall treatments, none of which are explained or demonstrated. Shows a couple of basic landscape-type murals with good stone and wood effects.

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Something's missing, September 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Marvelous Murals You Can Paint (Paperback)

I purchased this book in the hope that it would provide instruction to create the murals illustrated on the first few pages. Unfortunately, although there are very beautiful murals pictured,instructions are included for only a few. Perhaps my tastes differ from the authors but it seems that most garish and ugly murals were the ones that included "how to" instructions. It leads one to wonder if perhaps they do not want any competition in producing the more tasteful murals pictured! I also purchased the companion video and was disappointed for the same reasons- the instructions were only for projects I would not want to do.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous murals, September 21, 2005

By 

Art by Zaro "ZARO" (Fayetteville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marvelous Murals You Can Paint (Paperback)

This book has alot of good information that both novice and pro alike will love. There are alot of techniques covered in this book and the authors cover them extensively. If you're thinking of making a carreer as a muralist, or just want to spruce of your own home, this is the book to start with.