A nursery wall painted with a mural: a boy and his tiger asleep on the branch of a large tree, surrounded by yellow and orange autumn leaves, with a white crib in front

A Calvin and Hobbes mural for my son’s nursery

What: A hand-painted mural across one wall of a nursery
Status: Finished

A man seen from behind painting the tree trunk on a white wall, with the tiger and the boy blocked in above and paint samples laid out on cardboard on the floor — Partway through: the first colors going on over the pencil outline.

I painted a Calvin and Hobbes scene across a wall of my son’s nursery: the two of them asleep on a tree branch, with autumn leaves all around.

A projector gave me the outlines of the main artwork to trace. Everything else, from the color and shading to the leaves and sky that fill the rest of the wall, was painted freehand.

How it was painted

TraceOn a freshly painted white wall, I projected the line art and traced its main details in pencil.
Ink the outlinesEvery outline went on in black first. I wanted a saturated, inky look, so many areas took two or three coats.
Fill in the colorWith the outlines in place, I took my time filling in the base colors across the rest of the scene.
Blend and finishPaint thinned with water blended the colors and added shading and highlights. Touching up the black outlines finished it.

Choosing the paint

We had a pillowcase with the same scene on it, so I took it to Lowe’s and matched paint swatches to its main colors. Then I worked out which colors needed their own paint and which I could mix.

Six small sample jars of paint lined up on the carpet in front of the finished mural: black, orange, yellow, blue, white, and red — The whole palette: six sample jars.

The template and the inspiration

Black and white line art of a tiger and a boy asleep on a tree branch, the image that was projected onto the wall — The line art I projected to trace the outlines, and the book that inspired the scene. Calvin and Hobbes artwork by Bill Watterson.

The cover of The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes, a treasury by Bill Watterson — The line art I projected to trace the outlines, and the book that inspired the scene. Calvin and Hobbes artwork by Bill Watterson.

More fun projects

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I’m always open to a conversation. Remote anywhere in the US, or in the St. Louis area.

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