Beyond the wall: A memoir

This is my second wall painting and this time I wanted something to accommodate the wonderful pictures on my vacations. So here we go with the picture tree.

Steps to do similar wall painting

1. Choose the picture you want to draw or think of a free hand design to go with the theme 

2. Select a big enough wall which is not hidden by furniture, curtains or book shelves in the room

3. Make sure the wall is well painted, a wall with stains would not be the best choice for your hard work

4. Draw a draft sketch on the wall while keeping in mind the scale of the image. Grids will help you keep up the scale

5. Also sketch the details like branches, leaves and other design as it is in the picture

6. After the sketching is done, check the whole picture once again and whatever modifications needs to be done, do it before starting to paint

7. Use oil paint colors (not the water colors or the fabric colors, they don't give the same getup). You will need the required oil paint tubes, brushes of different sizes, turpentine/linseed oil

8. Start covering the major areas like trunk, branches etc. If you are doing a free hand painting, finish coloring the major blocks of the whole painting and then move to more delicate and intricate work. This has two advantages. Firstly you can scale up as per the look you want and secondly you want your painting to look grand and delicate at the same time. And you also need to space out properly the picture frames you plan to hang on the branches.

9. When you paint, you need to take enough colors and be uniform with the direction of strokes. Oil paint colors are a little more difficult to work with, so avoid reworks as much as possible.

10. When you want to highlight the photos, its always a good idea to use a single color. It will give a monotone base to the wall and at the same time enhance the look of your pictures

11. Let it dry for 3-4 days and the wall is ready to embrace your memories in the form of your photos

12. Photos you select should preferably be framed  in basic color photo frames. I prefer black, champagne and silver frames

13. If you prefer changing photos after a while,make sure you use changeable picture frames

14. You are all set to nail the frames on the wall now. Play with your imagination and make your wall shine with golden memories of your life. Because every picture you hang there is going to tell something about your life which you would want to cherish forever