Mural Painting

Inspiration & Exploration

Salt Lake City has one of the most vibrant mural scenes in the Mountain West — from the Granary District walls to the murals along State Street and in the 9th and 9th neighborhood. Start by walking those areas with your phone and photographing every mural that stops you. Note the artist name if it's tagged. Follow @saltlakecity on Instagram and search #SLCmurals to find more. Look up world-class muralists on Google Arts & Culture (artsandculture.google.com) — search "street art" to browse international work for free. The YouTube channel "How to Street Art" covers large-scale technique from sketch to spray. You don't need a wall yet — you need to understand what makes a mural work at scale. You're ready for the next step when you've documented at least 10 murals and written one sentence about what each one does well.

Tools & Techniques

Mural painting uses three tools you need to get comfortable with before you touch a real wall: spray paint, wide house-painting brushes, and a grid transfer method. Practice spray paint control on cardboard — learn fan width, distance, and overlap. Watch the free "Graffiti and Mural Techniques" series on YouTube by artist Joram Nathaniel. For design transfer, the grid method is the oldest trick: draw a grid over your sketch, draw a matching grid on your wall (or practice board), and copy square by square. Download the free Procreate Pocket app or use Adobe Fresco (free tier) to sketch your design digitally before touching paint. Pick up Montana or Molotow spray cans — both are widely used by muralists and available at art supply shops. You're ready for the next step when you've practiced spray control and grid transfer on cardboard and can produce a clean, controlled line.

First Creations

Create your first mural-scale piece on a 4x8 sheet of plywood or a large section of fence — not a real building wall yet, but real scale. Your design should be simple: a bold shape, a limited palette of 3–4 colors, and a clear focal point. Use the grid transfer method to scale your sketch up. Work background first, mid-ground second, foreground and details last. Take progress photos every 30 minutes. When finished, share your piece on r/StreetArt and ask: "What reads well from a distance?" Distance readability is the defining challenge of large-scale work. Visit the Granary District in SLC to compare your design choices against professional walls up close. You're ready for the next step when you have one completed large-scale piece photographed from 20 feet away that reads clearly as a unified image.

Style Development

Style in mural work means making deliberate choices about line quality, color relationships, and how your work communicates at a distance. Study the work of three muralists whose style you admire — try Shepard Fairey, Maya Hayuk, and a local SLC artist like Kamille Freske. Identify one thing each does consistently. Then make three small maquettes (12x16 studies) where you try on each style and one that blends them into something distinctly yours. The free sessions at Wasatch Art School and community workshops through the Utah Arts Alliance can accelerate your style development with peer critique. Follow the Salt Lake City Arts Council (slcgov.com/arts) — they track public art programs and emerging mural commissions. You're ready for the next step when you can describe your emerging mural style in two sentences and back it up with one of your maquettes.

Refine Your Craft

Refinement at mural scale means mastering two things most beginners skip: color mixing for large areas and edge control at the boundary between shapes. Mix your paints in larger batches than you think you need — running out mid-section creates visible seams. Use Floetrol additive in latex paint to slow drying and smooth brush marks. Practice painting hard edges by masking with blue painter's tape and removing it while paint is still slightly wet. Watch the "Large-Scale Painting Techniques" videos on the Golden Artist Colors YouTube channel — they cover materials science in plain language. Post your refined maquette to r/learnart for technical feedback from painters. You're ready for the next step when you can paint a clean hard edge and a smooth gradient in a large-format test panel without visible streaks or seams.

Portfolio Piece

Your portfolio piece is a completed large-scale mural or a museum-quality maquette paired with a full design proposal — the package you'd submit to get a real commission. The design proposal includes: a to-scale sketch of the full composition, your color palette with paint codes, a list of materials and estimated cost, and a 100-word artist statement explaining the concept and why it fits the intended location. Photograph your final piece with clean, even light from multiple distances: full wall from 30 feet, mid-range at 10 feet, and three close-up detail shots. Submit your proposal and portfolio to the Salt Lake City Arts Council public art program (slcgov.com/arts) or the Utah Mural Project. You're ready for the next step when your full proposal package is complete and you've submitted or presented it to at least one real decision-maker or public arts organization.