Okay…so you have this really cute idea! Painting a faux ocean or an underwater mural with fish and coral for the bath…or maybe in the new baby room. How cute is that?
Now… do you need to hire a professional Mural Painter to create this one of a kind Underwater Mural for your home? Maybe…but you could try it yourself. It isn't difficult when you break down the steps to get beautiful results.
Over the years, I have painted so many underwater style murals…I think I get seasick just thinking about them. I did find that they can be time consuming and I needed to speed up the process. I still wanted to provide quality work to my customers, with each project having a one of a kind "feel". So how did I accomplish this technique? I thought you would never ask. 
The first step in creating an underwater mural will use the gradient technique (I taught this in a previous article…go check out instructions for blending paint colors.
The water (colors) must be blended onto the wall. So…what type and color of paint is already on your wall??? Is it white (off-white is okay) or baby blue? Is it satin or eggshell ( semi-gloss for bathrooms)? If not… you have some work to do. Is your wall textured? This paint finish will work on a textured wall…but it will take some extra work to get a perfect water effect.
Materials:
- Paint - I am not going into qty..or even specific colors here. Qty would be based on the size of the room and paint coverage. Colors are NOT sky blue. Choose marine blue - like the color of blue tarps for boats. That will be your darkest blue color. The blue should be enough to cover 2/3 of your room -give or take. Then your going to need white… at least enough to cover 1/3 of the room.
- 1" or 1 1/2" Chip Brush and a 1/2" artist brush
- Mini Paint Roller
- Extra cubs or cans to mix paint and a mixing stick
The top 5" -8" (to taste - like salting your food :)) Paint almost pure white. Mix in a touch of blue to some of the white and paint this "stripe". The next layer that blends in is a mixture of more blue with the white. And so on until you have the deepest blue without any white added on your wall. I like to have this pure blue almost 2/3 of the way up the wall.
The effect you are trying to achieve is that deep water gets darker towards the bottom.
This isn't my favorite way of painting water…but it is pretty easy to get a pretty result.
You can see by the image on the left…that the color is never baby blue. It is always a marine blue. If you find when you add white to the blue paint, you are getting a baby color…you got the wrong blue.
The next underwater mural painting technique is really cool. It sounds and looks much harder than it is. If you master this technique you will be using for many other types of murals…not just the underwater mural.
Technorati Tags: Debra Conrad, Painter Lady, Underwater Mural, Paint Fish, Paint Water
dear deb,
i’m finding a lot of very helpful tips from reading your lessons. do you have any suggestions for how to paint faux granite? thank you.
james
Hi James
Thanks for the feedback! I always love to hear from readers.
Here is a link to painting faux granite.
http://www.thatpainterlady.com/painting-technique-6-easy-steps-to-faux-granite/
Hi……thanks for the help! :0) However, I have a few further questions that you might be able to answer. I am painting a “Spongebob Squarepants” themed room for my grandson and the water appearance is more cartoonish than a regular mural water color. The mural scenes around the entire room consist of scenes from the Spongebob show including his house, which is a pineapple of all things, and various other underwater creature homes and businesses. I need to make the water appear light enough to see the sandscapes and buildings. Any suggestions? Thanks so much and keep up the great work!! Regards, Jan Beehler
Hi Jan…
I am getting geared up to do an - underwater video demo - but I don’t have it ready yet.
I can’t figure out what your “cartoonish” water would look like. But it may be that you have “painted” the water, instead of layering in a water glaze.
Just to get you started, all the water background starts with a baby blue base coat. Then use a glaze in mixed with a clear marine blue and a soft brush to creat the water texture over the top.
Hope that helps some.
hello Deb,
i run agianst your website and im interested in creating a under water theme in my bathroom with dolphins. i was wondering if u can give me ideas on how to create it. i am not a great painter. plase help i would really appreciate it.
Hi, I would like to make a mural using bothe you cloud?sky techniques and your under water techniques. Can I use the saame powder/baby ble color as my base? Also, when applying the glaze to the under water part, does thae base coat have to dry for 24 hrs or can you jump right into glazing?
Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!
Julie