Want to pleasantly surprise your visitors? Murals can do the magic effectively!

When you own a new home or construct one, invariably you cannot resist the desire to show it off to whoever visiting it, distant acquaintances included. This is quite natural arising out of the attitude by making others happy; and sharing happiness augments it manifold. The easiest way to get the appreciation from one and all is the home decor with colourful paintings, not the colouring by paint of your walls and other surfaces, but the artistic touch of something above the ordinary, like Murals.

Murals are type of paintings, instead of confining the pictorial art inside frames or portraits, but painstakingly painting sceneries, pictures, thematic images and landscapes on walls, ceilings and any other interior or exterior surfaces of a building. In other words, a Mural is so effective as to convert the whole surface on which it is painted into an artifact by itself. This ancient art emerging from centuries old civilization in the form of cave paintings is still kept alive with verve, by expert modern Mural Artists of today.

How can a Mural be made so eye-pleasing?

Painting a Mural or sets of different Murals on the desired surfaces of home, office or any other public buildings is an art form, historically dating back to 5000 years. We have evidences for this great art of painting, at various places of human civilization in its advanced stage. Particularly countries like Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Italy etc. are in the forefront, as per archeologists in painting Murals of aesthetic beauty, living beyond periods.

In line with that tradition, even in this modern Computer Age, there are exponential Mural Artists who ardently follow the classical methods of Mural painting, and decorate homes, palaces, public buildings, offices and religious spots by their deft hands. These Mural Artists follow the traditions and styles of popular painters of earlier centuries, such as “Trompe l’oeil” and “Faux finishes”.

What is meant by Trompe l’oeil?

The French origin of the word Trompe l’oil means deceiving the eye (or tricking the eye into optical illusion). By using this technique in Mural painting, which is actually originated from Greek and Roman period, the Mural Artist evolves an illusion in the eyes of the viewer, to make the image with 3 dimensional effects. For example, a Mural painted in this Trompe l’oeil technique on a flat surface like the wall will create an impression, that the flat image is virtually alive and “speaking” to the viewer; in a hallway, room, door or window, the Mural painting will make the place larger than existing, by appearance.

Similarly Faux finishes is another technique followed in Mural painting by experts, whereby the materials such as marble, stone or wood are replicated as original through painted pictures (Faux in French means “false”).

There are exceptional Mural Artists like the Trompe l’oeil expert Richard Bagguley of London, available for you online. All you have to do is contact and describe your requirements for Mural painting in any surface. Based on your requirement, the Mural Artist will plan the details of the Project, small, medium or big, within an affordable budget and time frame.

After finishing the Mural Painting Project with world-class Trompe l’oeil and Faux finishes techniques, your visitors will be pleasantly surprised, by the unbelievable optical illusions created by the Mural arts, and open their jaws wide in bewilderment. Just click http://www.art-richardjbagguley.com/ and enjoy!

What Is Trompe L’oeil- Art Of Illusion Or Art Of Depicting The Wonderland?

Trompe L’oeil is basically the art of “deceiving the eyes”. Art of illusion and art of tricking the eyes are some of the synonyms used for this art. Drawing and painting are largely the art of depicting the objects and places.

The Wikipedia definition of Trompe L’oeil is:

“An art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that depicted objects exist in three dimensions.”

In simple words, this art refers to a series of smart painting techniques used to trick the eye.

These optical illusions can depict variety of imaginary realities, from a flat surface to big architectural spaces. The illusion of depth that is created by this art heavily depends on the intensity of angel point. A central point in your image provides the anchor for the line to interpret the depth accordingly.

The second thing on which this artistic illusion depends upon is environment. The surrounding environment of the image makes it more lively and realistic.

Trompe L’oeil has been used for centuries to add surprise, a touch of delight and an extra dimension to dull flat surfaces. This art was first practiced by ancient Greeks, after them Romans used it to give a structural detail to their residents.

During the 17^th and 18^th century this art was quite popular in Europe. This was the time when artistic touch was given to blank wall by depicting the various surfaces.

It is a fact that not every decorative artist is able to create this sort of optical illusion. This art needs knowledge, expert hands and expert mind to make an imaginary surface look real. Some of the most dazzling trompe l’oeils are found in murals.  To make a surface appear to have a window opening, all it needs an artistic approach.

To make it completely effective, the painting should be fitted in a way that it seems related to the surrounding. The object appearing should be like sized so that it can create an illusion.

Although a lot of painting techniques are ruling the market in recent times. Yet art lovers use trompe l’oeil to inject a touch of surprise and fun into their dull interiors.

Your Mural Art Questions Answered

Mural art is among those decorative arts which are not confined to residents only. The commercial fan base of this art is huge. The presence of Mura arts can be felt anywhere from an industrial building to an old temple. These kinds of creative arts were initially used in the caves as a mode of communication. However in recent times the definition and approach of mural art has evolved a lot. People are widely using murals to make their dull walls more lively attractive and inviting. Murals can be used to interpret anything ranging from your mood to giant historical landmarks. In our last post we discussed about some amazing wall murals ideas. After publishing that post we received mails from our readers asking about the latest driving home décor trends and latest trends in Mural art. Through this post we are answering to their questions.

Question 1. Can we make a mural of business history?

Answer: Yes you can. Every company has a business history and preserving it is really essential. With the help of murals and expert mural artists you can illustrate the business history.

Question 2.  Is it possible to decorate our wall with a mural depicting family tree or family history?

Answer: It is quite possible to depict your family history and family values with murals. Many family businesses are there who desire to honor their founder and fore owners. With the help of mural painting they can easily illustrate their family history.

Question 3.  What are Trompe  L’oeil murals?

Answer:  Trompe  L’oeil is a French term which means, “to trick the view”. These kinds of murals can range from a false window to a drop of water. This artistic illusion is quite common in the European countries. Unlike a simple wall painting,  Trompe  L’oeil arts is used to create an optical illusion. These kinds of arts can be easily found in studios where large sets are created.

Question 4.  How to hire expert mural artist?

Answer: Hiring an expert mural artist is not that much simple task for the homeowners who don’t have any idea about this art. But with the help of online mediums you can visit various websites and check out the reviews of artists. There you can get a fair idea about the artists and mural painters.

There are so many reasons to have a mural in your home or in your room. First it adds beauty and freshness, second this art can improve the overall appearance of your dull walls and ceiling.

Make your walls and ceilings aesthetically appealing

Wall paintings have always fascinated human beings. Walls decorated with beautiful art pieces not only makes it look beautiful but also changes the whole mood of the place. A mural is one of the oldest forms of art which is painted or directly applied on the wall, ceiling or other permanent surface. What makes murals so special is the fact that all the architectural elements of a given space are harmoniously incorporated in the painting.

For a long time murals ruled important buildings like church, but recently murals have found its place also in residential homes. The area to be painted is usually gridded so that the image can be correctly scaled step by step. Some of the painters directly paint on the surface without any kind of sketching preferring the spontaneous technique.

Trompe l’oeil is a form of painting that gives a deception of being 3D. This form of painting dates back to 15th century when it first started. Now it is popular in modern homes and other buildings.

By: Richard Bagguley

The Dome Project – A case study by Richard Bagguley

When I was invited to discuss the possibility to create a mural design in a dome area of an entrance of a modern house owned by discerning clients, I was enthusiastic.

1. Architecture plan of dome

When I came to look at the space it became immediately obvious the mural had to be a contemporary design to blend with the art and style of the house and it had to underplayed to allow all the elements to sit in harmony. The client owned an authentic 18th century Otterman book boughtat auction of original designs for ornate ironwork and other interior fittings, we came across one design that in particular that fitted our purpose. (See photo below)

2. Otterman 18th century design

We needed to see what the design would look like in that space so I used a low throw projector, and we agreed it looked great.

 3.  A low throw projector shows what the design should look

The next part is the difficult part as we have a design that is for a flat surface and will elongate and distort if we try and use it as it is on the dome. The other problem is that we did not know if the builders had made it in an exact symmetric half circle shape which would throw an exact design out. Luckily we had on our team an excellent designer Salami Yilmaz who had enough skill with AutoCAD to create by using elements of the original a new design adapted to fit round the dimensions we had supplied him. (see below)

4. The to scale workable design drawn up from AutoCAD by Selami Yilmaz

Even with a basic design to work from this was no easy feat, I had to take the design to a specialist printer who printed out as large as possible to the exact size-one section being over 2×3 meters. Back in the studio I had to split each part in two and make 4 sets of templates which could be reversed as the work had to be divided into 16 parts.

5. From scaled printouts templates made for the 16 parts

The templates were then carefully positioned and drawn with fingers crossed that the builders had been accurate and the design fitted. They had actually done a pretty good job and whilst we had to do some creative ‘fudging’ we were very lucky and the design fitted pretty well.

6. Drawing templates onto the dome

Having got our design drawn up we started the painting, from the outset I wanted a simple combination of two tones (grey off-white) to create the raised ‘moulding’. We then decided for the Trompe L’oeil that if we left the third area plain white for the highlights and darkened the inner areas it would be more effective. Finally we gave varied secondary shadows. (see below)

7. Painting first the dissecting lines in two shades of colour then filling in the inside and creating secondary shadow.

Having spent several weeks happily painting 26ft up in the dome I wanted to cap the work off by giving it a finishing point, we chose to cover the flat circular area in silver leaf.

8. Silver leaf applied to flat circular area

The beauty of the silver leaf it reflected whatever the sky was doing outside into the dome, shifting the light at different time of the day.

9. The silver reflects the blue from the sky

The upper part being finally complete we moved down to create a base for the dome design. We created a flat band of silver leaf over which we painted a Trompe L’oeil . (see below)

10. Silver leaf applied over flat area and given Trompe l’oeil shadow work to give a solid base to the dome

11. Finished dome

Find our website for more information on Mural Artists and Faux Finishes

By: Richard Bagguley

Decorative arts

A visual artwork has always attracted humankind. Since the time stone age, mankind has invested huge amount of money and time to decorate the walls of the palaces and other buildings with beautiful artwork. Many of those decorative arts are now preserved as monuments of the modern world and tourists from all over the world come to appreciate it.

Even the modern world of today, the demand of decorative arts has not gone down; only the style has changed to contemporary than classic. Wall Mural painting is very common piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other permanent surface. A large hand-painted mural can be designed on a specific theme or it can incorporate personal images.

Trompe l’oeil is another piece of artwork that involves realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. This style of artwork is getting very famous in various types of architecture.Artwork will continue to fascinate humankind till it exists.

By: Richard Bagguley