Making a Superman Wall Mural

Painting/Sketching on a canvas or sketch book is a very challenging task in itself, but making the same art on a wall takes this challenge to a whole next level! Getting the all the proportions right, especially when painting character murals on walls, can be a really difficult task.

Also, there is very less margin for errors as unlike canvas painting, you cannot just replace the old wall with a new one if you mess up.

Therefore, in this Instructable I will show the procedure I followed to paint a big Superman mural on my room's wall easily with some cheap tools and spray paints!

Why Superman you may ask?

Well, Superman is one of the best superheroes out there and also because the symbol on superman's chest, The symbol of House of El, stands for hope and during such difficult times of a pandemic, having that symbol on your room's wall can be a good reminder of hope!

• A Projector
• The image you want to paint. The one I used is included in this instructable and all the instructions are with respect to that image.
• Good Quality Masking tape
• X Acto Knife
• Black, Red & Yellow Spray Paint Cans
• A Chart Paper & some cardboard
• Basic stationery like pencils, eraser etc.

That's It!

Note: Use a proper respirator while using the spray paints and use them only in a well ventilated room.

1. First you have to choose spot where you want the mural to go.
2. Look for bumps and spots with loose paints on the wall and try to avoid them as much as possible as the tape may rip out a lot of the paint in such spots.
3. Now mount your projector to display the image on the wall in the spot you have chosen.
4. Adjust the focus and size of the image as you want.

Using a projector can help you quickly trace the outline of your image allowing you to have the correct proportions without any difficulty. Just remember that do not move the projector after it has been fixed.

Now its time to begin taping over the area covered by the projected image on the wall.

It also important to cover some area around the image to prevent the spray paint from getting on the wall.

Make sure to leave no area uncovered over and around the image as spray paint can easily spoil the whole mural if gets on the wrong places.

After completing the taping its time to trace all the outlines of the image on the tape using a pencil and shade the black areas for easy identification as those areas will be removed later.

Let's paint the symbol first as it will be easier to cover later while painting the black parts.

1. Using a chart paper cover the tape around the symbol to prevent paint from getting on it.
2. Using the x-acto knife, start removing the tape on the 'S' and the border of the symbol. This part will be painted red. You can use an image of the superman's symbol for reference.
3. Use the knife carefully and do not apply too much pressure as you may damage the paint underneath which will get ripped off when you remove the tape. This happened quite some times when I started removing the tapes and it really affects the appearance of the final mural, so be careful.
4. After successfully removing all the tape, use the red spray paint and spray over the whole symbol.
5. Let it dry for some time and then remove the remaining tape which covered the area that is to be painted yellow.(See symbol image for reference)
6. Use a piece cardboard/poster paper and cut in the shape of the symbol and remove the yellow regions.
7. Hold it over the symbol firmly and use it as a stencil to cover the red painted parts and spray yellow paint.
8. Remove the stencil and the chart paper. Painting the symbol is now complete.

• The steps are pretty much the same as done while painting the symbol.
• Use the x-acto knife to remove tape from the regions to be painted black.
• Cover the painted symbol with some chart paper firmly and start spray painting black all over the image.
• Let it dry for some time.
• Remove the remaining tape from the wall. Be patient and careful while removing the tape. Try to use good quality tape as the bad ones often leave rough edges on the paint when removed which does not look good.
• After removing all the tapes, do some final touching with the help of paint and brush to cover rough edges or broken bits of paints.

And You are Done!