Hi! I'm hoping to get some feedback from some of Sylestia's many artists for a project I'm working on. I really appreciate any advice or helpful tips! I'm looking for help from anyone with experience in traditional art, as my question involves painting a wall mural.

First, a little background: while I enjoy art very much, I am at best an average artist. When I was pregnant with my son, I painted a very minimalist jungle theme on his nursery wall, freehand, and am not wild about the result. This is what the room looks like:




I would like to redo the walls, but this time go all-out with a jungle theme, and am thinking of reproducing an Henri Rousseau painting as a mural on all four walls. I'm a much better artist when copying than when creating, so the technical skill is not a problem (I have sketched Rousseau paintings before). What I need to know is what sort of paint I should use for a project like this. I used tube-based acrylics for the current look, but painting acrylic over latex house paint means using several layers, even for darker colors, to fully cover the base color. What sort of paint will lay on thicker and more evenly with fewer applications? Also, what is the minimum size paintbrush I can use to give a good realistic effect? I don't want to spend days outlining leaf edges.

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/henri-rousseau/tiger-in-a-tropical-storm-surprised-1891 is an example of Rousseau's work, and is probably the painting I will use if this project turns out to be feasible. As you can see, there's plenty of color variation and a lot going on in the painting, so I need to use whatever shortcuts are available to me.

Thank you in advance for any insight! <3

I have absolutely no idea regarding the paint...but just wanted to say that you did a great job decorating the nursery. It looks great

Faiona, you're very kind to say so. The end result definitely did not replicate the image in my mind though! Also, how can I make my images smaller? These overlap the message borders.

Hmmmm while I've used traditional paint a bit, I'm not sure what would work best for a wall mural.
Maybe try asking on conceptart.org/forums or research for a painter's forum? I could try asking one of my professors for you on Tuesday too.

Thanks, Vella! I'll check out the site, and if you truly don't mind asking an art professor for me, I'll be in your debt.

I should mention that I know that using latex wall paint will easily cover up a base of latex wall paint, lol. The problem there is that the painting I want to replicate uses a minimum of ten different colors, and at $15 a can for latex paint, I just can't afford to buy all the colors I need. Plus I'd have a ton of leftover paint.