Line work to photorealism: the five mural styles, explained

"What style should my mural be?" is really a question about three things: how the wall needs to read, how far away people stand, and what you want to spend. Here are the five styles we paint, what each does best, and what each costs per square foot.

1. Basic — line work ($15/sq ft)

Black or single-color outlines, shapes, and lettering. Think bold graphic walls, typographic pieces, logo treatments, illustration at architectural scale. Line work reads instantly from across a room and photographs with massive contrast. Our black-and-white word-collage wall above is pure line work — and it runs the room it's in.

2. Standard — block color ($20/sq ft)

Line work plus solid fields of color. This is the classic poster-style mural: confident shapes, flat vivid color, no gradients. It's the workhorse style for brand walls and exteriors because it stays crisp at any distance and touch-ups are simple.

3. Intermediate — blended ($25/sq ft)

Block color with blended lights and darks. Faces gain structure, skies gain depth, fabric starts to fold. This is the sweet spot for most interior feature walls — dimensional enough to feel painterly, priced under full realism.

4. Advanced — photorealistic ($30+/sq ft)

Fully blended rendering with only natural outlines — portraits, animals, scenes that read like photographs at conversation distance. When people say "I can't believe that's painted," they're talking about this tier. Our matador and bull dining-room wall is Advanced-tier work.

5. Mixed media (quoted per project)

Any style above with materials beyond paint — texture, dimension, collage elements built into the piece. Priced after the design is locked, because the materials follow the idea.

"Pick the style by where people stand. Sidewalk distance forgives; barstool distance doesn't."

A 60-second style chooser

• Logo, lettering, graphic statement → Basic
• Brand wall, exterior, bold color → Standard
• Interior feature wall with depth → Intermediate
• Faces, realism, the showstopper → Advanced
• "Can it come off the wall at you?" → Mixed media

Full pricing detail lives on the mural menu, and the cost math is worked through in our pricing article. Not sure which style your wall wants? Send us the wall — the concepts are free, and we'll sketch it in the style we'd recommend.