I do some decorative painting with acrylics/enamels (Donna Dewberry One-Stroke Painting-Folk Art Paints). To get a "lighter" see-through object, use a "floating medium". As explained the floating medium is actually the "fluff in paint" without the color. Double load your brush - half paint, half floating medium and then stroke the brush back and forth to get a good blend - viola!!

Sal

You can also use a glazing medium to make the paint more transparent. I really don't think watercolors will hold up very well on a wall, especially the bathroom. I haven't done alot of watercolor, but I do know that it will run when damp. You really need paper to paint it on, and you can't seal it easily.

For murals use acrylic paints, watercolors will wash off. Opaque acrylics can be made transparent by using glazing mediums, or even sometimes just by adding some water.
Once dry, murals in acrylics can be washed, but not scrubbed. On occasion, I've sprayed a bit of Windex on sections and washed mine over the years.

If anyone cares to, they can see my murals in my Flickr albums.

Here is a link that might be useful: my murals albums

kennebunker~ I love your murals! Gorgeous job! And did you paint the pictures too? Love Into the Woods. My fav.

Hope you don't mind, but I looked at your old family pictures too. Do you do genealogy? Those are just terrific to have.

What a great album. Thanks for sharing! ~Anj

Thank you, and yes, I painted the pictures too.
You're welcome to browse around anywhere you like on my pages.
Last year I digitized my mother's photo albums for her Christmas present. I fixed up every photo she had, printed a set and burned them onto CDs for her and my siblings. I just thought I'd put up some for people who like to look at old pix.

You are very talented. I wish I could paint like that. When all my kids are in school perhaps I'll be able to take some art classes at the local college. Are you a born with talent or have you studied art?
That was a neat gift to give your mom. I do love old pics. Only have a few for our family so they are precious. Glad you preserved them for your mom and family. ~A

Thank you, Anj. I was born that way. I took a watercolor class once, because I had never tried that medium before and was confused about technical stuff like papers and soaking and stretching, etc.
Since you like Into The Woods, I'll tell you how I made it. I saw this technique in an art book once and just had to try it.
The method involves something called 'masking fluid" also known as "liquid frisket". It's a liquid that dries all rubbery and masks sections of a picture so that they'll remain white when you brush on a color. When the top coat is dry, you can rub off the frisket with a pink eraser. Voila! white highlights, stars, whatever.

With this painting, I drew on the trees, rocks and the figure. I then covered the figure with masking fluid, working within the outline. I decided which trees and rocks were going to be the lightest in color and painted them the way I wanted them to look.
When the paint was dry, I covered the painted rocks and trees with the fluid and let that dry. I selected my next color. Using this technique, you work from lightest color to darkest with each layer. I took a biggish brush and did a wash of color over the complete painting.I worked quickly on the trees that I wanted to keep this color. By removing bits of wet paint with a tissue, and adding a little more of the color on other parts of the trunks I was able to create light and shadow. When the paint was dry, I covered the trees I had just done with the masking fluid.
I just kept doing this, layer after layer of color, masking off areas of trees, ground, and rocks.
In the end you get this big black blob of water color paper and it looks absolutely horrible.
You take out your pink eraser and carefully start using it to rub off that rubbery masking fluid. In the end, surprise, you have a picture!
It was fun to do, and if you ever want to try it, you might like to do an abstract to start off. That way you don't have to worry about anything, just let yourself go with the flow. If you like the picture when you're done, you can frame it and hang it in the living room. If you don't care for the way it turned out, tear it up and try another one.
The artist who illustrated how to do this in his book loved the fact that he never knew what he was going to get, a keeper or a tosser.

Hey, I live in rental unit and was wanting to add color to my walls without using normal paint. Was wondering if I painted with watercolors, would they wash off later so could leave apartment the ugly white when I move? Kind of OT but found your post and read using watercolors would wash off...so hoping someone here could help me! Thanks!