Painting A Fresco

The word fresco comes from the Italian word "affresco" which derives from the adjective fresco ("fresh") and refers to a painting style done on plaster walls and ceilings. Frescoes were often made during the Renaissance and we just learned about them in Art History this week while we looked at the artist Giotto- the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance. Fresco is a challenging medium - it does not allow for errors or corrections and is time sensitive, therefore requiring an adequate level of artistic and technical skill. This is due to the fact that fresco is done on wet, fresh plaster... once the pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, the plaster dries and reacts with the air, fixing the pigment particles in the plaster (making it quite durable!) Today in class, we created our own mini frescoes... First, we mixed the dry plaster in water and poured it into a plastic plate to set (about 20 minutes):

In the Renaissance, artists used powdered pigment mixed with water to create their own paints. On fresco secco (fresco done on dry plaster), a bonding agent was needed to adhere the paint to the wall, which was often egg yolk. We created our own "egg tempera" while we waited for our plaster to set up.
1. Separate the yellow from the white, then poke a hole to drain the yellow into a bowl:


2. We stirred in powdered tempera paint and a little bit of water until smooth. I only bought the primary colors, so we created green, orange, purple and brown by mixing those:



3. Fresco painters in the Renaissance would transfer their drawings onto the plaster by poking small holes in their cartoon (sketch) and blowing charcoal onto it, leaving the pattern of dots on the plaster. We did the same thing with some Renaissance images:



The kids painting:

Completed frescos!: