Fresco Workshop - First Day Instruction and Work

Detail of Fountain with Bird in Garden Fresco from Pompeii

IMAGE: This is the image I chose to paint at the Fresco Workshop. The image was sized to 12" x 16" to fit the portable panel exactly so I had it printed in color for reference and transfer to the portable panel below.

Portable Panel: 12" x 16" with galvanized metal lath to hold the plaster or the"ground."

Starting the Cartoon

The Cartoon: First we transferred a drawing of the image to a piece of smooth paper, which we would use to paint the image by building up layers of paint, beginning with transparent glazes and later using a heavier or more opaque application. The cartoon helps with working out the paint colors for a final design, and could be characterized as a "road map" of the actual painting. For those of us in the class, the cartoon served several purposes, not the least of which was to help us experience the painting process that we would use on the fresco.

Heidi painting her Cartoon

Heidi and I shared a table, and she had chosen the image below to paint.

Detail of Garden with Bird Fresco from Pompeii

Building the Cartoon Up from Light to Dark

The Lime Putty

The Lime Putty: the bucket of lime putty had water on top which was poured out, leaving a substance the consistency of cheese which was mixed with clean sand - 2 parts sand to 1 part putty - to make the plaster for the fresco.

1st of 2 Parts Sand to 1 Part Lime Putty

This mixing process bears a great resemblance to cutting the butter into the dough to make pie crust...

The Lime Putty Mixed with the Sand = "The Plaster"

(Which will continue to become lighter and whiter)

Knocking Up the Plaster
This process takes out any remaining white lime nuggets.

Slapping the Plaster onto the Portable Panel

This is accomplished by taking the Bullnose Tool below, loading it with plaster and "slapping" it onto the metal lath until the panel is covered and smoothed.

The Bull Nose Tool getting the Plaster into Corners and Preparing for The Float

The Float - using the Float Tool

Now we leave this overnight to dry. Before we put the final application on, the Intonaco, we will spray the plaster on this panel with water until saturated so that we can keep working. There is much preparation to fresco because the plaster must be wet to work with or to paint on - lots of pre-planning as the painting must be done on an immediate basis when started.