frescoes-msg - 10/11/09 Creating frescoes. Fresco being water-based paint on wet plaster. The color sinks in and produces a very pretty and long-lasting painting, which won't disappear until the plaster itself is worn away. NOTE: See also the files: plaster-msg, Relief-Carvng-art, sculpture-msg, tiles-msg, pottery-msg, tiles-art. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 22:54:10 -0400 From: Margo Lynn Hablutzel To: A&S List Subject: source for pigment This from Mistress Aidan, C&I Laurel from Calontir now living in Al-Barran in the Outlands: --------------- Forwarded Message --------------- I just got a great catalog in the mail--chock full of "real" pigments, in quantities from 100g to 1 kilo of ground pigments, at impressive prices. It is the Sinopia Pigments and Materials catalog, Fall 97. They also have a website (duh) at http://www.sinopia.com. This outfit apparently specializes in sales to people who do art restoration (!) and frescoes, thus the large quantity. They also sell brushes and various equipment. Just thought I'd pass this on to any interested illuminator types.... Ms. Aidan Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 12:15:12 -0600 From: Stephanie Cohen To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Re: Fresco Ted Hewitt wrote: > I attempted to help my 12 year old son, Edmond, experiment with fresco, > where water-based pigments are applied to wet plaster. He did a fine > job, but within a week, the colors faded away. > > I am unsure what happened because we did use a pigmented paint, not a dye > - and we used it a high concentration. Any suggestions? > > Edwin, Full-time Idealist, Part-time Realist > Ok, a correction to my earlier post: "The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques", Ralph Mayer. I've got the 4th editon, 1981 ISBN 0-670-13666-2. There's an extensive discussion of fresco materials and process, including history and pigment lists. Yep, there's a *big* chemistry consideration- the final painting surface is slaked lime putty...*really* alkaline! Plaster of Paris is gypsum (calcium sulphate), while slaked lime putty is calcium hydroxide. I wonder if it's also possible that the different chemical properties would prevent getting a true fresco result- I bet that gypsum won't "lock in" the pigments the same way slaked lime does, but act more like the description of secco- painting on the dry plaster wall with water-based pigments ground with a binder, like watercolors or tempera. Olga Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 18:29:35 +0000 (UT) From: Sean Winchell To: SCA-ARTS at UKANS.EDU Subject: Fresco Although its not period, and is cheating to a degree, you may want to give the surface of your canvas a light spraying of white paint from a spray can. This may spread out through the material, allowing you not so much to paint on the plaster, as on the white spray paint. Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 17:36:11 -0600 From: rockwallshire at webtv.net (Shared Account) To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Re: Fresco Regarding Fresco Painting: My Lord, you will have little success with store bought temepra--which isn't real tempera paint at all (Try the article I have resident at a site I am building on illuminated manuscripts; the site is still majorly under construction but the tempera article is complete, go to http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Library/2036/index.html and follow the links for the article if you want an intoductory article on the differences). According to _The Craftman's Handbook_ (C. Cennini, translated by D.V. Thompson and available from Dover), dry pigments were used, some mixed with a bit of water, but clearly no type of paint containing any type of binder was used in Fresco. Furthermore, Cennini lists a number of pigments that won't work in the Fresco method, although there is no way I can know what pigments your tempera paints were made from; in honesty, however, I would suspect that they were all products of modern chemistry and thus not something Cennini would have much to say about, since he's been dead, lo these many years. Nonetheless, this, too, is something to consider when asking "What Happened!?" The tempera's pigments may have been incompatable with the technique. {Here is a list of modern dry pigments that can be used in fresco painting: all Ochres; the following Mars colors--red, yellow, orange, violet, brown, black; Venitian Red; Iron Oxide red; the Umbers; the Siennas; Green Earth; Viridian Green; Chromium Oxide Green; Ultramarine Blue; Colbalt blue; Cerulean Blue; Ivory Black; Titanium White. MANY DRY PIGMENTS ARE EXTREMELY POSIONOUS--DON'T INGEST THEM AND WEAR A FACE MASK WHEN WORKING WITH THEM!} Further, an excerpt from _Painter's Dictionary of Materials and Methods_: "Nature of Fresco Buono: In this technique, work is done on a wet, freshly applied lime-plaster wall with pigments that have been ground in water. The entire chemical reaction is based on the behavior of lime... [chemisty stuff snipped]... this creates a semitranslucent surface into which the pigments are bound." Another educated guess as to what went wrong, then, might be that part of the problem was the introduction of the cheap, filler junk and large amount of water that is used to make modern "tempera" into a process that is supposed to be performed simply with wetted, ground pigment upon a fairly specific base material--lime-plaster. I, too, have experimented in fresco with tempera paints. I work with mentally retarded adults, and, one day, having finished our usual tasks, I was looking around for something to keep us busy and learning yet not something that would take major time commitment for me to teach. We had tempera paints (I knew they were wrong, but this was an experiment!) and plaster of paris (wrong again)--what we got was a runny mess (wet, thin paint spreading through wet, goopy, plaster of paris) that broke apart as soon as it dried. But we had fun, and my friends got exposed to something new! Our paints did diffuse through the plaster, and the high liquid content of the paint (used straight from the jar) was certainly a contributing factor. Any wet on wet technique runs into that danger; the line between "just enough" and "too much" is pretty thin. Well, I hope this has been helpful to you, and that i am not just repeating what someone else has told you, as I haven't finished reading the thread..... Good luck with your project--if you can't find a source for dry pigments, let me know, there are a couple of online dealers, but I don't have the URLs to hand. Your Servant, Merouda Pendray, writing through the Rockwall account. ------------------------------- Visit our Web Site! http://members.tripod.com/~Pendray/rockwall.html Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 10:36:00 EST From: LRSTCS To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Fresco Painting and Egg Tempera Another good book to help with painting frescos is "The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting" by Daniel V. Thompson, another good Dover book. It was recommended in the Be Not Afraid, class given by Lord Wolfgang at Penssic this year, I found it very helpful. If you grind your own pigments, please take Merouda Pendray's safety advice but also wear rubber gloves. If you don't want to grind your own, there is real egg tempera available in tubes. This is not the tempera paints you mix with water that you find in the school supplies. This is in the good gouache and oil paints section, it comes in a tube just like the good stuff! I noticed it at Pearl art supply in Atlanta, last time I was in there. If this is of any use to anyone, I will investigate it further. I don't know who makes it,(wasn't paying attention, just made a mental note that there is egg tempera in tiny tubes like gouache) what's in it (preservatives if any), I'll read the display info,the cost etc., and will be glad to pick a few tubes and experiment with them and let you know how it works. I'm a beginning Illumination student-If someone has already checked it out, let me know if it's worth bothering with. Lady Magge Reichenberg-Meridies Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 04:32:50 EST From: To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Re: Fresco Painter - introducing myself "The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques", Ralph Mayer. This is a very good book. There are few other books, but out of print. Big libraries have good selection but you have to look for file records before 1935. > where water-based pigments are applied to wet plaster. He did a fine > job, but within a week, the colors faded away. This happened due to the alkaline action of the lime - should use earth pigments, ochras and mineral powders. If not sure about the pigment that you have - test it by mixing with water and lime. This is a small intro to fresco painting - for more detailed material, step by step picks, fresco pictures, discussions and workshop go to http://www.truefresco.com Affresco ( In English usage, "fresco" ). Painting done on freshly laid wet plaster with pigments dissolved in lime water. As both dry they become completely integrated. Known as "true" fresco, this technique was most popular from the late thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. The common assumption that all mural painting is fresco painting is an erroneous idea. It is true that one can in fact paint on fresh plaster, or intonaco, to make a painting in affresco or a fresco. In true fresco the artist must start applying his colors on the wet (or fresco) intonaco as soon as it has been prepared and laid on the wall. The colors can thus be absorbed by the wet plaster. When it dries and hardens, the colors become one with plaster. Technically speaking the plaster does not "dry" but rather a chemical reaction occurs in which calcium carbonate is formed as a result of carbon dioxide from the air combining with the calcium hydrate in the wet plaster. Early morning hours. While Ian Hardwick is applying the final "skim" coat - intonaco, Ilia Anossov is working on mixing right color tones for the day ahead. This marks the beginning of painting day - giornata. Painting is the final and most challenging, of course, stage in creation of the fresco. Before the artist ready to pain several steps should be followed: 1). Full scale detailed compositional rendering - cartoon should be developed and pounced tracing made. 2) Color study should be created, it will be used for mixing right color tones and general color reference. 3) Plaster has to be prepared a few days in advance (the earlier the better - lime needs time to "adopt itself to the sand and gain plasticity) in proportion of 8 parts extra fine sand to 5 parts slaked (pitted) lime or so with the least water possible. 4) Panel mast have three coats (scratch, brown/rough and float (arriccio), coat names reflect the grade of sand - coarse, rough, fine) of plaster put on previously with intervals of 5 days in between the coats or "wet on wet". 5). It helps to grind the base pigments with water into the paste in advance storing them in sealed glass jars, this way in the morning (before the painting begins) will be more time to prepare tone mixes. Try about 25 different tones. Use freshly ground dry lime mixed with water as white (pigments mixed with lime and lime mixed for whites can not be saved) all mixes should be done ONLY with distilled water. 6) I use soft long bristle brushes of various sizes round and flat. 7) After the final intonaco is applied it should be left for about 20min to settle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------= Late Morning - Ilia Anossov is working on monochrome under painting. After preparation is done and freshly laid intonaco had settled it is time to transfer the cartoon. Tracing from the cartoon pounced along the lines with needle or pouncing wheel is laid over the plaster and dusted over with charcoal or simply incised (pressed along the lines) by the opposite end of a thin brush to provide the base guideline for the painting process. The under-painting is done with terra verde (green earth pigment) with shadows enhanced in umber (picture on the right) or with other colors, but remember in fresco it is not possible to completely paint out a "wrong" color therefore every tone should be carefully planned. Another thing to remember is that plaster behaves differently during the day - it will need more water in the tones at the beginning and the end of the day then in the middle and do not keep to much paint on the brush - it will result in "blobs" squeeze it slightly between the fingers before touching the plaster. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------= Midday - under-painting is done and Ilia Anossov is beginning to apply color. Major color values should be painted out first in the same manner as under-painting - work the entire giornata gradually and keep it balanced, also plaster will not take to much paint at once, let it "rest" between the passes of a brush by working on different area. It should be about 25 tone variations with light and dark with two mid tones in-between of each color. The best working pigments in fresco are the earth oxides and other mineral pigments. Some pigments will not work with lime plaster at all - some man made greens change to yellow as being mixed, so as many other modern day pigments except the ones that specially formulated for the use with plasters. Test the colors in advance by mixing little portions of them with lime, also most of art supply stores should have reference material on traditional fresco palette. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------= The End of the day. Ilia Anossov is finishing the fresco. He is putting the last touches by picking up the details and accents. The end of the day for the fresco painter is the most pleasant stage the plaster enters what is sometimes called "the golden hour" - painting is 3/4 done and plaster is in it's best stage. Time to finish the detail pickup and blend color tones by passing over and over with lairs of transparent color at (this stage the color mixes should be "wet" again). Painter must work fast and precise at this stage because "golden hour" also means that plaster will soon "lock up" - stop receiving paint (the paint will change to much lighter opaque tone as soon a it touches the plaster - that is it put the brush down!). One thing to remember is that in the next seven or so days following the painting the fresco will be undergoing the curing stage and this is a confidence test for the Artist. Colors dry at different speed and plaster is naturally compacted unevenly although it looks flat and perfect changes to white faster in more compacted areas. These are to of many other factors that make color in fresco change into discouraging cacophony for the first few days after the painting is finished. But do not worry in about 7-10 days it will look even more beautiful and just a little lighter then the day it was painted. for this text with step by step pictures go to http://www.truefresco.com/technique.html Fresco Painter http://www.truefresco.com Edited by Mark S. Harris frescoes-msg Page 6 of 6