Our little Bear has already done this project with the great team of Artistkids in Budapest, but because it was quite a long time ago and he loved it so much, I thought we will give it another go ourselves. (Yes, both of us coloured our frescos.)
The idea is that using Michelangelo's " The creation of Adam" fresco, kids paint, colour upside down a printed sketch of a picture.
We sticked the paper to the bottom of the table and painted lying on the carpet.
We had of course some precautions and covered the rug to save it from stains.
It is new, exciting to paint lying, arching, kneeling on the floor, looking up, but it is much more than this. It is fun, improving fine motor skills, but also an opportunity to explore art.
First we looked at a picture of the original painting and also the whole Sistine Chapel to give some perspective of size and the grandiose of the whole fresco. Then we talked about the process of painting the frescos. I googled the information and it is interesting, because colouring the pre-printed BW picture is closer to painting a real fresco than I thought.
This is what Wikipedia has to say:
"Fresco (plural frescos or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word fresco (Italian: affresco) is derived from the Italian adjective fresco meaning "fresh...
... In painting buon fresco, a rough underlayer called the arricciois added to the whole area to be painted and allowed to dry for some days. Many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen.
...On the day of painting, the intonaco, a thinner, smooth layer of fine plaster was added to the amount of wall that was expected to be completed that day, sometimes matching the contours of the figures or the landscape, but more often just starting from the top of the composition. This area is called the giornata("day's work"),...
... Buon frescoesare difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Generally, a layer of plaster will require ten to twelve hours to dry; ideally, an artist would begin to paint after one hour and continue until two hours before the drying time—giving seven to nine hours' working time. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, and the unpainted intonaco must be removed with a tool before starting again the next day."
Bear found it exciting to imagine that the artist was not ready in time on a day and had to go with a hammer to remove the plaster before starting it again next day. :o)
Similar to how it was done in the past, we had the artist's sketches on the ceiling ( a colouring sheet, a simplified version of the original painting downloaded from supercoloring.com Can be printed out from below ).
When we looked at the original painting, I just told him the title of the picture, nothing more and he guessed who is who on the picture, had a chat about why the hands are not reaching each other etc. So it gave a great opportunity to explore art a bit.
Seeing the original did not limit Bear's imagination (as my fear was), he seemed to use the colours freely and independent from the original fresco.
We painted for at least an hour and half, side by side, just chatting about the picture and the process. It was a really relaxing time for both. After painting upside down in funny positions for so long made him also express his appreciation how long and how difficult the process of creating frescos must have been.
Here is Bear's final art:
Please , show us your work!
If you tried one of little Bear's projects and happy to share the result, please make a photo and send it to us with the first name and age of your kid and we would be pleased to share!
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