Figures and bas-reliefs of plaster for the design of buildings were not invented by our contemporaries. This durable and environmentally friendly material adorns the facades of many old buildings. Acquaintance with the basics of painting traditionally begins with the drawing of various objects and figures from plaster.
Why should the gypsum shapes for painting be white?
The painting training course necessarily includes the image of volumetric geometric objects. It can be pyramids and balls, cylinders and cubes, cones and prisms. Such items can be glued from paper, take ready-made jars or boxes, cast from alabaster. The sizes practically do not matter, only one thing is important: all these objects should be matte white.
This condition allows you to better study the laws of chiaroscuro, learn how to build common proportions. In the future, the acquired skills will be useful when portraying human faces and bodies.
The plaster head is a rather complex object. To go to this stage, students of art schools pre-train in drawing geometric shapes. Voluminous objects from white alabaster - from plaster are perfectly suited for this purpose.
It is a natural, absolutely eco-friendly material with a soft structure. Fine powder, when diluted with water, freezes very quickly.
Plaster figures for a garden
The task of both park and country sculptures is to revitalize the landscape, harmonious combination with the general style of the surrounding greenery and flower beds. When choosing a place where plaster figures will be located, it is necessary to take into account some simple rules:
- sculptures should organically fit into the style of the garden;
- a large number of gnomes or fairies can complicate the perception of the overall picture and ruin everything;
- for design in a classical style, decorations from more solid materials, such as wood, marble or bronze, will be appropriate;
- small, not immediately noticeable sculptures are suitable for the natural landscape.
Who invented garden figurines?
In medieval tales, it is told that gnomes are miners, gold miners and skilled, hardworking blacksmiths living underground, inside the mountains. Small bearded men in caps are good and evil. How did these mythical characters move to parks?
The story is this: once one of the German ceramic masters got lost in the forest thicket. Trying to find his way home, he wandered into the adit of the miners. Workers and helped a man get out of the forest. One of them presented as a souvenir his red cap, which protects his head from blows against stones when working in a cave.
This incident influenced the master so much that he began to make garden plaster figures: cheerful and kind bearded gnomes with red caps on their heads. Colorful sculptures quickly fell in love with both his compatriots and visiting tourists.
Such decorations for personal plots either went in or out of fashion. The gardens were inhabited not only by gnomes, but also by fairies, birds, flowers or mushrooms. And they used not only ceramics for making figures. Currently, sculptures from the following materials are popular:
- burnt clay;
- stones of unusual shape;
- mounting construction foam;
- old tree trunks;
- gypsum figures;
- other natural and artificial raw materials.
Perfectly preserved, resisting time and bad weather
In order for the gypsum figures not to lose their colorfulness and integrity, you need to take care of them in a certain way. First of all, you can not install the sculpture on the open ground. Moisture may damage its base. It is best to place the gnome on a stone or wooden stand. To protect the sculpture from tipping over, it is best to attach it to the stand with PVA glue or sealant. To preserve the upper painted surface, the figures are coated with colorless varnish once a year. For the winter period, sculptures can be removed indoors or simply covered with a film, tightly securing it with tape.
In order to clean white figures (such as a gypsum head) from dust and accidental pollution, you can cover them with a thick layer of thickly brewed starch, wrap with cotton wool and leave for several hours. After removing the wool, the surface of the figure will be cleaned of dirt and again turn white.