I blame @photojenn for inspiring this piece with a random comment in the Ongoing Random Chat thread about how frescos are made. Suddenly, I was desperate to make a fresco. Or a faux fresco, anyway, when I discovered the materials and chemicals needed for a real fresco were more than I was willing to invest in something I’d make one time.
I found this tutorial for making plaster faux frescos and ran with the idea. Conveniently, the 4x6 art swap was happening at the same time so I made my efforts part of that and the finished piece now lives with @Mountains_and_Clouds.
A bajillion process pics and details:
I started by cutting some brown loose weave burlap fabric and hemming the edges with embroidery floss.
The tutorial calls for plaster of paris, but all I had was some Amaco sculptamold. I gave it a try.
Then I painted on my little round test piece while it was still wet in the spirit of true frescos. I hated it. The surface is too bumpy.
I didn’t have plaster of paris, but I did have plaster strips for making masks. So I applied three layers of those. But I could still see the loose weave cloth that the plaster is bound to. And I didn’t like that look.
The smallest bag of plaster of paris I could buy is 4 lb, and that is way more than I will ever use in my lifetime. But while looking for plaster of paris I noticed that they do have really tiny jars of spackle for drywall repair. 
At $6 a jar, I figured why not. I grabbed my pallette knife, slathered some on, and it was just the look I wanted! The texture is close to real plaster and lovely. Though, even when fully dry, it’s still soft and more fragile than real plaster would be.
Next, I lightly penciled in my design. I went with a lemon tree design because I love them and a chinoiserie pot because those blues are a gorgeous contrast to the bright yellows of the lemons. For paint, I used Holbein Acryl Gouache because it has the blendability of gouache when wet, but can’t be reactivated when dry. When my first pass was dry, I add several thin washes of brown to add a bit of aging.
I wasn’t sure what acrylic sealer would do to the drywall material, so I didn’t end up sealing the finished piece. I’m hoping that because the gouache is acrylic it will be fine. Even so, the surface is fragile. I accidentally nicked it after painting and you can see a little white mark in the floor area to the left of the pot. I chose to leave that because it is supposed to be a fresco and those often have damage so I thought it added to the piece.
I glued the faux fresco to the burlap with E-6000 and glued some felt on the back to further cement things together, then added a loop for hanging on the wall and called it done.
If you’ve read this far, you deserve a lemon cookie!
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