Plaster figures: for the garden, for drawing

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Figures and bas-reliefs made of gypsum for decoration of buildings were not invented by our contemporaries. Facades of many ancient buildings are decorated with this durable and environmentally friendly material. Acquaintance with the basics of painting traditionally begins with drawing various objects and figures from plaster.

Why do plaster figures need to be white for painting?

The painting curriculum necessarily includes the image of three-dimensional 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. Sizes do not really matter, only one thing is important: all these items must be matte white.

This condition allows you to better study the laws of chiaroscuro, learn how to build general proportions. In the future, the acquired skills will come in handy when depicting human faces and bodies.

A plaster head is quite a complex object. To proceed to this stage, students of art schools pre-train in drawing geometric shapes. Great forfor this purpose, voluminous objects made of white alabaster are made of plaster.

This is a natural, absolutely eco-friendly material with a soft structure. Fine powder when diluted with water hardens very quickly.

Plaster figures for the garden

The task of both park and country sculptures is to revitalize the landscape, harmoniously blending with the general style of the surrounding greenery and flower beds. When choosing a place where plaster figures will be located, you need to consider 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 big picture and spoil everything;
• for a classic design, decorations made 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 said that dwarves are miners, gold miners and skilled, hardworking blacksmiths living underground, inside the mountains. Small bearded men in hats-caps are good and evil. How did these mythical characters move to the parks?

The story is this: once one of the German ceramists got lost in the forest thicket. Trying to find his way home, he wandered into the miners' adit. The workers helped the man get out of the forest. One of them presented his red cap as a souvenir, protecting his head from hitting stones.while working in a cave.

This case influenced the master so much that he began to make garden plaster figures: cheerful and kind bearded gnomes with red caps on their heads. The colorful sculptures quickly fell in love with both his compatriots and visiting tourists.

Such decorations for household plots have come in and out of fashion. Gardens were inhabited not only by gnomes, but also by fairies, birds, flowers or mushrooms. And not only ceramics were used to make figures. Sculptures made from the following materials are currently popular:

• baked clay;
• stones of unusual shape;
• mounting construction foam;
• old tree trunks;
• plaster figures;
• other natural and artificial raw materials.

Perfectly preserved, resisting time and bad weather

In order for plaster 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 open ground. Its base may suffer from moisture. It is best to put the gnome on a stone or wooden stand. To protect the statue from tipping over, it is best to attach it to the stand with PVA glue or sealant. To preserve the upper painted surface, the figurines are covered with a colorless varnish once a year. For the winter period, the sculptures can be removed indoors or simply covered with a film, tightly securing it with tape.

To clean the white figures (such aslike a plaster head), you can cover them with a thick layer of thickly brewed starch, wrap with cotton and leave for several hours. After removing the cotton wool, the surface of the figure will be cleared of dirt and become white again.