Because plaster dries quickly, only the area the artist can paint in one day is plastered. Unlike acrylic or oil, fresco painting cannot be covered over, thus making every stroke permanent. If the artist feels dissatisfied with some part, the plaster and paint either must be scraped off while still wet, or if dry, chipped off and the process started over again with the arriccio layer. The cartoon then is perforated with a small needle to create an image of the design. The perforated tracing paper was used twice, first to transfer the entire cartoon on to the rough plaster layer and then to mark each day's fresh intonaco coat.
Fresco has a long and varied history.
Following a visual tradition that began with the cave paintings at Lascaux more than 15,000 years ago, it has been used throughout the ages as a means of religious and secular communication. The American public is most familiar with frescoes painted by the great Italian masters. Cennino Cennini documented the techniques these artists used in The Craftsman's Handbook, written in 1437. Throughout the project, Balma referred to this and other sources daily. Fresco painting flourished in Italy in the late Middle Ages, an era of widespread building by the Catholic church and the government.