It's Friday!!

Today I was able to try out some paint bellows that I purchased for my classroom...as part of the summer program, each student gets a smock to wear while baking and painting.  They used a sewing machine to embroider their names on their smocks and then they decided they wanted to paint them as well...in a Jackson Pollock action painting style!  So, the next question...how to do this so the students don't get paint all over themselves since their smocks will be on the floor getting painted!

Well, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to pull out the neon paint and my new paint bellows and let the kids go at it!  I didn't think to take any pictures until just about everyone was done but a couple students had denim smocks and those looked really cool with the neon paint!  I'm thinking I can now safely do the Prehistoric Spit Hand paintings with these bellows!

As for our mural, we are finally alllllmmmooooossstt done!!!  My mom and dad are here visiting this weekend from Buffalo so I brought my mom to school with me and put her to work! ;)  I also had some of my steadier painters today so we were able to get a lot of the figures re-outlined.

My trusty painters today!

These three figures are all done, as well as the lettering!

We need to finish the yellow break-dancing guy by adding a music staff and music notes and his movement lines...Also need to finish the clouds and the swimming guy down at the other end...then we get to clear coat!

So the question I have for my few viewers as of right now...what would you suggest we clear coat it in?  I have some acrylic gel that is good to use as a varnish, but it dries with a gloss to it and I worry it will create a glare on the mural...I also have acrylic matte finish gel that I found online as a suggestion to use, but the bottle itself doesn't say anything about using it as a varnish.  Can anyone give me any pointers?  I really don't want to have to spray paint a clear coat over this entire thing!