Why permanent marker is really the only marker choice you can make.

(-Sistine Chapel-) The Sistine Chapel is a little overwhelming. Unfortunately, this has very little to do with the paintings. Walking into the sistine chapel is like making the mistake of jumping into a crowded wave pool. Imagine though that the shallow end you’re being pushed towards only has one small ladder to exit. People keep jumping into the deep end because they’re just so excited. Everyone is screaming the whole time. OH MY GOD THIS CHAPEL IS SO MUCH FUN. They’re smashing into you. Elbows are flying, some old man loses his toupee, and the life guard is blowing his whistle for everyone to stop yelling because this is a Holy Wave Pool. I hope you’re having fun.

The frescoes are nice though. Michelangelo certainly knew what he was doing. It’s interesting to look from one end to the other. Stylistically they’re very different. A small stiff man on one end is paired with a gigantic, moving (not literally), man and his very large fish. The fish alone is more interesting than the small man. I guess as you paint the entirety of a ceiling of the course of years your paintings would change. His shift to exaggeration nearing full on mannerism is presumably preferable to a shift to sloppy.

This says something about his methods as well. The architectural elements of the painting reflecting the architecture of the room, creating a sort of grid that runs the length of the ceiling, leaves no doubt that it was considered before the changing characters. These differing stylistic choices fit into place because of this pre-planning. The most important choices were made while the figures were still not considered.