Framing Colored Pencil Without Glass

Today is an art working day, but no new artwork has been worked on. Why? Because I needed to finish off and frame the 2 pieces I just finished and deliver them to the gallery. This blog post will explain what I do to finish off a piece of art, but first I'll have to explain the process and supplies I use.


Most of you know that my still-lifes are framed without glass.  I do this for a couple of reasons:
 1. to make pictures seem more approachable/intimate.
 2. to bypass the perils of framing with mats & glass.


I've tried quite a few surfaces for colored pencil that can be framed without glass, but my favorite is Ampersand Pastelbord which is described as "a clay and gesso coated hardboard panel with a granular marble dust finish comparable to a sanded pastel paper..." It was first recomended by my friend/artist Louise Sackett who thought I was a little nutty trying to make my own sanded board with grit, paint, etc. when Ampersand has a pre-made board. 


Choosing a Color


It comes in grey, green, tan and white. I find the white board unusable for my techniques unfortunately. The grain is quite large on Pastelbord so whatever the color the board is, that color  will show in the "grain" as dots in the finished artwork. The white is just too white when seen in dark areas of the composition, throwing the values of the piece off. I prefer working with one of the colors and choose the color based on what I think will look the best in the grain of the piece. If I have a piece like Tea with Milk  that is mostly cool colors, I'll choose the grey board because the little specks of grey in the grain will influence the overall tone of the piece. 

Pieces like Italian Decadence is a bit harder to choose. The overall tone is warm, but the tan board is light and would lighten the dark areas of the cloth and bottles of oil too much... so I'd be better off using either green or grey board. 


Building Up Your Lights. 


Using colored board is a bit different than using white or beige paper because you have to make sure that your light and medium colored objects look bright enough on that color, especially after varnishing. What I do is build up my lights in the light and medium  areas to make sure they glow.  Since this post is on what I do when I finish a piece, I'll save this explanation for another post. 


Colored Pencils That Can Be Varnished


 Not all colored pencil brands can be varnished. Faber-Castell Polychromos (which I use for all my portraits) can not be varnished. The paint thinner that is in spray varnishes to keep them liquid eats away at the colored pencils, and the oil binder in Polychromos can't withstand it so your drawing literally dissolves away. I've found that Derwent Coloursofts, Prismacolors, and Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils all do well with spray varnish, although you still have to be ready for some colored pencil to dissolve and color changes with the process. 


Using the Prismacolor Colorless Blender to Minimize Dissolving Pencil

Despite these changes in the drawing when you varnish, I still think it is worth doing to stay away from glass. Plus you can anticipate the changes that will happen and minimize the changes or use them for your advantage. One thing that happens when you varnish is a small amount of colored pencil will dissolve, making more of the color of the board show through. That is why I build up my lights in light areas when working on a dark surface.  If there are enough light layers of colored pencil under your color, it will darken less (demonstration in future post). Also if you regularly build up your pencil to burnishing levels it seems to not have as many significant changes. I don't usually burnish however, so I've found that  if I put a layer of Prismacolor's Colorless Blender on my pieces, especially in the lighter areas, the colors stay brighter. Going back through the piece to add the blender pencil takes time, but it also gives you a chance to blend the pencil in some of the grain and soften edges if needed. I've found that adding the blender only on the areas that I don't want to darken is sufficient and actually adding the blender over black or dark areas leaves some light colored wax, so I wouldn't do it. 


After you finish adding colorless blender over your drawing just make sure you remove any colored pencil dust before varnishing (or hair or whatever else has fallen on your artwork) as it will be a permanent fixture to the piece if you leave it there!   


Varnishing, Finally


I use canned spray varnish over my pieces. I once sadly tried a brush on kind and wiped my entire drawing off, so using a spray on varnish ensures the pencil stays in place until it dries. There are matte, semi gloss and gloss versions of the spray and any of them will work, so choose the look you like best. I've used them all, and right now I am enjoying the look of the glossy finish. Today I used Grumbacher's Picture and Oil Painting Varnish in the Gloss finish which I purchased locally at Michael's. You can use other brands; I've even used Krylon's Kamar varnish from Walmart, but you need to make sure it says "Non-Yellowing" and test it first on a scrap drawing. 

When you spray, hold the can at least 8-10 inches away from your piece and only spray a fine mist at a time. If you spray a whole bunch so it pools, more colored pencil will dissolve. After spraying the whole thing in a fine mist, let it dry and do it over again. Repeat until it is evenly coated and the entire surface has a glossy wet sheen. I hold my drawing up to the light and tilt it to see if there are any dull areas that indicate missed spots. That's it, if you have a nice even finish without any exposed colored pencil purchasers of your artwork will have a protected surface that they can then wipe clean with a damp cloth  if need be. 


You might notice that the dark areas of your drawing got a little deeper or that very subtle glazes of colored pencil disappeared with the varnish. The more you varnish your colored pencil work, the more you will be able to anticipate these changes and work them into your design, As a last note... if you are going to photograph your artwork you may want to do that before you varnish so you don't have to work around the glare of the varnish finish. 


Italian Decadence and Tea with Milk are now showing at the Monadnock Fine Art Gallery in downtown Keene, NH. Call 603-352-3201 if you are interested. 

Long & Skinny

I've had a setback with the framing on my lemon piece. I ordered 3 - 12 x 12 frames from Dick Blick in the Simplon frame like I usually do for standard sizes and all 3 have flaws. Specifically they all have spaces at the joints that show like cracks on the front of the frame. I think I would be better off purchasing the frame I buy for the non-standard sizes from pictureframes.com (Plein Aire). I'll do that soon so I can get it to the gallery.

In the meantime I am working on a new tall and skinny still-life. I did one in this format a while back that used the same handled bowl with a spoon in it. I really liked the blueish tints the bowl lended as well as the strange shadowy space of the small bowl. The angled spoon really helps move you through the tall composition as does the pattern of the holes on the lace. Actually in these tall and thin compositions it is really important to alternate the directions of everything that points this way or that - even the grain of the wood on the table had to be turned the right direction. In the end you sort of zig-zag through the piece like a ball in a pin ball machine. Relaxing right? ;-) I'm hoping to fnish this tomorrow so you can see the whole composition.

I made Linzer heart cookies recently which are an art form in itself... I love making pretty desserts - there is just something so satisfying about hand loved foods to share with your friends. & sometimes beauty just sneaks up on you... like the pattern left over from dusting sugar on my cookies. :-)

framing

I've just spent today making frame orders for my artwork and feeling like I was really unproductive. Measuring artwork and ordering frames is never as much fun as making artwork, but I really need to get my latest still-lifes off to the gallery so I HAD to make a frame order. They are doing me no good sitting here frameless. 

I thought I'd show you all the frames I get. I usually get the "plein aire" frames, which I guess are supposed to be for outdoor landscapes? I just really like how they are very wide and almost like a double frame, but simple in style. The top one is white and is a special order from pictureframes.com. They have all different colors now but I usually buy them in black for my still-lifes and gold for my portraits, but obviously I don't always! You can see the gold frame in the portrait below. the gold is a bit brassy. There is another gold with a crackle that I have bought and really like - the finish is much less brassy and shiny but it is not in my studio at the moment. It was also from pictureframes.com.

I love framing the pieces on paper (my portraits) with museum glass - BUT it is way too expensive, so I usually just order the plexi from pictureframes.com. I hate the glare but that is what you get if you don't want to pay for museum glass. 

You'll also notice that I don't use matting even though they are on paper and under glass. I found that when I frame them with matting it is much more expensive (larger frame and glass to allow for the matting plus the price of the matt). They also look better hung next to my still-lifes on board that I frame without glass. So what do I use so the art doesn't touch the glass? I use spacers... and there are many types. The ones I use are from artright.com and instead of sticking them on the glass like a sticker - they clip over the glass. Admittedly when you are using real glass it is a scary procedure, but with plexi it isn't so bad. They come in loads of sizes to hold the glass further away or closer. 

When I am working in a standard size, which isn't often, I order plein aire frames from Dick Blick.  They are so much cheaper, but only come in standard sizes. You can see the one I ordered from Dick Blick on the still-life with apples. They might be cheaper than at pictureframes.com but they are of lesser quality. They are made from a much softer wood and then painted and can get dents, scratches etc much easier than the others. 

Now hopefully my order will come in soon so I can frame this stuff up and get it out at the galleries where they belong!

3 pieces waiting for frames... Shannon looks like she's a bit tired of waiting...

Museum Glass

"Tulips" 18" x 24" framed with Museum Glass 

I made it in to the studio today and framed up the pastel portrait of my little one. I used the aged crackled gold plein aire frame which I really like. It isn't brassy looking like some other gold frames and compliments the gold tones in the portrait well.

I used spacers so I didn't have to matt the piece and ran down to the Creative Encounters frame shop (just feet from my studio) and picked up a piece of museum glass. Wow is it expensive, but it makes all the difference in the world if you need glass for artwork. In the right lighting situation you will not see a glare on this stuff, which creates the look of a painting since there is no matting. 

I'm thinking about bringing this into my daughters class tomorrow for her show and tell, since it is her day, before bringing it to the gallery. The Monadnock Fine Art Gallery gals said they liked the portrait so I thought I would see if they wanted it to display. Especially since it is almost spring and she is drawing tulips! Of course if it sold I would miss her... I guess I could just draw another! 

& here is a whole days work yesterday... value scales. Can you believe these took me ALLLL day! I won't explain what they are for... its a secret. :-)