About Finishing

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Permalink Reply by heather noye on January 6, 2010 at 9:46am

i don't consider a piece finished until i've added a topcoat. i use a matte sealer; sometimes spray-on, sometimes brush-on. i don't have a specific brand i use. i just look in the art supplies for an acrylic matte varnish. i tend to buy Liquitex brand a lot but i'm not opposed to different kinds. i try new ones all the time.

i've also recently realized how much more complete a piece looks once it's framed. i can't afford to frame everything immediately. but i'm slowly working my way thru my body of work and hope to frame the majority of it.

matting isn't used on canvases. you also don't want to put a canvas behind glass. it will create a micro-climate and ruin the integrity of your piece. if you're working on paper or framing photographs you'll want to add a matte and glass. i'm not sure if you'd add glass if you were altering photographs. maybe someone else will have that information.

anyways, talk about information overload!!! i hope this helps and i hope others have more information.

heather

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Permalink Reply by Diana on January 7, 2010 at 3:57am

Here's my humble take:

There are so many ways to "finish" a painting. As you know, Gary doesn't frame his canvases, although I noticed that he does paint the sides of his gallery-wrapped canvases. And when he frames his paper artworks he doesn't matte them. If he doesn't frame his paper artworks, he puts them in plastic see-through slips that you can buy from places like Cheap Joe's.
I can tell you what a lot of folks do:
Paper: A lot of watercolorists use something like Cheap Joe's 'mat systems," which include pre-cut mats (all sizes - single and double cut), a backing board, and a see-through envelope. They'll sell their artwork just like that, with the customer able to frame the work his/herself. Some watercolorists will spray varnish their works before matting, some don't.
Canvas - acrylics: Some people don't do anything to their canvases, while others use something to seal them - ie, a matt gel or varnish. You can varnish a painting using something like Golden's archival spray varnish (experiment first so you don't get drips and uneven varnishing),or a liquid varnish, which can be painted on with a brush. Painting varnish on can accentuate the textures in your painting, or be distracting, depending on how good you are. There is a cool video of an artist on youtube who varnishes her painting by hand -- rubbing in her painting, which is lain on a table. I can try to find it if you're interested. She made it look very organic and fun, and the result was excellent.
I've tried both and like both!
So that's my two cents: I'd add a third but I don't know anything about oils!

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Permalink Reply by Mo Mapes on January 7, 2010 at 4:21am

I would definitely like to see the video, Diana! I'm following this post too.

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Permalink Reply by Diana on January 7, 2010 at 8:01am

Here's the link to the artist who varnishes her paintings by hand. Note: it's fairly rambling and the picture and sound quality aren't the best, but you'll get the gist of it.

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Permalink Reply by Mo Mapes on January 7, 2010 at 8:21am

So where is the link?

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Permalink Reply by Diana on January 7, 2010 at 8:45am

geesh in the box here I clicked the "LINK" but it didn't work. Let's try it a different way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6MGVkiCVo4

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Permalink Reply by Diana on January 7, 2010 at 7:59am

i just watched a video of Gary's in which some of his paper artworks are framed....

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CapricornArtist73#p/u/128/2YTnj...

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