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By John Blenkin
Framing watercolor pictures is now a huge widespread industry.
As education has been made available to children of all ages drawing and painting have been found to be useful tools to engage their attention. These children grow up with a first hand acquaintance of the joys and satisfactions to be founding in the graphic arts. An industry has developed supplying painting materials for this huge market for specialist painting products.
Picture framing is part of this wider industry and serves painters of all types and all levels of ability with high quality mass-produced framing services and products.
Framing watercolors is necessary to their preservation. How this is done is a personal thing but adopting the following suggestions will be more than helpful to set off your work in the best possible way to avoid later disappointment especially in the medium and long term.
The object of framing a watercolor is to present the painting at its best and to protect it from damage by dust organisms dampness and toxins in the air. The effect of framing therefore is to preserve the work and retain its value for its owner in the many years to come.
During the life of the painting reframing will probably be necessary to stave off deterioration from attack – let the frame system absorb the attack instead of the painting ground.
Framing is also necessary for selling work at exhibitions and framing also helps your own personal selling.
Framing too has undergone its own development and there are a number of dos and don’ts best adhered to until you know better.
The framing system consists of the following parts put together in a sort of sandwich with the painting as its central filling. These parts are:
The surround Frame.
The picture Glass.
The Mount.
The Picture.
The Backing.
The Taping
These are put together to form a single object – a framed watercolor painting.
There is a very important additional reason for framing the watercolor painting under glass. This relates to the very nature of watercolors. It is not generally appreciated a watercolor when complete before drying the colors are much brighter than when dry. In drying the color loses impact. This is because the water acts like a brightener. As the still wet picture is the effect the painter wanted to achieve if this is degraded in any way then the way to recover the color strength is to display it under glass.
There is a way to mitigate this loss of brightness and that is to paint as near dry as the medium will allow. Low tones though will not retain transparency if they are laid too dry
The work therefore must be given frequent checks under glass during actual painting to confirm how the impact of the color is progressing.
Frame sizes should be consistent to save paper and time lost when mix-ups occur if different dimensions are frequently used for each painting. Also exhibitions can look very untidy if there are too many sizes. If this is the case the pictures themselves have to be displayed in a kind of abstract layout to achieve unity of presentation.
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Consistency in sizes will also convey some consistency in your work.
Sizes are defined by halving a full-sized sheet of paper into two standard half-sized sheets. Halve one half full-size sheet to obtain two quarter-full sized sheets.
Half full-sized standard sheets [555 x 375mm] are Normal painting sized sheets. Use this Normal Standard size for most of your work.
Only cut this size down if you need a smaller painting. Keep uncut full Size Sheets in a special portfolio.
A painting is often framed as if seen through a window. This to me is wrong – the frame with its mount and the picture should read as a single object. The following mount sizes below are approximately balanced to achieve this unity but are rounded for convenience and perhaps memory.
These sizes have been used for many years and have not been selected for the purposes of this text.
FULL SIZE PAINTING [In International mm]
Paper 760 x 555 mm
Window 720 x 520
Mount [overall] 900 x 700
Glass [overall] 900 x 700
Mount width ninety mm
HALF FULL SIZE
Paper 555 x 375
Window 520 x 360
Mount [overall] 680 x 520
Glass [overall] 680 x 520
Mount width eighty mm
QUARTER FULL SIZE
Paper 375 x 275
Window 360 x 260
Mount [overall] 500 x 400
Glass [overall] 500 x 400
Mount width seventy mm
For watercolor paintings the frames are best when small section medium or blonde tone natural wood matt finish hardwood timber is used. Please do not use colored frames. Black frames cause too much contrast and therefore glare between the frame edge and the glass or the wall behind. Simple small section classical molded wood frames are good.
Bulky wood frames should not be used.
Glass should be picture grade [not window glass] glass. Never use photographic non-reflective glass – ever!
Mounts should be warm white for warm toned paintings. Use cold white mounts for cool toned pictures. Mount should be of purpose made mount quality with the window cut on the bevel. It is unnecessary to use multi-frames and double mounts or built-up frames. If you feel this then probably the picture is not finished or too small for the size of picture frame you wish to use.
Backing should be hardboard – but not oil-bound hardboard. Sealing tape used should only be special framers' tape. Defer to framer. Never use self adhesive tape unless it is purpose made for the job. The ground will slip in very hot weather.
There are two grades of professional framers. The first is the professional high street framer or framing workshop owner whose aim is to give you the best framing service he can within the competition environment in the locality.
The second is the framing artist who designs purpose tailor-made or bespoke frames to exactly suit a picture’s unique individual character. Such a framer demands high prices but to see each painting complete in its own unique way is a great joy. This approach to framing was at one time the only way pictures were framed. It was the norm. The framing costs then must have been high
Only museums and auction houses will now meet the expenses expected by the framing artist.
Please do not frame your own pictures. Even if you are a handy with tools it is better for you just to paint.
My very best wishes.
John Blenkin is a retired architect and is now a watercolor painter and article writer. His interests are wide covering both technical and philosophical subjects. He also writes online articles on the technique of watercolor painting.
http://www.freefolios.com/
foka@spidernet.com.cy
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