Mounting drawings
 

Hi,

I have been doing some pencil/charcoal sketches on paper recently, and was wondering how best to mount them. There's a small local show coming up this weekend, and I would like to put them on something hard-backed, and in one of those flat, clear plastic bags, and probably displayed in one of those V-shaped print holders. No matting or anything, as they're not for sale, I just wanted to display them as examples. Is foamcore the cheapest option and is it archival? Is there a certain kind of archival tape or glue and/or photo-mounting corners that would be best? We have a Pearl store nearby that would have most supplies.

I realize this is a very fundamental question, particularly for pastelists, and so basic that I didn't even find an answer searching the forum.

Thanks in advance,

Holly

One method that I have used involves placing a specialized (treated) paper between the artwork and an archival foam board. I believe the sandwich is then heated which permanently adheres the paper to the board. My framer back in Okla. did this for me and I have found that the Art supply store here in Sarasota also provides the service. I've had good luck with this process and it appears to be very permanent. I think it's called dry mount. I usually do it before hand to provide a rigid support that will allow me to place the board on my easel.

Come to think of it, I don't know that I have ever gone through this process after the art has been made. Hmmm .. Maybe someone else has.

Actually, I have an artist friend who regularly gets her pastels dry mounted after they are done. I have to say I never had the nerve to try it myself. Best to do a trial first.

Foam core comes in an acid free version.

I think the larger problem will be how to avoid damaging the drawings. Anything that touches the charcoal will smudge it, and plastic will produce static, which will lift the charcoal off the surface, and deposit it onto the plastic. If the pencil work is soft, it will likewise fall victim.

If you want to just show samples, can you make a high quality print of the drawings from your computer?

If your intent is to use the drawings to get commissions, I really think they need to be properly matted, framed, and shown in their best light. :)

Mike,

Thanks a lot for the info. I'll look into dry-mounting around here for future projects.

Chris,

Sorry I didn't say that I was planning on spraying the drawings with some old Krylon Workable Fixatif that I have. My guess is that several layers of that would prevent the charcoal from lifting? Interesting thought of making a print, only I'd like to keep the original size, which is a little bigger than the printer is capable of.

When you do your pastels Chris, on Wallis paper or whatever, do you also always dry-mount your flexible surface to your support before beginning the painting or drawing?


While I should listen to your words of wisdom, these quick sketches really don't warrant the time and money for proper mattes and frames.

Thanks,

Holly

Hi Holly,

I 've only painted one pastel in the past couple of years, however, I only would dry mount once the size is too large and heavy to manage - anthing 22 x 28 or larger.

Try the fixative on a test piece first, they put some plastic on top, and see if it really fixes the surface.

I recently bought some Lithto-Coal, which can be made permanent and unsmudgable with heat. It says however, not to use in the same oven you use for cooking, so I'm a bit stymied as to how to fix it.

I saw some pastels today that were mounted to something the same exact size and glass was placed on top with clips to hold it in place. The glass was actually touching the pastel. I had never seen that before and wondered about the technique. Wouldnt it possible stick to the pastel - in which case it could never be removed?

I was wondering if mounting a drawing would do anything to the value of it?

Never put anything in direct contact with a charcoal or pastel drawing. Actually, NO drawing as there is always the possibility of it smudging or static removing some of the material.

Kimberly in your case, the glass should not have been placed in direct contact with the pastels. And yes, the pastel WILL come off with the glass. If you expect to sell these pastels, you would have to have them re framed properly. That would mean removing the glass from the pastel surface, and retouching the pastels before reframing. I know this from experience. A gallery owner took two of my smaller pastels (for me) to show to someone in their home.
She placed them side by side in her car VERTICALLY so the pastels fell against the glass. I had to take them to my framer to have them re framed and the glass cleaned. I also had to retouch the pastels. She now wants to have a show of mine!

As to attaching them to a harder surface, they have what are called acid- free hinges and tape for that. www.nycentralart.com .
Use an archival board or foam-core.

And WHY are you showing things you don't much care about?

As to the future value of a mounted piece, I consulted the drawing department of The Rhode Island School of Design Museum. They said if it was properly done. ie. proper archival backing adhesives etc. it was OK. It was important to go to a knowledgeable framer, not your local chop-shop. They had photos that the had had for years that were perfectly fine. I asked them for a recommendation of a local framer and the name they gave me was fortunately the one I was using.

Sharon-

I said I SAW some pastels - they weren't mine. Slow down girl! :o

Mea Culpa Kimberly.

I couldn't get online for two days and was reading everything VERY quickly!

Interesting info. everyone. For what it's worth, I did try spraying a test piece of paper with several coats of the Krylon spray, and the pastel did not come off when I rubbed it with my finger.

Sharon,

I posted the drawings in the drawing critique section. As you can see, they're nothing to be framed or anything. I'm trying to get faster drawing so that I would be able to start working from life. One of the major things I learned from looking at the paintings in the MET this last week, was that I would never get where I wanted to be without being able to paint from life. Hey, what a novel idea!

I had fun drawing however, and thought I could offer drawing as a lower cost option. There's a small local show coming up tomorrow, in which everyone is displaying their work on easels. My easels are all taken up with paintings, so rather than framing these, I thought I would put them in the clear, flat bags, off to the side, for people to browse if they're interested.

Thanks to all,

Holly

Holly,

Did the pastels darken?

Painting from life. The way to go. I look at some of my portrait samples I did before I decided to work more from life. I cringe. You have no idea how it will improve all aspects of your work.

Tip: Go slower in the life class than you think you should. Take a lot of deep breaths!

Just for reference: I've mounted a few pastels on museum board using rice starch paste. You can also use wheat starch paste or good dextrin glue. This method is completely archival and reversible, and what's best from my point of view, it's really cheap and can be done at home! :) If anyone wants to see the procedure, I'd be glad to post it.

I'm not an expert by any means, but every art conservation site I've seen that mentions the subject expresses doubts about dry mounting and about all types of foamcore board, including the type that's sold as archival. Apparently foam outgasses in a way that may have deleterious effects. Dry mounting is not reversible and uses chemical ingredients that may degrade paper over time.

Now, I have no idea of the time scale we're talking about here. Of course things like ordinary matboard can stain paper in just a year or so, but that's the worst possible stuff around bar corrugated cardboard. I don't have the impression that foamcore is going to eat your work for lunch while your back is turned. I've often used it for a backing board when I'm framing pastels, though I always hinge the paper to museum board first. But I wouldn't permanently mount anything I wanted to keep indefinitely to a foamcore backing. (And you'd have to threaten to play Barry Manilow's greatest hits in an endless loop to make me frame a pastel right up against the glass, but that's a different story.)

Dry-mounting worries
 

Laura,

I have had the same concerns (valid) that you have had. I was very surprised when the curators in the drawing and photography department of the RISD museum informed me that they had seen no deleterious effect on photographs that had been dry-mounted. And if I remember correctly it was a considerable time frame they were talking about.

I told them I wanted to dry-mount finished pastels or simply pastel paper, they said if it was done properly with the proper materials, they could not see the disadvantage. There are different dry-mounting materials available today, some say they are archival. At the time I was inquiring about mounting over sized work which is very difficult to do by oneself. I think the best thing to do is to inquire of a local museum and see what their take is on it. Apparently it varies.

I had a valuable rare signed Picasso lithograph damaged from an improper mat and backing that was not acid free, so the concern is not trivial.

They most likely did, but it wasn't noticeable. However since it was greyscale, I didn't care as I would guess all values would have darkened the same amount, thus not changing the modeling or anything. I've read other posts with your concerns with various sprays darkening the blues more than other colors, which would be difficult to deal with.

Laura,

I would be interested in hearing of your procedure for mounting pastels. I would guess it would be helpful for others as well, best started as a new thread?

Thanks for your comments,

Holly

I'll go make a new thread for the mounting procedure. :)

I guess there must be a lot of different dry-mount adhesives! I'd assumed they were all the same, but I've never had it done myself.

There is quite a lot of material on mounting works of art and it can be quite confusing. Let me start with this article I posted on securing pastels (among other conservation concerns) to a substrate to minimize the damage from movement: http://www.bmi.net/knapp/iapsmerrill.html

Followed by an article refering to THAT article by the Connecticut Pastel Society: http://ctpastelsociety?usefullinks?html

Add to that: http??www.nybooks.com/articles/6051

I cannot for the life of me get the URL of Talas to work. It is a conservators supplier of tapes adhesives etc. . It discusses and sells Beva products. Do a search tor Talas on Google and click on the site and then click on adhesives.

Ah, more light bedtime reading I see. Seriously, thanks for the links - it seems conservation is near and dear to your heart. I had problems with some of the links however. The first one is simply www.bmi.net..., the second and fourth links I'm not sure about?

Holly

[QUOTE=Holly Snyder]Ah, more light bedtime reading I see.

Ah yes. Better than bodice rippers.

I am a computer neophyte. I have not learned all the cutting and pasting and have to write all the URLS by hand and I always miss a dot or two.

I fixed the first URL, so the rest of the post may seem clearer.

The Connecticut Pastel Society has a link to a panel maker that has a reversible heat activated glue on it. I was curious as to what that might be and I found a discussion of Beva and a website that explains and sells it.