How To Seal Soft Pastels

How to 'seal' a pastel painting?

This topic has 15 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 11 months ago by Magical_Realist.

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November 20, 2012 at 6:29 pm #990317

After doing the yellow flower in the November 2012 Challenge, and framing it (in a really cheap Dollar Store type plexiglass frame), I'm wondering how long the pastel will sit 'as is' before it begins to fall from the paper due to gravity or is smudged if the plexiglass is ever pushed in. I do not have a lot of money, so getting a nice frame with glass seems to be out of the picture.

November 20, 2012 at 7:01 pm #1174880

The pastel pigment should not fall off paper. As long as your painting is covered by something, glass, plexiglass, acetate it should be fine. Hang it on wall and it should be just fine. If the plexi is accidentally pushed in to where it touches pastel, it probably not harm anything. It will leave a bit of pastel on inside of plexi which will need cleaned off.

Keep and eye out for when hobby lobby has sale on frames with glass already in them. You can get 20 to 30 dollar frames for 10 bucks with glass. Better than nothing.

Pastels are more durable than you might think. Just the other day I had one fall of my easel while taking a photo of it. It fell off, landed in my dust tray collector, then flipped over and fell the rest of the way to the floor… landing face down! As far as I could tell, no serious fixes needed to be done. (thank goodness )

November 20, 2012 at 7:07 pm #1174879

ditto what rugman said…

keeping costs down, it helps to work in a standard size, buy mats, glass and spacers for that. I had to do that with an 11″ x 14″ that I wanted to put in a show with no time to order materials…i got a frame, spacers, & glass for maybe $50 total from Dick Blick
a picture of how that turned out:

a good website to get inexpensive framing materials:
http://www.webpictureframes.com

good article on pastel framing in general:
http://www.sheilaevans.net/learn-more/framing-pastels/%5B/URL%5D

November 20, 2012 at 8:06 pm #1174885

Here is another website with reasonably priced plein air frames. I have ordered several and they seem to be pretty good quality. Also they often have sales. http://www.aswexpress.com/discount-art-supplies/picture-frames-and-matting/ready-made-wood-frames/plein-aire.html

November 20, 2012 at 11:52 pm #1174886

if you look in charity shops you can usually find some great looking frames for adorable prices.

you can buy pre-cut mats for quite cheap as well although they'll usually only be for standard sizes.

and lastly any framers will be able to cut you glass to size for a couple of pounds/dollars. It's mainly just for courtesy. Obviously this is only for normal glass…anti-glare etc will cost.

November 21, 2012 at 4:47 am #1174887

I always use plexiglass and many of my paintings are large-over 1m.
Have had no problems with any of them including ones shipped abroad.
I do use a light spray of Lascaux fixative and get rid of the static inside the glass before framing.

November 21, 2012 at 6:22 am #1174888

Thanks everyone for the advice. Even $15+ is too much for me to frame a piece of art, given that I have not created many pieces that I would deem worthy of framing, and have not gotten to the point of creating anything that someone wants to buy. Five dollars and under, MAYBE ten dollars for something spectacular, would be more ideal for me.

November 21, 2012 at 7:44 am #1174884

So what you really want is a way to keep them safe enough in the equivalent of a drawer? You can protect them with glassine or tracing paper. Some just fold the paper around the edges of the painting. Others cut a piece to the same size as the painting and tape it to the back of the painting (acid free tape).

I've seen pastel paintings from the 1700s, looking like they're taken from the easel a minute ago.

I've driven a car (with purpose) over a painting. Pretty colourful wheel, and you can hardly see that some pastel was lifted from the painting. That is, I can discern it — barely. Others can't, not even when I point it out.

Pastels are damaged by sweeping something over the surface, and by moisture and/or humidity (mold), and insects eating the paper. Protect them from that, and your work will stand the ravages of time *way* better than oils and acrylics do.

Edit: I toss the duds in a pile in the bookshelf. If I need to find one, I take care to lift the top ones straight up, and there is no damage.

November 21, 2012 at 10:25 am #1174878

Tvx, I have a stack of pastel paintings that I've kept sealed in ClearBags for years. Here's some info I wrote before:

I've used the [URL=http://www.clearbags.com/crystal-clear-bags/protective-closure-bags]ClearBags [/URL]for years with no problems. I offer that advice with a warning, however. The bags have a bit of static cling and remove pastel that isn't fixed.

If you use SpectraFix (or any good fixative) it's much less of a problem. My thoughts run to this: If I finish a painting, fix it, and place it in a ClearBag that's [I]the correct size[/I], with no room to move around, that bit of static will only dislodge the amount of pastel I want taken off the top before I frame it. I instruct people to cut the edges of the bag and remove it carefully when they frame the piece, not trying to slide it out of the bag. The bags aren't expensive, so I use a new bag every time I take it out, even if it's to work on the painting. When it's finished and ready to put in my portfolio, I sign it, bag it, tape back any excess edges, and slip it away.

I get the bags that have the adhesive on the bag, not the flap ("protective closure"), to protect it from having a sticky flap dragged over the surface.

I've shown and sold work out of my portfolio this way for a long time. I can stick a title and price label on the back, with instructions for removing the bag and framing the piece.

It sure has solved my storage problems!

[IMG]http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/06-Feb-2011/23609-DSCN9098.JPG[/IMG]

It might not be for everyone, but this works for me. I still ship pastels bagged this way!

November 21, 2012 at 10:30 am #1174892

Deborah, what a great tip. Thanks! I just bookmarked their website.

November 21, 2012 at 11:13 pm #1174881

Hi!

I love to cruise the second hand stores around town every few months for frames. I can pick them up for less than 10.00. I also can cut a bargain. As I am now over 50, I'll wait till the senior discount day to buy them. If the framed work has mats even better! I was even lucky once and found two that had museum glass! One frame I liked but didn't like the color, so a can of spray paint fixed that. Another frame was an antique and had some damage, and I used spackel paste and shoe polish to fix it up. Crude techniques, but once I put my painting in it, I only notice the painting.

To store them I prefer Deborahs's solution of using clear bags, especially when I paint plein air. I also use glassine. Recently I bought a roll of glassine, and I make "glassine bags" for my paintings when I run out of the clear bags. When I started with pastels, I bought a pad of tracing paper, and sandwiched the paintings between the sheets taping them down.

There is another way you can frame if you don't have mats, and don't have spacers, its called Passe-Partout Framing. Richard McKinley wrote about it in his blog here…
http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/art-demos-techniques/pastel-pointers-blog-passe-partout-framing.

Actually, I just decided to start a thread devoted to it…

Hope this helps…

Carol
Passe-Partout Framing

November 21, 2012 at 11:38 pm #1174889

Thanks again, everyone, for the replies! Most of the work I have done has gone in the "dud" pile, while the remaining ones went in the "bud" pile. It's the ones in the bud pile that I want to frame, and the cost of framing, as you all have informed me of, is pretty expensive. I now realize what various folks on WC have been talking about when they say that tools to MAKE art are cheap, it's the tools that DISPLAY art that are expensive. Now, I know that not all art tools for making art are cheap, but the message is clear. Sounds like I'll just have to keep going around tag sales (bad time of the year here), flea markets (they don't seem to be a New England thing) and Dollar General Store ("As an artist I don't work here, I just shop here").

November 21, 2012 at 11:43 pm #1174890

How do I thank everyone? If I don't mention everyone who has replied I feel like a jerk. If I thank everyone then folks who might otherwise feel unappreciated feel more compelled to offer advice, and the cycle continues. Along with contemplating my existence and the beginning of time, the above mentioned bugs me.

I am going to look at the ClearBag solution offered by Deborah. I like Charlie's recomendation, too, well everyone has offered valuable advice here that will definitely help someone, but knowing me if I start tucking away my work it will become "out of sight, out of mind" and so, too, will my art journey come to a halt.

EDIT: Deborah where should I look online for the Clear Bags you use?

November 22, 2012 at 1:09 am #1174882

Just go to Deborah's post and click on the blue link that says " Clear Bags " and it will take you to the web site.

Doug

November 22, 2012 at 5:23 am #1174891

Doug, thanks. I haven't seen you much around here. You okay?
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