Mounting drawings

[Kimberly Dow]

Sharon-

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

[Sharon Knettell]

Mea Culpa Kimberly.

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

[Holly Snyder]

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

[Sharon Knettell]

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!

[Laura B. Shelley]

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.)

[Sharon Knettell]

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.

[Holly Snyder]

Did the pastels darken?

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