The last thing I do before framing a painting is to apply two coats of clear acrylic varnish.For this part of the process I move out of my "residential" studio (a converted spare bedroom in our house) to the more industrial space of the garage.
The clear coat gives the art a nice shiny appearance, and also provides protection from fading and damage, so they can be framed without glass.
When dry, you could probably serve a cheese course on the paintings and wash them off without any harm, although my feelings might get hurt.
The coat of varnish also gives me a psychological endpoint -- it forces me to consider a painting to be finished, and to stop tweaking, repainting, and fussing over it.
I snapped these with my phone; please excuse the shakiness.
OK, I'll excuse the shakiness on one condition -
ReplyDeleteWhat brand of varnish is that?
It's Artistic brand Water Clear Varnish. I bought it from Blick Art Materials, and it works pretty well.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dickblick.com/zz010/19b/
It dries quickly, so you can do two coats in a day very easily (always brush both coats in the same direction!).
You can apply it with a "Gesso Brush" which costs about 5 bucks from an art supply store, or just go to the local hardware and buy a bristle "varnish brush" for 69 cents. They're the same thing.
Good advice. THANKS! (art supply stores are CRAZEE! I hate it when they sell the SAME THING for 5 times more. Assholes.)
ReplyDelete