How To Protect Colored Pencil Drawings

In a previous post, I shared three professional person reasons to consider using fixative or varnish on your colored pencil artwork and three reasons non to.

Yous read that post and decided to attempt varnishing your finished work. The adjacent logical question is which blazon and brand to utilize. There are so many on the market. How practise you choose?

Fixative and Varnish: What'due south the Departure?

Before we become further, though, let me accept a moment to define terms.

"Fixative" and "varnish" are frequently used interchangeably, just they are not the same thing.

Fixative is but a temporary "fix". It'due south a light blanket you use equally part of the drawing process. Fixative sprays are non designed to be a final coating because it doesn't provide protection from ultraviolet calorie-free (UV), environmental clay, or rough treatment. Information technology'due south mostly applied lightly and betwixt layers of colour.

Varnish is a final coating designed to provide protection from environmental dirt, UV, and—to some extent—rough treatment. It is practical more thickly. It is not designed to be used as function of the drawing process since it can easily saturate and discolor the paper and darken both the paper and the colors already on the paper.

Another term frequently used for varnishes is final finish. Not all concluding finishes are useful for colored pencil work. Many of them are produced for oil paintings and comprise damar varnish. When purchasing last finishes, make certain to bank check the contents label. If it lists damar, leave it on the shelf.

And then Yous Desire to Varnish Colored Pencil Fine art: What Should Y'all Use?

John Ursillo uses workable fixative throughout his drawing process and varnishes finished pieces when he works on canvass (yeah, canvas for colored pencils). John says:

I apply intermediate layers of workable fixative along with solvent-enhanced CP and water-based CP. The finished piece is coated with two layers of Krylon Archival Series UV protective gloss acrylic spray. At that place are other brands just I've not tried them – happy with the Krylon. This goes on very shiny just after a calendar week or so the coating dries completely into the weave of the canvas resulting in a pleasing semi-gloss coating.

The net result is that these colored pencil drawings on sheet can be framed without drinking glass.

For works on paper, he uses workable fixative before adding the last colour, and so gives the finished drawing an additional coat of workable fixative.

When I use workable fixative, it's normally late in the drawing process, when I demand to restore a petty tooth in society to finish the drawing. I have Krylon Workable Fixatif and Prismacolor Premier Fixative on my shelf. I've never washed a side-past-side comparison, so I don't know that 1 is meliorate than the other. Both are proficient both for controlling wax bloom and for working over.

I also use Krylon Gallery Series Conservation Retouch Varnish. It's more suitable for finished work on either newspaper or sail. Prismacolor produces a non-workable fixative that I have even so to try only that'southward worth a await.

In the past, I've used Blair products and Grumbacher products and have had adept results.

Best Practices for Using Varnish or Fixative on Colored Pencil Fine art

Await for a fixative or varnish fabricated for colored pencils or, if y'all can't discover that, one that'southward made for dry media. Non all varnishes are created equal and what may work for an oil painting may not work too—or at all—on colored pencil. Prismacolor makes a final coating made specifically for colored pencils and I recommend it whole-heartedly.

Since each brand of fixative or varnish comes with instructions for use, cheque those instructions first. Follow them, too, in lodge to get the best results.

Here's how I do my varnishing.

Work in a well-ventilated expanse
Position the artwork in an upright position. It doesn't have to be perfectly vertical, merely it shouldn't be flat, either
Shake the droplets can a few times to properly mix the contents
Concord the can in a vertical position almost twelve inches from the artwork (check the instructions on the can for the ideal distance, as there may be some variation).
Belongings down the nozzle, move the spray across the artwork horizontally in a slow movement.
Start just past the edge of the drawing and spray across the cartoon to just past the opposite edge, and then back in the contrary direction until you've covered all of the drawing, top to lesser
Allow the artwork dry for a minimum of 30 minutes. Personally, I prefer to err on the side of caution and usually wait 45 minutes or longer
Requite the drawing some other coat (optional).

2 or three coats should be sufficient. Merely brand sure you don't soak the paper with varnish. When a heavy coat of varnish dries, information technology could become brittle, making it necessary transport unframed art apartment, instead of rolled.

So You Want to Varnish Colored Pencil Art. What Should You Use?

The Lesser Line

What it all comes down to is finding the all-time product for the type of work you lot do and the results you lot want. Generally, the best identify to showtime is with a brand known for loftier quality in other products. Grumbacher and Krylon, for example. Products produced by or for companies that also make colored pencils is besides a good thought. I tin can't guarantee y'all'll like Prismacolor workable fixative also as you like Prismacolor colored pencils, but there's a better risk the fixative will work favorably with the pencils.

Whenever you endeavor something new, try it first on scrap newspaper or on a drawing that won't injure your feelings if information technology gets damaged. Talking to other artists about what they use and why they utilise it is another excellent way to find a practiced product.

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