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Following on from my previous post on Willys Bubbles, on framing drafting film, i thought i would investigate a little further to work out which backing option i am going to go with when framing this piece. When doing a drafting film piece its always important to consider this, as your final result will be impacted by this and will mean that you will need to push or pull colours or highlights to compensate.

Its really hard to see the differences in these crude photos but you can slightlyso let me start. What i have done is display the artwork with different coloured card / paper behind them. You can see i have indicated the colour underneath each one.

The most noticable difference happens if you look at the ones with the light and the dark colours. eg. On the white one you can see the highlights on the face look quite exaggerated and harsh, kinda makes him look angry especially for a child where you dont want this look, whereas on the black or dark colour the highlights are not as obvious they seem to blend together more, its softer. In real life the differences are more obvious and the trade off is that on dark backgrounds the skin tones are a bit grey and colours not as vibrant (which is why i made them so bright as i was working) so its important to note that if you are going to do a piece like this and going to have it on a dark backing card you will need to make sure you make your whites white by working on the back and the front of the film, otherwise they will look grey. But if your artwork is prodominately a “light” coloured piece you may opt for a “light backing” so as not to make it too hard for yourself, use it to your advantage.

I haven’t decided 100% as yet but i think i will go with the mid-tone backing, most likely the brown or grey. The black looks actually not too bad but i think it might just be pulling the colours back a tad. I will take the final photo once i decide

“Willys Bubbles” by Belinda Lindhardt, Artists Coloured Pencils on Drafting Film, 420 X 280mm

This artwork is just about there, as usual i am content with it, of course there are lots of things i would like to correct but for now i think i am done, barring a few minor fixes in between sprays of fixative.

The next question for this one is framing, i have a frame already set to go to match my “Maxys Bubbles” frame, so the frame itself is ok, however, with drafting film as its see through you need to include some type of coloured backing board which shows through. The colour of the backing changes the final output of the artwork. This photograph is taken on a tan background, when i placed it on a dark background it changed the “look”alot, and on a white or light background it changes again. i am not sure which route to take yet.

For the matt, i am thinking of framing this one with my signature under the drawing and the matt cut so that it shows the edges of the pencil onto the film, but it might look a bit funny. The reasoning is so that it shows off the materials used for this artwork ie. the film and the pencil, otherwise many people overlook these qualities and think that its just paint.

Anyway lots to do today this framing is just one of them. I framed my Gathering Strength last night for the exhibition. Its looking fab ! more photos to come !!! stay tuned.

“Petal Beauty” By Belinda Lindhardt Acrylic on Board.

I soooo love it when i get good service and find a good product.
I love it so much i feel like i have to tell everyone to pass it on, so here is one of those posts
I know most of you are overseas bare with me, this is probably most interesting for my Australian readers as these guys are based in Sydney.

So, I wanted to frame my Petal Beauty artwork for a local exhibition, it’s an odd size as its from my own prepared board, i have 3 other boards at the same size so i wanted to be efficient and get frames at the same time for all of them.
Off i went down to the local framers, let me just say that weren’t too keen on creating frames for me to insert the artwork myself (if fact they more or less told me i couldn’t do it myself and they wanted to do it as they had some special gun for staples…hmmmm) then ontop of that after 20mins of debating with them on the moulding i preferred it turned out they didn’t have the one i wanted and it would take another 3 weeks for me to get that. So needless to say i decided that i wasn’t going to go ahead with them. I had more or less given up framing this one for the exhibition as its next week and didn’t think i would be able to get something in time that is UNTIL.. i remembered a couple of links i had for online framing places that i thought i would check out. Gosh i love the internet…

http://www.frameshop.com.au – Your one stop frame shop
Here is where i purchased 3 frames to the size of my choice and can i just say its fanatastic, while i couldnt get the exact moulding i had chosen in my local framing shop, the one i chose is pretty similar (the one i have chosen is more silver than it looks in the photo). Best of all they say delivery will be within 48 hours AND it WAS! The quality of the frames is great, and it didn’t cost me a small fortune, so now i can enter my exhibition and i have my extra frames there waiting for the new artworks to slide in when they are done.

In addition to this i now know that my framing is no longer going to be a hassle, i have a matt cutter and one of the things that always puts me off with the CP work is the framing and getting frames that aren’t going to cost me the earth (cause lets face it at my level, customers aren’t wanting to pay a fortune for getting framing which is 100% quality done and with a framer), now i know i have this service available its like a new world has opened up .

So there you go i can totally reccommend these guys if you need some frames Doesn’t my petal beauty look great ?

This week is going to be very brief, i have my market on Saturday in Scone in the Hunter Valley NSW. I have to say that as i write this i am in a mild state of panick. We are due to leave tomorrow morning and i am yet to pack any clothes for either myself or the kids and that is just a minor thing on the list.

I still have to arrange:

• my printed portfolio for display,
• various bits of signage (which i am just going to print off on a laser printer),
• gather bits and pieces i need for the day
• cut, hinge and attach mats on 15 works some of which are going into frames,
• prepare a sheet for people to leave their email address or actual address for visitors who want more information or receive updates of my work,
• print out various bits of info i had planned to have available on commissions and coloured pencil artworks ,
• create and attach labels for the backs on artwork
• also create price labels
• and for the piece that is going into the show add my details for that
• updating my “work reference sheet” so i can see what works i have on display, what sells what medium they are etc etc(as i may have help at the market)
• plus i am sure there is more i am just forgetting.

This week has flown by, my time was taken up which was supposed to be spent doing all this stuff had to be used on actual design / web work so yes i am having a bit of a mental freak out LOL.

The rest of this afternoon i will finish off testing out my new mat cutter and ruler and getting the artworks sorted out (i think i am up for a late night).
So anyway atm my head is in the framing world which i am very new to but i am learning. Yesterday I picked up my framed horses eye, pear and white horse from the framers (gosh you just reminded me i have to take some pics of them framed!!) anywho… while they look ok i have to admit they dont jump out at me like i was expecting them to. I think i just didnt choose the right frame, and was totally influenced and daunted by the framers advice (i never really had anything framed before). As a result, i have decided unless its a specific thing that i cant do i i will just do my own mats and buy premade frames. This is also influenced by cost. My artwork at this time is not demanding extremely high prices, and adding another $80- per piece minimum for framing doesn’t really help anyone. Anyway, all in all i am taking it all as a learning lesson and have researched framing for myself

So for this week i am going to leave with you some framing links i have come across. Alot of them have free tutorials which are great

FrameCo – online video talking about framing and matt cutting showing you how.
Framing 4 Yourself.com - Step by Step showing you various framing techniques
Pawleewurx - More step by step instructions – he also has artwork and other interesting articles i will have to check out another time.

Ok, so i did say that I going to be brief, i just cant help myself can i… back to the matt cutting sigh…..