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Oil painting effect?

Posted: Thu 09 May, 2019 7:23 pm
by poliopete
I have a very nice framing job to do for a new customer. The items to be frame are a number of lithographs, all hunting scenes.

The moulding chosen is old stock Birdseye maple veneer and a gold slip. Providing I don't mess up cutting the frames I have just enough so all straight forward so far :lol:

He has asked if I could make these prints look like oil paintings. I have seen and framed similar in the past and if I remember correctly they where on a thickish card and appear to have been varnished:? Or had they been laminated with a special type of surface film?

Any thoughts, comments or advice would be most welcome as I have told the customer I would give it some thought.

Thanks in advance.

Peter.

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Fri 10 May, 2019 7:01 am
by Steve N
Hi Pete
Used this stuff in the past (long long time ago)
https://www.lionpic.co.uk/search?q=texturing+gel

Drymount the artwork first, then apply this gel, then using a brush to make brush marks

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Fri 10 May, 2019 10:38 am
by GeoSpectrum
Ditto above.

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Fri 10 May, 2019 11:30 am
by vintage frames
It sounds as if your customer might want these frames for a restaurant or other. The first thing I'd do is go to the printers and get some copies of the lithographs. You'll need these to practice on. Then I'd dip the prints in diluted tea first, then when dry, sponge (natural sponge - ebay ) some stronger tea haphazardly over each image, working more around the edges. And while that is almost dry, sprinkle a light pinch of coffee powder here and there.
Next is as Steve said, dry mount the prints onto thicker mountboard but - before you do that, have a think. Bird's Eye maple with a gold slip is best used to frame antique style prints, so your already antiqued prints might just look best left loose mounted and glazed inside the frames.
If however you want to keep going, then drymount and work over with the gel.
After that I would buy these two from Jackson's Art and present the finished work unglazed.
https://www.jacksonsart.com/le-franc-ag ... arcel-only
https://www.jacksonsart.com/le-franc-bo ... ng-varnish

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Fri 10 May, 2019 12:41 pm
by Justintime
Dermot, what do you mean by loose mounted?

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Fri 10 May, 2019 1:37 pm
by vintage frames
Advanced method of hanging artwork, where the paper is slung inside the frame with only one or two tabs.
Comes with a lot of practice ..

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Fri 10 May, 2019 2:40 pm
by prospero
Are these original lithos, modern restrikes or simply repros?

If original ones they may be quite rare and valuable and 'converting' them will render them worthless.
The same to a lesser extent with restrikes,
Open edition prints are fair game.

A lot depends on the paper though. Texturing gel doesn't take well on certain paper.

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Fri 10 May, 2019 3:20 pm
by vintage frames
I was thinking that myself - but didn't want to say. Maybe suggest to the customer to have them copied, you do all the antique-y bits on the copies and put the originals inside the frames behind some barrier board.
As to using the gel, I would seal the drymounted prints first with a coat of 1:1 diluted PVA.

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Fri 10 May, 2019 6:36 pm
by poliopete
Firstly, thank you all very much for the replies :D

Yes, they are originals and for a pub restaurant and I do intend to loose mount.

I have taken on board that the originals should not be messed about with (thanks for that Peter as that had not occurred to me) and my customer has agreed they should be framed as they are. However, he would still like me to obtain some copies and proceed along the lines vintage, Steve and GeoSpectrum have suggested. Fortunately, there is no financial constraint with this particular job and if the copies are a success they will be hung, using a different moulding, elsewhere in the building.

Two more questions if I may. Do I ask the printer to use a specific paper? and has this process got a name?

Once again, sincere thanks for your extremely helpful replies.

Peter.

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Fri 10 May, 2019 7:26 pm
by vintage frames
Just ask your printer if he has any recycled matt paper or else he should be able to offer something in the character of the originals. If you're talking about all the ageing effects, I don't think there is a name for any of the processes.
Good to hear that the budget will allow you to experiment with all this. Happy times.

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Sat 11 May, 2019 10:29 am
by prospero
I've had quite a few people coming to me in the past with 'Grannie's oil painting' asking what it's worth. They often get a bit
miffed when I tell them it's a print. Quite often they are mounted on canvas and stretched on bars. Sometimes even touched
up in places with actual oil paint.
This was a common practice in late Victorian times. Most people would have 'tarted up' prints just for show. Appearance was
everything in those days. The printing process was unlike today's and the prints would be quite superior, often using a 10 colour
process. I'm sure members would have seen at least one 'Pears' print and if so will know what I mean. With skillful preparation
this type of print can be made to look like an oil. This combined with 100 years of dust and muck completes the effect.

'Real' lithographs/engravings/etchings were often made from an original oil by having an platemaker make a copper or steel
printing plate. (Sometimes the artist). The kicker is, while the oil painting would likely be quite huge, the print would have
been small. Thus tightening all the detail. This is a dead giveaway to the trained eye.

One thing: Before making a print look like an oil, make sure it's a repro of an oil painting. Doing it to a print of a watercolour
(or anything that isn't an oil) would look completely phoney and just plain wrong.

Not that all that is strictly relevant to the subject in question. Just a bit of background. :D

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Sat 11 May, 2019 11:07 am
by poliopete
Peter, as you say not "strictly relevant" but very very informative and much appreciated. :D

Pears prints, absolutely gorgeous when mounted and framed. Back in the day I would travel miles to auctions if I got a sniff of a pears print or similar. It was a dead cert that it would sell as soon as framed and displayed. Those were days :lol:

Peter.

Re: Oil painting effect?

Posted: Tue 02 Jul, 2019 7:58 pm
by theprint.ninja
poliopete wrote:I have a very nice framing job to do for a new customer. The items to be frame are a number of lithographs, all hunting scenes.

The moulding chosen is old stock Birdseye maple veneer and a gold slip. Providing I don't mess up cutting the frames I have just enough so all straight forward so far :lol:

He has asked if I could make these prints look like oil paintings. I have seen and framed similar in the past and if I remember correctly they where on a thickish card and appear to have been varnished:? Or had they been laminated with a special type of surface film?

Any thoughts, comments or advice would be most welcome as I have told the customer I would give it some thought.

Thanks in advance.

Peter.

This is probably very late, but when customers ask us to do something like this, we photograph their original artwork and put it through some specialist plug-in panting effect filters in photoshop (expensive plug-ins but work well), and then print he artwork on quality watercolour or cotton rag (310gsm). For most customers is is all they need, some also like the texture as well as the look then the sculpting gel is good (but time consuming to make it work well!).