The Framers Forum

As a newbie I'm getting in to this and wonder what you all use?

So far I've tried the usual ruling pen with Lion metallic and also Everest ruling inks.

Also the Pilot gold and silver pens which are fast and easy but expensive.

Any hints/tips advice most welcome.

Thanks.

Peter

Big Subject

It's a skill that is good to have under your belt though, as it takes a bit of practice to get just right and not all that many people can do it. Make sure you charge well for it.

I use gouache for lining. Dilute it well and it looks exactly like standard watercolour. Use if thicker and add white for bolder lines. Classic washlines should be sudued and very subtle. I mix all my colours on a big dinner plate (a white one). Like all good chefs, I don't worry about exact formulas or recipes, it's all done by intuition.

I also use the very fine pilot pens. They can be tempermental, but once you get them trained they work OK. For wider gold bands the "Mastermount" tapes from Lion are quite good. Again, there is a knack to using them. You must be carefull not to stretch them and they must be rubbed down hard with and agate for a stable bond. You can rule on gold size and apply leaf, but this is a labout-intensive job so best reserved for more pestigious pics.

Yours Sincerely........Peter the Other Framer.

I can't stand those Pilot pens - aside from the issue of them freaking out and blebbing everywhere, the lines bleed out a little(badly on some mountboard!) and look inferior, in my opinion. I've started using the Roberson Liquid Metal paints that Lion have started selling. Water them down slightly and they work a treat with a bow pen(ruling pen). More resilient than trad metallic ink or Everest metallics. You can fit the frame up using a blow gun without danger of blowing little bits of metal leaf all over the mount and artwork. If you get the consistency right they stand out like printed embossing and look quite classy. Only problen i've found is that they tend to be slightly transparent when you water them down so lose their lustre on black mountboard

practice,practice, practice,

been doing it for twenty years now, never use silver or gold pens they look carp! lines and washes should always be done with good quality water colour paints, get some handmade marble papers for bandings and same for gold and silver bands too. If you want to get good do it over and over.

I use the ecobra ruling pen with artist quality watercolour, or for brighter/bolder lines, acrylic, esp white or any colour on a dark board. I also use neat acrylic for colouring bevels.

As for gold I gave up on inks, paints and ready filled pens a long time ago - there's probably better stuff around now but I use a line of adhesive, such as wunda-size or acrylic medium (which I like best as it can be be lightly burnished) and apply gold foil, or usually real gold leaf (transfer leaf, not loose) You can get gold foil in 10mm reels, economical, but still flumb problematic!

Thanks for all your help guys.

I'm at the bottom of a steep learning curve.

Once you've got the hang of lines, have a bash at panels.

Here's a nice cop-out - cut a panel out, as wide or as narrow as you like and then paint it and stick it back in! An 'inlay'

This was done with a faint blue wash and then goldfinger stippled on with a sponge.

Roboframer wrote:cut a panel out, then paint it and stick it back in

Genius!

It's a simple idea but I'd never have thought of that if you gave me from now until my retirement

I love this forum

Have a groovy weekend, people

Don't just stick it back in with tape at the back though, well, you can do, but it's better to do this with a double mount and have the top mount, including the panel, stuck to the bottom mount, whether that bottom mount is visible or not.

More on panels - a band within two parrallel guide lines is not easy, so here's another cop-out that I REALLY like. Do a panel starting at the bevel, then you only have one guideline to worry about. BUT - cut your aperture, say, 10mm smaller than required, do your panel, let it dry and then cut the aperture to the correct size.

The reason for this is that paint will seep in to the cut bevel and can get under the surface paper, plus it can make the tiniest overcut stick out like a sore thumb. Plus of course, with no paint on the bevel, it looks like you have a really steady hand! But you're just a big cheat really

Roboframer wrote:
cut a panel out, then paint it and stick it back in


The product of an ingenious mind! Like Framejunkie, I don't think I would have come up with this in the next ten years - it certainly hasn't so far in my 30 odd years framing. Some years past I went through a phase of putting coloured inlays into mounts but the idea of washes... nah. I must try this out when I've a spare hour or so. Thanks for sharing.

Hi John,

I already knew about that trick, but I've never seen it done as a wash effect before. That's what I call inspired, not only that, but I think you've inspired a few of us to do it too. Thanks for a great idea!

Nice roboframer.

really interesting stuff, i wish i had time to do stuff like that.

Just out of interest how did you cut the outside edge of the mount? You have an interesting effect there, rustic

It was because of when it was done more than what with.

Probably a Thursday - blade-changing day is Friday

Why don't you have time?

great tip Robo. brilliant. put that one in the Wiki!

What - you mean the tip about changing blades on a Friday?

Nicely done, Roboframer. Also commend the use of ruling pens.

I blather about the topic more here: http://frame-notes.blogspot.com/2009/04 ... -mats.html

Robo, like the old ruling pen; had a box of similar pens when I was an apprentice draughtsman but that was before Pontius was a pilot. Tend to use only the ecobra ruling pen with either artist quality watercolour or printers inks however recently acquired a MatStylus head for my Valiani and using a pilot pen produced the following - no blots etc.

WelshFramer wrote:What - you mean the tip about changing blades on a Friday?

October is blade changing day, Mike