pencil crayon on bevels.....

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Handy

Handy

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Jun 17, 2005
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Manitoba, Canada
ok - after reading this suggestion on the topic of painting bevels I thought I'd give it a try.

It looked terrible!! I took my time and tried to do a good job and put several layers but it still just looked "home made" and I thought that I'd never try to pass it off to a customer.

Is there some trick to doing this??? Can someone who does this show me a picture so I can see what it's supposed to look like?
 
oh - I forgot to also mention - what does this do to the work? Would the waxy texture not cause some sort of problem down the line?
 
Sandra, I haven't tried painting with wet paints, but I have a succesful technique. I use watercolor pencils. You still need to tape off the surface of the mat from the bevel, apply the pencils dry, you can use color on color for different effects and erase what you don't like. After you have what you want just slightly dampen a soft cloth or your finger and the pencil colors turn into water color paint with hardly any water applied. It is a "dry" way of painting belvels.
 
What jPaul says.

Did you NOT dampen.... that would give you that 'home made' look real fast.

It's not the BEST of all worlds, but it does have it's place.

OOPS! Just read what you REALLY used.... get Water Color pencils... not crayon. No wax. Blend with water...
 
I suggest using a 2 mm wide calligraphy broad pen with opaque watercolor (gouache), thinned just enough to flow through the pen. It comes in lots of intermixable colors. Acrylic gouache, aka airbrush color, also works nicely.

Load the pen and draw it along the bevel, being careful to hold the chisel-edge of the pen flat on the bevel's surface. Practice on scrap first.

It is not necessary to mask the mat opening -- that sometimes harms the surface of fabric-covered mats, and the ink can bleed under the masking tape. By masking tape, I mean the 3M removable type -- I think the number is 811.
 
I was thinking about water color pencils...

to be honest though - we don't often (if ever) get customers asking for the bevels to be colored so it's not like I NEED to know how to do it - I just thought it might be fun to try it out.

I'll give the WC pencils a try - I've got some in my own personal art stash that I never seem to find time to use!
 
Originally posted by Handy:
to be honest though - we don't often (if ever) get customers asking for the bevels to be colored so it's not like I NEED to know how to do it - I just thought it might be fun to try it out.


That is the great thing about learning something like this. The customers may not be asking for it and may have never seen it, but now you will have something new to offer and make more $$$$$.
shutup.gif


Mark
Click to expand...
 
When you get adept at painting bevels, whether you cut through a removable tape or not - try this.

Paint the bevel with acrylic gloss medium, let it dry, it will remain slightly tacky. Apply gold foil, or real gold leaf (transfer)if you want to be dead posh. Brush off the excess and burnish with agate. Other sizes (glues) work too but most cannot be burnished, which is fine for an 'antique' look. Great effect on thicker boards.

As (I think) we are talking about fabric covered/suedette mounts - another trick I have had success with. Cut the aperture half an inch smaller all round - e.g. make 8 x 10 become 7 x 9 - then adjust the blade depth to cut all but the surface paper/fabric - adjust on offcuts.

Cut (score) the 8 x 10 aperture - peel off the 1/2" matboard strip - leaving only the surface fabric - wrap this around the bevel - tricky but effective.
 
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