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Sealing pencil lines

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IMG_1787

John Graham Inkson

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Well I used cheap hair spray on pastel paintings at one time. Super hold and a nice smell. The fixative sold in art shops smells nasty and makes a hole your pocket money. However I do not use any fixative these days. I use marble dust mixed with a little acrylic. This method grips the pastel beautifully so I find no need for fixative.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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Can't recommended hairspray - but if you're going to use one, at least Ellnett is a lot less sticky than most (how do I know?  I have fly-away hair, and a lot of it; most hairsprays stink, and set like hard plastic.... but this one doesn't).  I'd use fixative for pastel, probably - if I used pastel.  I think it's a touch of overkill on a pencil drawing, to be honest, if you're going to paint over it.  But ...... spray away, if such be your pleasure.  I doubt it'll do much harm under acrylic; less sure under oil, oil can do funny things on the adhesion front ... 
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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Do you remember those little spray bottles of fixative, pre-aerosol?  You dipped the spray device into the fixative, and blew through it - most important not to suck, I found....

Alan Bickley

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That’s what I use Robert, always have since college days because that’s all there was available then. Anyway, I hate anything in an aerosol, and I’d never spray any of my artwork with hairspray! A little aluminium atomiser from Jackson’s is only a few pence, give or take, and at the moment I’m using Talens fixative from a bottle.  With a bit of practice you can spray a fine mist over your pastel/charcoal drawings, I enjoy using this method although it’s advisable to use it outdoors as it’s pretty potent stuff to breathe in.

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by Alan Bickley

John Humber

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Like Alan I make frequent use of the diffuser. A spray of fixative over my sketchbook pastels prevents them smudging. I also use dilute acrylic medium as a fixative on larger graphite drawings (it’s cheaper than fixative). My technique with large drawings involves repeatedly making the drawing and applying gesso over it. Dilute gesso sprayed with the diffuser both fixes what’s there and provides a suitable surface for more graphite. The repeated drawing/gessoing also builds some lovely undertones.
IMG_1787

John Graham Inkson

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This large pastel size 24x18 inches hangs on my wall without glass. It's a pastel painting but set like concrete. I first primed the panel using acrylic and a good measure of marble dust. Marble dust is like magic for griping and holding pastel in place.Then after plotting out the composition put in a rough under painting with acrylic colours. Then I started working with the pastels. After I had placed a layer on I then using a blow brush sealed the pastel with a diluted application of acrylic medium. After each application of pastel the pastel was sealed again with medium. This gives a beautiful build up of soft pastel. It's a bit labour intensive but worth all the BLOWING. As you know acrylic dries very quickly so there is no time lost waiting for things to dry. Although I did us a hair drier to keep the work flow going. You can see on the painting the beautiful peeks of pastel. It's set solid, no smudging, no lose of colour, no bits have ever come off. FIXED.

Alan Bickley

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That’s amazing John, far too labour intensive for me as I’m always after ‘instant results’. The end result however, may justify the means in this case, and work always looks so much better without glass. Probably not a method that you’d find in a book!
IMG_1787

John Graham Inkson

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That’s a good point Alan. ‘Not a method found in books’. I quite often find in art magazines articles about  using a certain medium they only give like hints on using and there applications.  nothing in real depth. I found what John Humber just said was most interesting. That needs to go on one of our magazines. The Artist I think. 
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