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Keeping The Drawing
Clean As You Work
by Carol Rosinski
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Paper is fragile and graphite smudges easily, so take a few extra steps in the set-up stages of a drawing and you may save yourself a lot of extra work at the end. Here are two inexpensive and homemade drawing guards that have saved me a lot of headaches. I hope they do the same for you.
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Back when I started to draw seriously, and don't ask me how long ago that was, I spent over 200 hours on a piece without protecting its
borders in anyway. The drawing turned out very well, but the framer had few options when framing it. He had to cover up those messy
borders!
Now I always apply Frisket Film around the
borders of my drawings before I begin, and I like to extend that protection even further. First I attach the paper to my board and mask the edges of the drawing with two inch wide strips of Frisket film. Then I cut scrap paper in wide "L" shapes and tape them around the drawing area, too. This keeps the entire border
clean out to about six inches, and framers can leave as much room around the drawing as their hearts desire. Those large scrap paper
borders are a great place to test tools and jot down notes too.
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Sometimes I like to store my drawings where I can see them between sessions, because glancing at them in odd moments helps me to see them objectively. One time I made the mistake of leaving a drawing sitting out unprotected, in the middle of a dry summer, with all the windows in the house open. When I started to work on it a few days later, I was horrified to see that the whole thing was covered with a coating of
dust! I spent the rest of that day lightly brushing and blowing the
dust away. Sadly, I spent my next free day re-drawing some very dark details that had been lost in the
cleaning process.
My very simple solution for
dust, and other mysterious spots and specks, is to tape a piece of
plastic food wrap to the back of the drawing board. After a while, the wrap loses most of its clinginess and you can easily flip it from one side to the other.
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Sometimes the best solutions to drawing problems are home grown and inexpensive. These drawing protectors could save you many tedious hours of
clean-up work and will help you create a professional looking piece of art that's easy to frame. Your buyers and your framer will thank you for taking time to keep your entire drawing
clean, including its borders.
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