Sealing your watercolour with Wax Medium and also framing

[TeresaM]

Hi fellow PB community.
 I found lots of painting tips via YouTube  and I thought I would share this one with you. I found that you don't need to frame your finished watercolour paintings under glass.
You can use Wax medium to seal your paintings and then you can glue them to a canvas or board. I have just received my order of Dorland's Wax Medium and have used it on my recent painting for the June Challenge. I can now frame it without glass, so no more horrible reflections.  Apparently you can use this on acrylic painting too.
Here's one of the links to YouTube to show you how to do it
https://youtu.be/rm3HXmgS-Aw

[BeaSue]

Oh my gosh!!! This is so cool.  Thanks, Theresa for posting this helpful tip. I love this idea.

[Happychappy]

Theresa    and bless you for such a wonderful tip. It will help so many of our members I am sure.     Patricia

[TeresaM]

Your welcome I have done 2 coats on my lantern painting and it looks good and feels smooth.

[BeaSue]

Teresa,

I'd love to see some photos of your finished pieces--front, side, back.

I am seriously considering doing a series of small square paintings and mounting them on birch panels.

Here is a video that shows two ways of attaching mounting fixtures on the back that doesn't require carpentry skills:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT-e2DMJ7tU

[Sacgal/Sharon]

This is fantastic to know - it would make taking my paintings to PV so much easier! I too would love to see some of your work framed like this.  Thanks for sharing!

[dennis]

Teresa, don't mount the paper to the stretched canvas. It is too flexible and will cause the paper to lift off or come loose from the canvas. Only mount to a solid surface.

[BeaSue]

Teresa, don't mount the paper to the stretched canvas. It is too flexible and will cause the paper to lift off or come loose from the canvas. Only mount to a solid surface.

Good to know, Dennis. thanks!

[dennis]

BeaSue, I have a full tutorial on this subject in https://onlineartlessons.com     
You'll find it under Tutorials

[MaryAnne Long]

Thanks, I just made a note to include this discussion in the next newsletter. 

Am going to watch the lesson now, Dennis.  Very interesting topic.

aloha

mea

[BeaSue]

BeaSue, I have a full tutorial on this subject in https://onlineartlessons.com     
You'll find it under Tutorials

Thank, Dennis! I just checked it out. Great tutorial!

I have another question. I had thought about trying to add some gold leaf to my paintings. Would it be possible to do this if I were using the wax medium to seal the painting to a wood panel? Would it be better to try to apply the gold leaf after I sealed the painting with the wax?

[MaryAnne Long]

Dennis, it's a great tutorial.  Spells all the steps out clearly.

Am really excited about trying this and hope to get materials to start one this week.

aloha

mea

[dennis]

BeaSue, It has been 50 years since I last worked with gold leaf. I would suggest you add the gold leaf to a test piece on some watercolour. Make sure it is well applied and well burnished especially at the edges of the gold leaf as we don't want the rag to hook on it. Add the wax gently at first and add more pressure if there is not a problem.  If you are happy with this, then you can go ahead and work on the painting proper. 
We are working on a tutorial on making the box frame. Look for this in the future.

[BeaSue]

Thanks so much, Dennis!

[BeaSue]

Well, I accumulated all my supplies and tried this. I followed the video Teresa posted. Let's just say that I encountered a steep learning curve. Almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong!

Properly chastened, I will now follow Dennis's method...which I should have done in the first place. 

However! A positive--I found that one can apply the wax over gold leaf, and the gold leaf does not lose its luster. Since I have 13 more basswood panels, I have many more opportunities to improve.