• It is best to use only 100% acid free museum standard materials with a pH factor of 7.5 to 8.3 for any mounts or hinges that come into contact with the artwork. In the USA the term matt is used instead of mount where mountboard is a backing board only.
• Wood pulp mountboard is not acid-free which means it can discolour the board or paper the artwork has been printed on. Mountboard should at least have an acid-free backing in contact with the print but the inner edge of the mount will discolour over time. It is best to use removable acid free hinges attached from the back of the print to the back of the mountboard but failing this use only a low tack masking tape.
• Prints on a lighter stock should be only attached at the top of the mount and allowed to hang free. This should stop any creasing around the edges due to changes in environmental conditions. The alternative is to have them dry-mounted or fixed to a self-adhesive board (see other articles to follow).
  
• It best to use a small craftsman for the framing rather than high street shops that tend to be more expensive and of a lower quality generally speaking. These can usually be found by trawling through the smaller adds in your phone book or craft magazines. Wherever you go you’ll find the attitude of a real craftsman is different. They will take the time to examine the print and select the appropriate colour of mountboard and frame to complement the colours in the image. If you are there then you should find them keen to discuss these options with you. The basic approach is to look at the main background colour of the image and work with that but this is not always the best solution. Brightly coloured images like fantasy and sci-fi art images can sometimes benefit from a more creative approach to the use of coloured mounts. Black and cream are always an option for the mount but have certain drawbacks. Black will tend to make an image look more stark so it can entirely ruin a subtle picture … like a print of a watercolour painting perhaps. Cream can tend to be bland, bringing out the yellow tones a little but that’s all. Generally, with bold images darker mounts work better than lighter ones.
• Artists UK can supply your prints bought at Artists UK mounted and framed using high grade generic plexiglass which has the advantages of being lighter, practically unbreakable and more resistant to UV radiation than glass. We do not generally recommend the use of non-reflective glass as this is not completely clear and tends to dull the image, especially when it is mounted and therefore not flat against the glass (which of course is one reason for mounting anyway – to keep the print away from contact with the glass where humidity might cause it to stick to the glass in the long-term).
• Over the years prints can still be damaged by poor environmental conditions even when well-framed so it is best to air-condition or dehumidify any room that has dampness or is prone to excessive water vapours (hanging quality prints in bathrooms is to be avoided at all costs!). Very low humidity is also to be avoided as is siting the print directly over a radiator or other heat source.
• Flourescent lighting and sunlight have harmful UV rays so it is best to keep even light-fast ink printed Limited Editions away from these and prints printed without these inks (practically all those published before the mid-nineties and some later ones) will fade.
• If the artist has signed in ink rather than pencil then this can be prone to fading so keep it out of direct sunlight.
• Never use any cleaning materials on the surface of the print.
• If there is any form of damage, staining or discolouring at any time then seek professional assistance rather than trying to correct it yourself.

Following these guidelines should help to ensure that your Limited Edition print stays in good condition, provides pleasure for many years and possibly becomes a very good investment for you.

Any questions, then email us from the Contact Us button on the link below or write a comment we can reply to.

www.artistsuk.net

As promised, here are artist Ed Org’s dates for the rest of this year. He is doing two places on some weekends. He has not confirmed yet whether he has gained a yogic power to bi-locate or is going to be at one fair one day and at another on the other day or parts of each day or whether someone else is running one of the stalls for him. Or maybe he is actually twins with the same name or has been recently cloned. All will be revealed in the fulness of time and when we know we’ll let you know …

Nov 17/18 Broadlands, Nr Romsey, Hampshire.

Nov 24/25 Ludlow Medieval Fayre, Ludlow Castle, Shropshire.

Nov 24/25 Loseley House Crafts for Xmas, Loseley Park, Compton, Guildford, Surrey.

Dec 1/2 Marlborough Xmas Fair, Marlborough Town Hall, High St, Wilts.

Dec 8/9 Knebworth Xmas Show, Knebworth House, Herts.

Dec 8/9 Caerphilly Medieval Fayre, Caerphilly Castle, S.Wales.

Dec 22 Xmas Dorchester, Dorchester Town Hall, Dorset.

Ed Org prints can be purchased here.

The link between art and music is very strong, probably more like a marriage really, especially where the production of an album is concerned. In the field of popular music and particularly with those bands who employed top artists to design their covers the end of the vinyl era meant the end of large packaging for albums and much of the artwork that looked so impressive on a gatefold vinyl album measuring some 12″ x 24″ didn’t look quite so impressive on the cassette or CD format. The tiny cassette format especially did no favours to sweeping majestic artwork.

When you think that artists like the legendary Roger Dean paint on huge canvases it really doesn’t seem as if art came off very well in the marriage does it? If you get to see a poster of his work (like one of those here for instance) then you’ll see what I mean. It is good to see that bands still use great artists for their album covers though. The work done by Dave McKean for instance is remarkable. Check out the Paradise Lost album covers he did - ‘Shades of God’ and ‘Draconian Times’ are particularly good examples of his work in this genre.

The problem of course is that for many bands the budget for the album cover is no longer as high as it used to be but given the talent out there it should still be possible to get a stunning cover even within a reasonable budget. The great thing about using the big names is, of course, the fact that people will recognise the work because they have seen it around so much. This can be very useful for tapping into a particular target market. No doubt Paradise Lost were well aware of Dave McKean’s work for Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and well aware that the readers of that series would be in their target market. If they weren’t, it was indeed a lucky accident …

Maybe we will have a trawl back over the years before long and recommend some awesome album art … and maybe some awesome songs too!

It is rare for artists to be successful with little or no formal training. Although it is not impossible (Patrick Woodroffe is a perfect example) formal training teaches techniques for transforming your creative energy into a more realistic representation of what you envisage - anatomy, perspective, colour effects and other special techniques.

If you are already at Art College then take advantage of their careers facilities as well as making as many contacts in the art and publishing professions as you can. Write everything down. Only a completely unprofessional idiot believes they will remember everything. Keep notes on all your business meetings and all agreements you make with prospective clients. You may find that the business side of being an artist does not come naturally and can even feel “dirty”. You may feel very reluctant to be involved in business dealings at all. Although artists vary tremendously in their attitudes with some being extremely good at running their own businesses this feeling is shared by other artists including some very famous ones. Don’t feel there is something wrong if business does not come as naturally to you as your creative inspiration does. But if you are not happy or feel incapable with regards to the business side of things then you will need an agent. Take time and take care in choosing someone who can empathise with what you are about and has a good idea where your strengths are so that they can get you the kind of work you do best.

College cannot give you the creative energy, that is both innate and developed through life experience and self-development (some artists are religiously inclined or practice meditation or yoga etc in this respect). College tutors can sometimes prod you into a direction you are not truly comfortable with and you need to be careful about what it is you really want to do. However, illustration and the world of art generally is a very hard place to work and you need to be clear about your goals and also develop your communication skills so you can either handle the business side or at least be able to find a decent agent you can trust and work well with.

Play to your strengths and go for the type of work you really want to do wherever possible though you may need to do something like advertising work in the beginning that may not appeal to you. On the plus side, advertising work is disciplined and structured so it can often help to instill a more professional way of working. There is no “easy road”. Masses of hard work, inspiration and a little luck is the usual combination.

The Spring Fair in Birmingham UK is a good place to meet publishers and others in the market for employing artists to design their products. I’m sure you know you’ll need to put together a good portfolio of your best work and you will probably need to visit many publishers and agents to get sufficient work.

Look also at producing your own merchandise to sell if you have the capital and by all means contact us if you have prints etc that are in our market area that we can sell for you. If you are not sure what you have that might be suitable then look round our ecommerce website artistsuk.co.uk to get a feel for what we do.

I hope this helps you in your search for your niche and we wish you every success.