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Creating a Simple Wooden Frame
One of the things an artist that wishes to sell their artwork must consider
is how to display it attractively.
If you've taken the time and effort to paint a beautiful piece and either
want to put it on your own walls or market it. Framing is a big factor
in the overall appeal to viewers of your artwork. In order to display
your work money is also a factor and often artists don't have much money,
so this is one method of displaying it without paying the high cost of
having it professionally framed.
Nothing replaces the appeal of a professionally framed piece but since it costs so much money to frame finished paintings --I thought a tutorial on how to create a plain wooden frame for your pieces might be helpful.
Note: A quick method would be to paint around the edges of your painting with either the same colour as the background of the painting or a dark brown or black(this would be the cheapest and fastest method so that the white area at the side of the painting -- which usually has globs of paint on it -- giving your painting less appeal when someone walks by.
Painting the edges can definately increase the "appeal factor" when in a pinch for time and money.
It is, however, possible to inexpensively, with a little elbow grease, create an inexpensive wooden frame which will help make it even more attractive to the viewer. I'm writing this geared towards someone that has never done any woodworking so I apologise if something seems blatantly obvious it's my intension that anyone can complete a basic frame after reading this tutorial. Very basic instuctions on how you can do this along with the materials you'll need are listed below:
Materials:
- 1" x 2" pine strapping (any lumber and many hardware stores can direct you with this)
- Sandpaper several sheets (I would suggest 150 grain sandpaper
- A sanding block (Optional but being an artist I like to protect my fingers
- A Mitre saw with a mitre box (Not necessary if you decide to join all pieces around the frame without angling them together in that case only a saw and a ruler are necessary.)
- Several 1" finish nails (these are small nails that have almost no head on them
- 2" finishing nails. (these will hold the wood parts of the frame together wherease the 1" finishing nails are to tack the frame to the wood of your canvas).
- Wood Stain
- Wood filler to fill the cracks where the lengths of wood join togeter at the corners.
- Newsprint to stain the wood on
- Rags to wipe the excess stain off and also the wood before you stain
- A painting brush appropriate for the wood stain
In order to decide how much wood you need to purchace you need to add the height and width of your painting together and multiply by 2. For example and 8" x 10" painting would be 8 + 10 x 2 = 36 inches or 3 feet plus add about and 2 inches to join all the pieces around the frame. You won't need the entire 2 inches but it's better to be a bit over. Also remember that generally lumber is sold in 10 foot lengths when buying your strapping, so when you buying and cutting your lengths of wood for the frame try to cut it with that fact in mind. For example a frame for a painting that is 36" wide and 24" tall will need 2 - 24" pieces cut and 2 - 37" cuts if you using the first method I'll show you where you simply make the top pieces longer and the side pieces the same height or if you choose the second method,: which is to create 45 degree angled cuts at each end and join them around the painting. In this case a half inch on all four sides, so each piece would be 1 inch larger.American and Canadian lumber companies usually sell wood by linear foot. You can convert the same principle into metric if you use metric.
Begin with sanding the oneside of the thin part of the wood in the direction
of the grain so you don't scratch the wood. This will be what is most
visible to the person that views your painting - so try to sand it well
enough so that there are no saw marks or dents are in the wood.
Below is a picture of the saw marks you are trying to get rid of.
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Saw Marks are the white lines going against the grain of the wood(the lines that are going in an upward angle in this picture). |
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After sanding, throughly coat the pine strapping with the mini-wax stain and let sit for 10 - 15 minutes then wipe off the excess stain with a dry cloth |
Art by Lucinda Knowlton's web site consists of drawings, oil paintings and pastel drawings by the Canadian artist. Her interests in fine art and realistic art covers wildlife art, portraits of people, horses and pets, abstract art, still life, the human figure, as well as a variety of subjects that inspire the artist. The web site also includes free tutorials, helpful links for artists, book reviews and is constantly being updated with more information and artwork. She aims to promote wildlife preservation and environmental protection through her work. This site includes her oil paintings and pastel of horses and ponies. Her wildlife page consists of drawings of elk, black bear cub, owl, swan, fox, eagle, fawn of a white-tailed deer, raccoon, penguins, cougars or puma, elephants, tiger and alligator. The pets page consist of drawings, oil paintings and pastel paintings of beagles, cats, greyhounds and other dogs and cats. Other works of Lucinda include, a pastel painting of a homeless man titled lost soul, flowers, roses, portraits of children, baby, cherries, boatwreck, seascape, harpist, artist, cityline, abstracts, small sculptures, and nudes. Works included in this site by guest artist Harold Farley. Site displays paintings of the master artists Leonardo Davinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo Buonarroti