Mounting Process
My final works have a few protective layers on them: a colored pencil fixative so the colors don’t fade over time; a matte gel to glue the drawing and background together; at least two Mod Podge layers to seal the paper; and then finally a layer of resin. Some drawings have multiple layers of resin to add textures and depth as well.
I have always struggled with creating backgrounds for my drawings. So, for about half of my final drawings, I do a good ol’ cut and paste. I find a few cans of spray paint and create fancy fun backgrounds on some nice paper. I usually batch several backgrounds at once whenever I come home to Virginia Beach. By doing this, I can test out several different backgrounds and compositions for one drawing. Cutting out my drawings with an X Acto knife also helps keep the paper clean and allows for “collaging” large pieces by drawing in sections and I use a matte gel to glue everything together.
The other half of my final drawings, I make sure to plan out the drawings on nice paper. I usually either draw on Canson Mixed Media Paper or Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel paper. I find that sketching paper and colored pencil paper are too flimsy for my liking. Pastel paper is very coarse, or as I like to call it “toothy”, which lets me build up more color layers than other papers.
Once I have a final overall image and it's sprayed with colored pencil fixative, I mount it onto wood. I had initially tried out framing at a local frame shop. This turned out to be very pricey so I decided to go rummaging through my dad’s garage for inspiration. I found some spare pine wood and have been mounting my drawings on wood ever since. About half my drawings are mounted on pine wood while the other half are mounted on wood panels from Amazon.
After gluing the drawings on wood, I start on the several protective finishing layers. The first few layers are Mod Podge which seal the paper and protect from UV. Sealing the paper ensures that the drawing does not smudge or soak up the pour finish. I had originally used a clear coat acrylic pour finish but eventually I started using resin. Resin comes in two parts and cures to a rock hard super clear, glass like finish and looks incredible when mixed correctly. If the mix is off, then the final piece will be sticky. It took me a few tries to get decent at mixing and pouring to avoid sticky, uneven finishes.
