How to Varnish Pen and Ink Drawings — Art is Fun (2024)

FAQs

How to Varnish Pen and Ink Drawings — Art is Fun? ›

You'll need to use a spray varnish for this (also called a final fixative). Plus, spraying a pen and ink drawing with a fixative gives the artwork a nice finish, somehow unifying the look of the piece.

Start with the Brustro Varnish/Krylon Kamar Varnish spray, shake the can of varnish vigorously before spraying. Make sure you keep a distance of 10-12 cms between the spray-can and your artwork and go over the art spraying the varnish covering properly. Let this dry for over an hour and then repeat.

Permanent pens and markers, whether ink or pigment-based, can smear and bleed significantly when coated with water based Polymer Varnish or Isolation Coat. We had similar results when testing alcohol inks with GOLDEN Acrylics and Varnishes.

It is indeed a good idea to protect your pen and ink drawings when they are finished to prevent damage from dirt, dust, or smudging if the ink drawing happens to get wet. You'll need to use a spray varnish for this (also called a final fixative).

Spraying a drawing with hairspray is sometimes recommended to students at school as a quick and affordable way to minimise smudging of the artwork.

However, if you're only interested in temporary protection like students or beginners, hairspray can be a great fixative alternative. For more important and professional pieces, it may be worth investing in a better spray to preserve pencil marks for longer.

The classic way to guard against smudging a drawing is to place a piece of CLEAN paper under your hand whilst you draw. Use plain smooth paper, photocopy paper will do, or tracing paper. Avoid creased or heavily textured paper, they don't work.

A: Sharpie is alcohol ink based, and most varnishes are alcohol based as well, so the varnish reactivates the ink. You can seal your sharpie art with Krylon's Kamar varnish first, they say this is the only varnish that won't activate alcohol based inks. Then spray your uv varnish after several coats of Kamar Varnish.

If you're working on a piece you want to keep, showcase or preserve, we always recommend varnishing acrylic paint. All artwork – acrylic or otherwise - will benefit from physical protection from knocks and dirt, plus an extra layer of UV-light protection – similar to the final clear topcoat on car bodywork.

What's happened here is that you've basically buffed-up the surface of the graphite under all that back-and-forth pressure with the pencil. This makes the surface of a drawing smooth and reflective, which produces glare and causes dark areas to appear light, effectively ruining the appearance of a drawing.

How do you make pencil drawings look shiny? ›

How can I draw glossy surfaces? Step 1: Make the drawing with which you want to create magic. Step 2: Using a small amount of graphite powder on your soft paint brush to lay down a light base tone on the paper. Apply it using the circulism method.

If your giclee print is on paper, I would recommend a spray varnish such as Golden Archival Spray Varnish or Lascaux UV Protect. Both are archival and offer UV protection, and they are okay to use with art on paper (whether it's a giclee, an original, or a mix of both!).

The Bare Minimum: Kamar® & UV protection: The simplest option, nearly universally agreed upon, is 2-3 coats of Krylon Kamar® spray and a UV protectant. The product most recommended for UV protectant is Krylon UV-Resistant Clear Gloss. The application sequence of these two don't seem to matter.

The answer is what's known as a fixative. There are working fixatives and permanent ones. To avoid fading or environmental damage, an acrylic or permanent sealer spray does the trick. Jay says the secret is to spray the fixative about one or two feet away.