Laminating pencil sketches?

A question to all you sketchers out there. Like you, I have may pencil recordings of what I have seen through the eyepiece over the years. I recently found some I thought I had lost to the depths of time (Hyakutake, Shoemaker-Levy 9 Jovian impacts, to name a few of the memories), but I was surprised how good a condition they remained. All that is wrong with them is some slight paper discolouration.

Apart from the obvious like keeping them dry, and away from sunlight, would laminating the paper sheets be worth it? Does anyone have any old laminates of such media (with pencil) for which they could vouch for the method of 'preservation'?

Thanks in advance,

Seanie.

Hi Seanie

I use Daler Rowney Colourless Fixative Spray for my sketches. This is a matt spray and is invisible. Laminating would be expensive and I think shiny, which would in my opinion take away from a sketch.

For most of the past year my lunar and messier drawings have been in pastels. While this medium is very malleable, this property also makes drawings of this nature very vulnerable to damage. So I spray twice.

I keep all of my sketches, well except those not framed, in plastic leaves in a portfolio.

I have several drawings in pencil from the seventies, (not astronomical) which were sprayed with a similar solution. It helps stop smudging and damage to the work.
These drawings have kept perfectly well, and some are just in tubes since then.

Some people use acid free tissue paper over their sketches to further protect them.

Scanning your sketches at high resolution, will keep a record and preserve them.
Keeping them out of the light is also the way to go.

Hope this is of use to you.

Deirdre Kelleghan

Thanks Deirdre,

I have some of my own coloured chalk pastel (astronomy) sketches and drawings coated with fixative (recoats with hair spray is a good ongoing substitute). They are fine, as they are stored in a large artists folder (the A0 black leather ones). For the smaller sketches, I wanted to put them into a presentation-style folder, and because of the finger-flipping, thought laminate would do the trick.

Another thought came into my head: high resolution scans (as you said), and then high quality prints, and use them instead for presentation purposes. Thus only bring out the originals when specially needed.

Seanie.

Yes high quality limited edition prints on quality photographic paper is what I've done.
Friends have requested some for presents, and some people have even bought some of them.

Are you going to post some of your sketches here?

Deirdre Kelleghan

recoats with hair spray is a good ongoing substitute

Really? That's interesting. Any particular brand?

recoats with hair spray is a good ongoing substitute

Really? That's interesting. Any particular brand?

My junior cert art submissions were fixed with hair spray

Cant remember the brand Dave sorry!