Framing your work...

[cthuluftaghn]

Hey all. This topic's a bit different, I think.

Since getting involved in this forum, I've seen a lot of different styles of artwork. One thing I've noticed, though, is that not many artists frame their final work with any kind of distinct border.

I tend to throw frames around most of my work, because I think it gives it a sense of completion. I was web-surfing the other day, and I saw a really cool framing technique that was used on a Thomas Kincaid painting, so I decided to give it a try.

I want to stress that I did NOT CREATE THESE PICTURES... I just snagged them off a Wheel of Time site so I could try out this new framing technique. Tell me what you think about it.

I'm also interested in opinions about framing in general. I don't do a lot of artwork, but from the start it just felt quite natural to finish it off with some kind of border.

 

[cthuluftaghn]

I guess nobody cares about frames.

I'm alone. Adrift on a sea of frameless waves. Woe is me who, borderless, shall seep out of myself and into oblivion, unseen and forgotten.

 

[brak1]

This is just my opinion, but I've never been a big fan of non-physical framing of images. I like a good frame around a picture or a photograph if it's hanging on the wall - done right it can actually enhance or set off the work. In a digital setting I feel like it's extraneous, almost never as good as the work itself and rarely adding to it in any way. Plus I feel like there are parts of the image obscured by the frame.

That being said, this frame-within-a-frame effect isn't too bad. It creates a certain sense of motion to the images - at least in my mind's eye.

I dunno. Maybe I just haven't seen it done enough. We all get accustomed to whatever the norm is. Framing a digital image hasn't been done in the regular course of things, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be. Guess I'll have to wait and see some more examples.

 

[cthuluftaghn]

Way past my bedtime, but I just tossed this together. This is a picture that I actually DID do from scratch. All PSP, cuz I have no drawing talent. This has actually been posted on Malessa's thread for quite some time, but I just played with the frame to see how it looked. I beveled the outer pattern fill this time for effect. Quick and sloppy, but I still kinda like it.

 

[Scorpio]

Hey,
I had a teacher in Art school who would say that a good 'frame' job could make a merely OK or uninteresting piece much better-and I agree. This technique is pretty unusual-I've not seen much like it- but it looks good. No, you're not alone,there are frame-caring folks out here!

 

[alsih2o]

I guess nobody cares about frames.

i am still recovering from your mention of that kincaid fellow *shudders* he represents soooooo much of what is wrong in this world.

 

[HellHound]

Nope. Not fond of the double-image framing technique you are using here. Sorry.

 

[cthuluftaghn]

i am still recovering from your mention of that kincaid fellow *shudders* he represents soooooo much of what is wrong in this world.

????

Don't know much about him, personally. I know he paints cool pictures, and he's a Christian. I only know that from going through one of his galleries in St. Augustine. That's about it... no idea of his ideals or what he stands for beyond that. I paint mediocre pictures, and I'm a Christian. So, at least in that aspect, he's one up on me.

Anyway, that's beside the point... back to framing.

I've tried several more pictures with this technique and I've discovered it has limited uses. It's really only good for either colorful landscapes, or full-sized paintings with a lot of detail. Character sketches, or single-item pics just look stupid, because there's not enough substance to fill the frame.

This map doesn't look TOO bad, but I still prefer the wildly colorful stuff.

If anyone's bored enough to play around with other ideas for frames, I'd like to see them. I got bored with just slapping the standard Paint Shop Pro frames around every picture. I wanna see flaming frames, or water frames, or reflective frames, or gargoyles... doesn't matter... basically, just cool stuff besides wood or granite.

Originally posted by HellHound
Sorry

Don't be sorry. I'm not fond of asparagus. It's just a matter of personal taste, not an insult.

 

[cthuluftaghn]

Not sure what happened here.... I made a seemless pattern out of the original map image, and then burned it onto a granite frame and gave the whole thing a brown tinted inner bevel. Kinda neat. Don't know that I'd use it again... but then, I'm just playing around here.

 

[Aldymnor]

I guess nobody cares about frames.

Bingo. It's not necessarily that we don't care, it's that for a focus on a topic (such as the topics posted in these forums), framing is probably priority item #32 when you're crafting a picture. There is so much to be said about skull / body anatomy, poses, feeling, technique, media, expression etc. that framing is sort of like "oh yeah - that."

If I see two topics in this forum, one named "framing artwork" (also a slight misleading there...) and one named "dynamic poses," we all know which one i'm going into. I think that constitutes the lack of enthusiasm...