Photoshop Assistance Requested -- Matting Choices Gone Wrong! 0

[UnboxingTreasures]

Photoshop Assistance Requested -- Matting Choices Gone Wrong!

I recently got this commission back from the framing shop but I'm not happy with the yellow mat I chose. I think it overpowers the piece.

Can someone with some Photoshop skills maybe replace the yellow with another color (white, for one -- other suggestions welcome) so I can see what it would look like?

 

[Twanj]

yes for some reason that looks really unappealing

[Madman1138]

I frame a lot of paintings in my collection, and in my experience it works best to use the color that pulls from the image inside and a solid darker color for the main top matte. What you have would look a lot better reversed. Even if the outer matte is a color other than black or white, it should just be darker than the inner matte but still pull from the art if possible. Here are some of my examples.

[BCarter27]

Who's the artist on the Ghostbusters piece? Very cool!

[BCarter27]

White was a bit harsh. Maybe continue the background peach?

[UnboxingTreasures]

42 minutes ago, BCarter27 said:

White was a bit harsh. Maybe continue the background peach?

Thank you for the effort. Any way you could do the yellow as inner border and a darker green outer border? I have green walls so that's a consideration for colors I choose....

[BCarter27]

Something like this?

[ESeffinga]

My own framing approach has become so much more simplistic, and was based on a few simple words from Jeff Jones via the Comicart-L many many years ago. Jeff said simply, white mat, black frames. At the time I wasn't sold on the idea. I had sunk a lot of money into some very carefully composed frames, with no expense or color spared, so long as the individual frame looked very pleasant. Not unlike the way Madman's pieces are shown above.

But when I moved into the house we are in now, and started struggling with making the collection of pieces work on the walls together in a very pleasant way, I gave Jeff's approach a shot on one wall. For that area I did it with black and white comic art pages, because that seemed a natural choice. But when applied to color paintings in other rooms, I found it solved all kinds of visual problems.

It has greatly improved the pleasure of the pieces in my home. In choosing what mats and frames to use.
In moving pieces around from one room to another and not having to worry about things clashing or looking cluttered.

And it's not a summary judgement on folks that choose to frame colorfully or otherwise. I promise I'm not picking on anyone. I too used to frame every single image based on pulling complimentary colors, and frame moldings. And while it can and often does make the object seem complimented, and pleasant, the visual issue I ultimately had was that I was in essence, visually extending and altering the visual impact of the art by putting more color and texture/detail beyond the artist's vision. Adding color and detail impacts the composition intentionally or not. Expanding it's borders. Shifting the balances in the art. In staying neutral, I feel more like I am presenting the piece to be seen for what it is and as it was drawn. I'm not adding ornamentation onto it. And the knock on effect is that having multiple such images in a room, the images can hang together better without the colors fighting each other as badly.

I go further than the above in the way I curate what hangs on the walls at home, but the gist is, I feel like the rooms where my wife and I have hung line art along with watercolors, photographs and acrylic paintings in a room together, the room never feels cluttered, overwhelming, contrasting or otherwise distracting. It all just works without pieces competing for attention. When we had the frames done the other way, it just felt messier and more cluttered.

This is what works for me. I know some folks much prefer salon style hanging at home. I may not, but have seen some nicely done versions of it. Even then, I like the clarity of the white mat, black frame approach. I bodged together a couple sets one old, one new. Apologies in advance as I'm not trying to imply anything as being inherently better than another, just demonstrating an approach that I employ. Take it or leave it as it works (or doesn't) for yourselves.

 

The last 2 are actually lousy shots from my house. I wish I had more and better shots to share. I should take some at some point.

 

Edited April 17, 2017 by ESeffinga

[ESeffinga]

Totally forgot to post this... duh.

 

[Bird]

I am with eseffinga on the Jeff Jones method. I try to match the white to the color of the paper as close as possible, so they are not all pure white.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Bird
the black and white are used to keep the art separate and focus the eye. The eye should not be drawn away from the art to the frame/mat.

[Thawk]

I like black matte myself and will often use a blue core black matte because just that little bit of blue often makes the edges of the piece pop since OA boards usually have the blue line dimensions/edges on them.

[ParamagicFF]

I personally go without a matte and use spacers to keep the art off the glazing. I like to minimize anything that distracts from the art itself.

[UnboxingTreasures]

15 hours ago, BCarter27 said:

Something like this?

Thank you. I like this better than what I currently have, but this green might be too strong. This is a tough one to do... maybe I should go with single mat of black?

[Thawk]

[Madman1138]

On 4/16/2017 at 8:18 PM, BCarter27 said:

Who's the artist on the Ghostbusters piece? Very cool!

That would be by Nick Runge, who did a lot of cover paintings for IDW and some for Dark Horse's The Star Wars series. I get all of my paintings by him framed and up on the walls. Here are a couple more examples. The Star Wars cover is 20x30 inches, Angel is about 12x24 inches, and the Dark Knight painting is a massive 30x40 inches so I had to use 2 frames and no mattes.

I can agree with others here that b&w art can look really nice with black or white mattes and frames, but for paintings I like making each one different. I frame to the image, as those colors will be on the wall anyway.