Sizing and framing

SIZING AND FRAMING GUIDE

All useful information about Fine Art Prints, sizes, matting and framing.

CanotStopPainting Studio offers an Original Artworks and Fine Art Prints ( Giclee Reproductions). Whenever you choose to buy an Original piece or Fine Art Print you would need to frame your new art and in case your ordering Fine Art Prints you would have to choose the size of the art print and decide about the framing which match your interior the best. 

I strongly recommend  to decide  about the possible framing of your Art Prints before the purchase as it could effect on a size of Art Prints you choose. 

What are the sizes of Art Prints we offer?

We offer standard sizes common for United States (in inches) and Europe standard sizes (A-sizes and centimeter sizes):

Please note – print’s size is not the final size on a wall, you should consider about frame wide and matting. 

MATTING ( Mounting or Padde-partout) - The purpose of a mat is to separate the art from the glass, provide visual space to focus on the print, and enhance the overall look of your framed artwork. Similar to how hair bangs can frame a face and highlight facial features, a mat helps highlight artwork by separating it from the frame and drawing attention to the artwork.

A mat isn’t necessary, but most artworks on paper—such as photographs, drawings and watercolors or Fine Art Prints —look best when there’s a border between the edge of the artwork and the frame. After all, making your piece look its best is one of the goals of framing in the first place. 

Besides highlighting the artwork, a mat also physically distances and prevents the artwork from sticking to the glass. This really important when we frame drawing with soft materials like charcoal, graphite pencil or soft pastels, in those cases matting is MUST HAVE, it could be really thin if you don’t love wide matting, but it have to be added for preventing of the artwork, because when soft drawing materials are touch glass inside the frame, small particles of the material is stuck to the glass and this lead to lower quality of presentation and even could destroy the art work.

For Art Prints matting always add for the most beautiful presentation in small sizes. For example, 5x7’’ size Art Print would look much greater mounted to 8x10’’ matting for 8x10’’ frame with 5x7’’ mat opening than just framed in 5x7’’ frame.

NOTE: The mat opening will be slightly smaller than the suggested picture size. This allows the mat to overlap the image slightly, holding it behind the frame. Generally, the mat will cover 1/4" on each side of the image. So, a mat for a 5 x 7" picture will have an opening of 4.5 x 6.5".

Here is the demo of how some Art Prints’ sizes look framed and matted:

For Art Prints you could use standard frames and matting options which are available in shops like Michael’s, Amazon, IKEA and others. Some frames include matting for defined size, some are not and contain the frame only.

For Original Art Pieces which are sometimes are painted or drawn on NOT standard sizes you could order custom framing and matting in framing shop, where you would be able to choose the matting, it’s size and color and even texture, or maybe you would prefer double matting.

Some useful information about matting:

Mat scale. There is no hard-and-fast rule as to how wide a mat should be in relation to the artwork. In fact, framing in general is subjective and depends on the piece and the personal preferences. However, you could start with a minimum width of 1 ½ -2 inches for small sizes and move up with larger sizes.

Multiple mats. The addition of a second mat or even two more mats creates a more pronounced visual delineation that helps draw the viewer’s eye to the artwork. However sometimes the less is more and you have to remember that matting should make artwork to look the best. And not the opposite. 

Colored mats. Adding a color-contrasting mat can accentuate the artwork even more. Whether to introduce a colored mat, however, is a personal preference. The wrong-color mat can be the “death of an image.”  You could use a neutral mat for the dominant border (white is classic these days), and adding a colored secondary mat that references a color in the artwork — but only if it truly enhances the image.

Paper mats can be acidic or non-acidic. Acidic paper mats, sometimes called “decorative mats”, are made with wood pulp. An acidic compound in the wood pulp called lignin creates yellow and brown burn marks on the artwork. One way to tell if a piece has been framed with an acidic mat is if the bevel has yellowed over time. If it’s acid-free, it should still be white. So if you adding mat ask for acid free mats.

Frames

As with mats, frame choices are numerous, and choosing the right frame for a piece is a personal decision. Frames are made of a variety of materials, like wood, metal, resin, and gesso and gold or silver leaf.

For Art Prints you could use ready frames which are sold in a stores like Michael’s, IKEA or Amazon as they available in a standard sizes and it is easy to find frames of you personal taste. I prefer to use “simple” frames made from wood or metal. Usually I use white, black and wood frame in natural finish or driftwood.  

For Original Art Pieces ready frames are also the possibility if art work in one of  standard sizes or if you add the proper matting to adjust the painting to the specific frame. In all framing studios you could order the matting only in a needed size and opening. But sometimes custom framing is needed for Original Art and there are much more possible variations and styles than in a ready frames range. All this depends on your personal preferences, interior style and budget. 

Some things you should know about framing and media of the art :

Watercolor paintings painted on paper or paper boards usually. Have to be framed in a frame with glass or any other covering material. Matting is not the “must have” but for large works on paper matting could be necessary  for better “stretching” of the paper and would help to avoid appearing of “waves” on paper. 

Soft pastels and any soft graphic materials on paper and art boards have to be framed with glass frames and matting. If you don’t love wide matting, there is an option to use really thin matting which would not visible, but would make its work – making the space between the artwork surface and the glass, all this in order to avoid sticking of the soft material to the glass due to kinetic energy.

Oil and acrylic paintings on canvas or cradled boards – Paintings on a canvas stretched over wood stretcher bars can be framed or unframed. If you leave a painting unframed, you’ll see the side of it, which is typically gesso white or the color of the raw canvas or linen.

Frame Guidelines

While frame selection criteria is fluid, framing professionals agree on two rules of thumb.

1. The frame width should be skinnier than the mat.  1-inch-wide frame would look strange with a 1-inch-wide mat. It’s best to have a larger mat to create a variance in width.

2. Select the best frame for the piece instead of matching another frame. If you have different art pieces on the wall, the best is not to match the frames one to another, but find the beast matching frame for the specific artwork, and this would look beautiful on a wall as well.