Signing Your Work.
It’s a topic that inevitably comes up in every class that I teach. There are several ways to sign your work. All are valid. Here are just a few suggestions:
- Prepare your images in Photoshop with an overlay of text on your initial photo.
- Sign the back of it.
- Carve your name into the wax, or get a metal stamp, and fill in the lines with a pigment
- Rubber stamp with India ink or oil stick on it.
- Create your own stencil with your signature.
- Sign a piece of paper, take a photo of your signature, invert your signature, and do a photo transfer of your signature.
- Sign a piece of tissue paper with graphite pencil and embed that tissue into your work.
- Sign the surface of your piece once it’s cool with Pacific Arc’s water-soluble graphite sticks. They look and act just like a pencil.
- If using a cradled board sign the edges of the board.
Tell me, how do you go about signing your work?
Be well….be creative,
Thanks for the tips Clare! If I sign with Pacific Arc’s water-soluble graphite sticks, do I then need to put encaustic over it & fuse to protect it? Thanks.
If it doesn’t drop into the layer below when you fuse then you will need to encase it in medium and fuse.
So many great suggestions. I’m considering having a stamp made of my signature to place on the side of a cradled board or on the back. I can use it for my platinum/palladium/cyanotype images as well. Maybe not as personal as an actual signature by hand but good for multiple prints of a series (for the photography).
I like the carving into the wax method but might that disappear over time with polishing or if you refused for any reason? The signature on tissue paper is great because it becomes one with the work as does a signature on the frame….
So many options! Thanks for this tidbit of your wisdom Clare. Enjoy your time in Boston. Happy Thanksgiving!
Glad the post gave you some things to think about Diana:)
I usually just sign the back of the board, but these are great ideas.
Love these tips! Thank you!
Great tips, thanks. I usually carve my initials in just warm wax and fill with pigment stick the side of the cradleboard for large paintings or the front on small. I then sign properly with a sharpie on the back with painting’s details. Signing painting makes me really anxious because I’ve ruined a few finished pieces right at this point. My family is aware of what has happened if they hear my wails of agony from the studio.lol Imbedded signing has got my interest. I’ll have to give that a try!