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Protect Your Pastels with Preval

Are you a pastel, charcoal, watercolor, or ink artist?  Do you worry about retaining your hard work after a long project?  The dread of smudges is a thing of the past, as are the extravagant costs of sealing with other mediums.  Instead of spending an arm and a leg preserving your work, consider the Preval alternative.

Garry McMichael, a pastel artist in St. Louis, Missouri, knows this all too well.  Using the Preval Sprayer he is now able to seal his pastel masterpieces in a more cost effective and simpler way.

When he’s done with his work, he photographs it and then makes clay prints that he can sell.  To ensure that these prints stay as they were, and add more value, he uses the Preval Sprayer to apply an acrylic fix onto his work.

For those not completely familiar with what an acrylic fix is, here’s a layman’s explanation courtesy of ArtistTerms.com:

“Fixative (in an aerosol spray can) is a permanent protective coating used for preserving and sealing pastels, pencils, watercolours, charcoals and inks. The fixative is usually sprayed over a finished piece of artwork to avoid fingerprints and keep it from smearing. Some artists also use a workable fixative to preserve any work in progress, re-touch or for layering without blending. 

Here’s what you’ll need to protect your work:

  • Preval Sprayer
  • An acrylic medium
  • Water
  • A funnel to add them to the product container
  • The piece of art you would like to protect

The Sprayer allows you to mix your choice of acrylic into a solution.  Garry used a combination of two parts acrylic medium and one part water in the product container to lightly spray over his piece.  The acrylic fixative assists in resisting scratches.  It makes the piece more durable.

After the medium dries, the image is sealed.  All that needs to be done is to put it in a frame and/or mount it onto a board.  Glass is not necessary.  You can even dust off the painting without any damage to the painting.

But don’t just read about it, watch the Preval Sprayer in action in the video below:


For more ideas on how you can use the Preval Sprayer and other products to make your life easier, keep reading and watching.  We’re going to have a ton of content showing you all the ways you can Preval.  And, if you have an idea that’s not on here, reach out to us and let us know!



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