Steven Julio Bello

On 6/18/2021 at 12:50 PM, Rick2you2 said:

What are the telltale signs you look for?

Lack of confidence in the lines. Not as smooth. An image i’ve seen before and I’m able to hunt down the original of. An inauthentic signature is often a quick giveaway.

On 9/24/2020 at 2:39 AM, ESeffinga said:

And not all markers fade the same. Some just get a bit lighter gray. Some go purple. Some red or brown, etc. Everything dye based fades. It just does. Dyes are not 100% light fast.

My wife did archival framing for almost a decade. We saw what real museum glass does and does not do. They like to tell people how it blocks 90whatever percent of UV and how it will protect the work, etc. But it isn’t foolproof. It isn’t perfectly secure.

I don’t mean just keeping a dye based piece out of direct light. I mean out of any room that gets any kind of sun. Keep those pieces in darker hallways, rooms without windows. Make sure you only use LED bulbs around them, etc. 

If you have your museum glass piece in a dark hall, lit only by a single bulb, and that bulb happens to be fluorescent or incandescent, you might as well hang it in your window. 
 

As has been pointed out, fading differs. Both in speed and in intensity. The most insidious bit is it’s generally so slow, you don’t see the change day to day. But someone else that goes years without seeing it and then sees it again can.

But here’s the part where I get a little controversial. I’m of the opinion that if the piece is protected as well as possible, and you love to see it and enjoy seeing it every day... and especially commissions or sketches... frame it. Let it fade slowly over time. But enjoy it. Getting daily enjoyment from those things IMO outstrips their historic value 9 times out of 10. 
 

Work done for publication is a little trickier moral dilemma. And a chunk of why I don’t own published marker work.
 

I do have published water color pieces. Framed in museum glass, and most of these are hanging in my basement in rooms that see little filtered sun.

My whole house was converted to LED bulbs a few years back.

 

My last bit on markers, but Alex mentioned keeping them in the dark. The worst thing about them in my experience is the solvents they use as a vehicle for the dye. It is inherent in how they operate as a medium. Older markers are worse than new ones, but those solvents migrate and break down. Some will bleed out from under colors, causing the edges to look blurry, or ghosted. It leaving a light colored halo like a faint yellow on the edge of dark shapes. And they will migrate, as I mentioned before. Keep them away from everything. If marker sits directly on anything, like in a portfolio, being transported, stacked etc. Those solvents just go.

I had a couple freebie marker drawings done by creators I didn’t really know. I Put them into a portfolio. About 5 years later, I needed room, so I tossed them into a single sleeve in that portfolio to save some space. About 20 years later I was cleaning stuff out of this portfolio and stumbled across the drawings. Pulled them out and was going to toss them in the trash. I noticed something weird though. I saw the drawing that was on top had transferred on the bottom piece. The bottom piece had a near perfect copy of the top drawing, but not in ink. In a very light yellow stain. It was the solvent that had leeched from one paper to the other.

Then I noticed something else strange. That same yellow stain could be seen in the “acid free” Mylar sleeve. It had leeched into and discolored that as well.
And the kicker was these weren’t some random markers the artists had used. I use to carry very specific acid free Bristol boards and expensive archival ink pens and permanent markers from Japan with me to shows for drawings and commissions I might get. These artists used my materials. And they failed. I had seen the old stuff go kablooie before, but not any of the modern technically advanced archival pens. That was when I first realized it was universal. All those companies like to use those words, but everything fades. Even some pigment based art materials fade. Certain colors especially. 
 

Irregardless... just be aware. That is the whole thing, IMO. Go in eyes open. Know what can happen, and be happy if it doesn’t, or just be happy if you don’t notice. Whichever.
 

P.s. Museum glass and some of the UV glass really does help slow down fading. My point in bringing it up is to make sure people realize it dulls the effects, it does not stop it. There isn’t any stopping it. And not just UV light (which is for sure the worst) but any light has an effect. But it’s a heck of a lot better than nothing. 

When you buy Timm’s color pieces, I find it usually has a blank piece of white paper behind it to absorb the marker oils. Is there value in always keeping a white sheet of paper behind the art? How about storing in Itoyas? What are your thoughts on those? I use these polyglass pages.

On 9/8/2020 at 4:07 PM, Rick2you2 said:

I saw this on eBay a few months ago, and I thought I would save it as a warning to others. Someone got sick of all the eBay fakes and posted it. That signature looks pretty good to me:

This was me. I got fed up. I have an IG called @brucetimmcollector where I share a few originals.