Anime-Beta TNG

I've just had a look through my Itoya for the first time in about a month, and I noticed that a lot of my cel bags have a sort of wrinkling/bubbling where it is touching the paint on the cel. The bag itself seems to stick to the paint on the cel, but when you open the bag it comes away from the cel very easily, with no effort and no paint chipping.

The bags have all only been changed recently - about 2 months ago. I assume that this is only due to the paint vapours, but should I be worried?

Cel paint, unfortunately, is chemically active, especially when it's relatively fresh. In my experience, this activity settles down in time (that is, the replacement bag puckers, but not as severely, and so on), but it probably is a good idea to put cels into fresh bags periodically. Some do it as a matter of habit on a yearly basis: I do it when I get the cels and then later as I notice that the new bag has begun to pucker severely.

Some collectors suggest that you slit or at least snip off the corner of a cel bag (not with the cel inside) to vent the gasses that cause this puckering, as it's likely that the same chemicals cause trace line fading. But, as the lines are encased in the paint, I can't think that this would help on this front. Still, it's a good idea to let these fumes dissipate rather than concentrate inside the cel bag.

Breathing fumes from inside a cel bag is known to contribute to developing an addiction to bidding on auctions. ^_~

Hiya Blaster,
Here is a fast way to stop this puckering.
Get yourself some acid free backing boards and place them on the back/paint side of the cel and then place them in the cel bag before you put them in the cel book.
What causes this is the water the latex paint sponges from the air,when put into a cel bag the cel sweats the moist air out of the cel along with some of the solvent used in the paints,it's such a small amount you may not be able to see this but it's enough to pucker the thinner cel bags.
Venting of the bags is not needed as the acid free board will take care of the gasses/water vapors.
Venting can cause more damage to the artwork do to the fact the air in our homes can be very acidic, and will cause the paper and paints to turn brown or burn so to speak,this can take years to show up but it will in time show up on all artwork open to the air,this is why dealers seal baseball cards,posters ect. in there own sealed plastic cases.
A backing board is also needed to keep the pages from bending as you go back and forth in the cel book,bending is the main reason for line loss as all the bending back and forth pops the toner off the lines on the front of the cel,and if bent enough times the paint can come off the back of the cel also.

I hope this helps out some.

Roy (DBA)Backlotanimation

backlotanimation wrote:Hiya Blaster,
Here is a fast way to stop this puckering.
Get yourself some acid free backing boards and place them on the back/paint side of the cel and then place them in the cel bag before you put them in the cel book.
What causes this is the water the latex paint sponges from the air,when put into a cel bag the cel sweats the moist air out of the cel along with some of the solvent used in the paints,it's such a small amount you may not be able to see this but it's enough to pucker the thinner cel bags.
Venting of the bags is not needed as the acid free board will take care of the gasses/water vapors.
Venting can cause more damage to the artwork do to the fact the air in our homes can be very acidic, and will cause the paper and paints to turn brown or burn so to speak,this can take years to show up but it will in time show up on all artwork open to the air,this is why dealers seal baseball cards,posters ect. in there own sealed plastic cases.
A backing board is also needed to keep the pages from bending as you go back and forth in the cel book,bending is the main reason for line loss as all the bending back and forth pops the toner off the lines on the front of the cel,and if bent enough times the paint can come off the back of the cel also.

I hope this helps out some.

Roy (DBA)Backlotanimation

You never cease to amaze me with you useful info backlot

How do the acid free boards go in regards to sticking to the cel paint? I have a few cels that have the oily black "block out" paint on them. I don't want them to get stuck to the boards?

You can put a sheet of plastic behind the cel: but then that prevents the board from doing what Roy suggests it should. A compromise would to place a sheet of thin rice paper between it and the board. (Many of my cels come with that already.) That would absorb moisture and not stick tightly to the cel. (Check an archival supplies source for rice paper that's of good quality and won't yellow in time.)

Overall, if you don't open and close your cels or cel books often, I doubt that clipping the corner will let acidic air in to any great extent. It does make them much easier to store as otherwise the envelopes trap air. Obviously, if you're a smoker, you should keep your cels sealed up, or the next owner will (as has happened to me) get a terrific headache when s/he looks at them.

I'm aware of the practice of "slabbing" baseball cards (i.e., semi-permanently encasing them in hardshell plastic), but I think the main advantages of this are to ensure that the COA and grading opinion of a professional are attached directly to the item. Otherwise, an unscrupulous dealer could sell a fake card with a real COA. In my experience, vintage baseball cards were printed on cheap cardboard that is intrinsically unstable, and so a modest amount of deterioration is in itself a sign of authenticity. I don't know that the cards will last longer because they're slabbed, though this does protect them from being accidentally bent or dog-eared, which would reduce their value to collectors.

I do agree that back boards are a good idea with cels so long as they're not allowed to touch the cel paint directly, or else they will, in time, stick tight.

My cel books don't get opened all that often, only when I put new cels in or I take a cel out to try and remove a stuck sketch. i'm a non-smoker so that's not of any concern to me.

I don't clip the corner of my bags though. I just put the cel/sketch in the bag and leave it unsealed, then it goes into my Itoya.

Thanks for the help sensei!