Sketch Collectors Warning: Cold, Silent Inferno

[sensei]

The damage caused to Jen's cel collection (graphically displayed in her "Inferno" RS gallery and discussed recently here) was sobering enough for most of us. Thankfully, it's made all of us just a little more aware of just how ephemeral the objects we collect so avidly are. But while intense, dramatic tragedies like this are (double thankfully) uncommon, it made me a little more observant of another kind of burning that (sadly) may be more common than we realize.

I'm used to dealing with sketches that come with tape burns caused by the cheap brand of transparent adhesive tape (or celotape) that some studios used. This seems to be a special problem with Studio Pierrot art (Hyper Police, Tenshi ni Narumon, Saiyuki, Bleach, etc.). It's sad to see a beautiful pan sketch disfigured by a nasty brown stain down the middle where a long strip of tape with acidic-based stickum slowly burned the paper next to it. When I see this kind of damage on new purchases, I get out my big bottle of eucalyptus oil and my craftsman's knife, and I get the tape off and as much of the adhesive as I can.

However, when I'd get a new sketch with tape but no visible damage, I assumed that the adhesive was a better brand, and I left it where it was. Lately, though, I was looking through one of my portfolios and saw that some sketches that I'd assumed were OK were now starting to show the first signs of tape burn. While the damage is less severe than most I've seen, it is, sadly, plainly visible and, unfortunately, now quite permanent.

So: I'd recommend to people with extensive sketch collections to do what I'm doing now -- look through your entire collection, including the batches that you bagged up and put in storage boxes for the long haul, and look closely at any that have clear celotape on them. (The frosted "invisible" tape is, so far as I've been able to tell, stable and non-staining.) Don't assume that, if the sketch was undamaged when you got it, that it's undamaged now. If you can see any signs that the paper is changing color (which happens most quickly on thin yellow paper and more gradually on the thicker white paper), get the tape off as soon as you can.

While Jen's tragedy is surely to be mourned, it would also be tragic if we allowed artwork that we assumed was safe and sound to be silently damaged at room temperature while we weren't looking.

[Belldandy16]

Thank you Sensei!
thats something i never thought of before.
should we ("gasp"... i hate to think of it) cut off the parts with tape on them or you said there was something called "eucaliptus oil" (i know i butchered the spelling on that, sorry) we could use to get it off?

from my days as a scrapbooker i know that unless its "acid free, archival" tape (which i seriously doubt any studio uses), all tape will eventually burn any paper its on.

so what do we do in these situations?

[sensei]

should we ("gasp"... i hate to think of it) cut off the parts with tape on them or you said there was something called "eucaliptus oil" (i know i butchered the spelling on that, sorry) we could use to get it off?

Other collectors with more archival experience can chime in, but when I first ran into the problem (which you can see in this damaged CCS sketch) I searched the 'net until I came across a discussion of the issue on a librarians' discussion group. The consensus there was that you should apply a solvent to the opposite side of the page/sheet to loosen the adhesive, then peel the tape off as gently as possible. (I use a crafter's knife to get between the plastic and the paper, then use it to separate the two slowly.) Obviously, if you see a peel starting, stop, apply more solvent, and then work from another direction.

Eucalyptus oil was the solvent that the librarians preferred. It melts all tape glues and won't affect pencil or watercolor paint. (It will lift photocopy lines and some colored pencil lines.) You can get this in little bottles at health stores that cater to aromatherapy practitioners, or in big bottles from online sources. (Caution! Kid-proof it, as it smells nice but is poisonous if swallowed and can burn you if you get a lot of it on your skin. It also eats holes in most kinds of plastic and so should never even be shown to cels.) I've also read that "Goo-gone" (available at many Dollar Stores) also does the job, but makes the sketches smell like lighter fluid.

The basic message is to look at your sketches at least as often as you look at your scans, and watch for any signs of discoloration.

[iwakuralain16]

sketches.... so many to look through.

[miz ducky]

Thank you for the warning Sensei! Most of the sketches that I own that have tape on them are ones that came attached to backgrounds (usually a layout). I was more worried about tearing the paper than about leaving the tape, but now I have to rethink that.

[Keropi]

Have you conducted any accelerated age testing on disposable sketch pages by applying sample solutions to areas and then leaving the papers out in direct sun for a couple months (bringing the papers in when they get dark to avoid damp dew runoff) or sticking them in low heat in an oven? (To see if part of the paper ages faster or differently than the rest)

That's how I used to test merchandise out. Some of those old lousy comic book bags I had would die rapid deaths.

I never tested to see which colors faded cel lines the fastest though.

[Cordelia]

Thanks sensei for highlighting this. Some of my cels came with tape burns and boy, are they ugly....esp when they are on the BG And unfortunately, I don't think these marks can be removed.

So one of the first things I do with new purchases, is to carefully remove all tape and staples (these leave rust marks when they corrode). Sometimes the paper can get slightly damaged but better that than brown marks. I can safely say that all the tape used by the studio are not archival quality and deteoriate pretty fast. The long run, the adhesive can get stickier and hardier to remove. I find blu-tack very useful in removing adhesives.

The other thing I do is slip a piece of acid-free plastic b/w the cel and BG, and the cel layers which are not stuck. It would be a shame to let the layers which were lucky enuff to come unstuck become stuck in my care.

For the sketches I try to keep each pc separate with acid free paper to prevent transfer of acids but because of the sheer number, I juz focus on the key pieces first.

[Belldandy16]

Thank you for the warning Sensei! Most of the sketches that I own that have tape on them are ones that came attached to backgrounds (usually a layout).

ooooh, i didnt think of backgrounds too.
oh boy. one more thing to worry about.

[sensei]

Have you conducted any accelerated age testing on disposable sketch pages by applying sample solutions to areas and then leaving the papers out in direct sun for a couple months

I haven't, but it's a good idea. Where I live, the sun is strong enough to yellow newsprint visibly by afternoon if we don't bring the paper in right away. I'll try this and report back.

[sensei]

ooooh, i didnt think of backgrounds too.
oh boy. one more thing to worry about.

The worst are the ones where dealers taped the cels directly to the backgrounds. Even when these have been subequently removed (sometimes with visible razor blade damage to the bg), the damaging tape is sometimes still stuck to the paint. With very careful peeling, I managed to get one batch off, and I got another batch off another bg (which a previous owner had unsuccessfully started and made a peel, then stuck the tape back) with eucalyptus oil. However, that tends to move dirt etc. around when it's wet, and so when it dried, it made "tide marks" that I then had to mitigate by dabbing them gently with a little solvent on a cotton ball to redistribute the gunk.

In some cases the only remedy is that of the doctor in the joke who was called in to treat the "Creeping Crud," an incurable STD. "Oh, no need to cut it off," he told the nervous patient. "Two, three days, it'll fall off by itself."

[Belldandy16]

ooooh, i didnt think of backgrounds too.
oh boy. one more thing to worry about.

The worst are the ones where dealers taped the cels directly to the backgrounds.

oh yeah i got one of those. ugh. its like, "yeah thats nice you showed me where exactly the cel fit in, but now you just destroyed the background!!!" lol

well, thank you again, Sensei!

In some cases the only remedy is that of the doctor in the joke who was called in to treat the "Creeping Crud," an incurable STD. "Oh, no need to cut it off," he told the nervous patient. "Two, three days, it'll fall off by itself."

oh boy.

[RoboFlonne]

I have a lot of LARGE sketches where the tape keeps the top half of the Anime Character attached to the bottom!!!

Should I take the tape off and cut the Anime Character in half!

What should I do?

[sensei]

I have a lot of LARGE sketches where the tape keeps the top half of the Anime Character attached to the bottom!!!

Should I take the tape off and cut the Anime Character in half!

What should I do?

That, actually, was where I saw the problem. I have several pan sketches of Son Goku from Saiyuki, and when looking through a Profolio devoted to them, I noticed that one of them was starting to show a perceptible tape burn right in the middle, where the two halves are joined. On looking at others in the same book, I could see where others were just starting to show similar discoloration. I have a number of older sketches where this tape burn was, unfortunately, very prominent when I acquired them. Here is one. I've noticed that roughs on thin yellow paper show this damage more quickly than others on white paper, but I have sketches on white paper that are badly damaged as well.

What to do? You could keep the sketch in a dark, climate-controlled setting and hope for the best, checking it every few months. Or you could remove the tape as gently as you can (this is where a solvent helps greatly, so long as the sketch is graphite and not colored pencil). Then either store the two halves together in an cel bag folded to just the right size or use acid-free scrapbookers' tape to rejoin them or fit them both to a piece of archival paper or backing board.

[klet]

Yep, the eucalyptus oil works wonders. I've used it on sketches and backgrounds alike. Found mine in the incense section at Sprouts.

I do, however, have one cel from which I'm too scared to take the tape. This HxH cel has so much tape connecting the cel layers and book layer that I just know I'll damage something with removal. The worst part is that it looks like some of the tape is directly over the airbrushing, meaning that I would be removing some of the airbrushing with the tape (you can see the tape all around the edges in my scan).

[sensei]

I dunno: while eucalyptus oil doesn't affect graphite pencil or watercolor paint, I'd be willing to bet that it dissolves trace lines and cel paint. It might even dissolve acetate. (I once left the cap to the bottle upside down on my computer printer and came back to find that it had eaten a neat little ring in the plastic top!) I'd be willing to bet that the infamous "dip" (as seen in "Roger Rabbit") had eucalyptus oil in it. (Disney really did use to dip their cels to use the plastic again!)

It does not dissolve linoleum floors (I used it cautiously to clean up some glue that had spilled on the kitchen floor) so it doesn't affect all plastics. But I'd try it on a freebie cel first before I used it on one that I cared about.

In such a case I'd be tempted to leave the tape be, so long as the discoloration isn't affecting the acetate. Obviously, keeping the cel out of the light and in a controlled environment will slow any deterioration of the tape, so it might just dry up and drop off naturally. What that will do to the airbrushing can't be predicted, but that's so fragile that it certain that trying to remove the tape will damage it.

Unless the airbrushing in on the back, which it is in some airbrushed cels I've seen. Because of its fragility, studios took more and more precautions toward the end, and sandwiched the airbrushing inside layers when possible. If so, you might be able to start a corner of the tape with your fingernail (crafters' knives will scratch the cel) and peel it off.