articles/Paper/breathingcolourlyvecanvas-page3
by Mike McNamee Published 01/08/2010
white tone of the substrate. Some or all of these attributes may be measurably affected and the effects are greater with gloss varnishes, compared with matt and semi-matt varnishes. For our tests we applied two coats of Gloss Glamour II before re-making our measurements. The varnish produced a very clean, smooth coating. There was the tiniest amount of 'drag out' when a brush was used to apply the varnish, that is, a little bleeding into the white surroundings away from darker areas of tone. For this reason the roller is still the preferred method of application, certainly for the first coat. The finish seems to be very elastic, important if cracking under the tension of stretcher-bar mounting is to be avoided.
Although the results are something of a disappointment when compared with the hype on the website, they are still marginally the best we have tested for this class of media (ie OBA-free fully matt canvas) . The varnish is the best we have tested, the easiest to use and created the most level finish we have seen. It is unlikely that the subtle differences between Lyve and other quality canvas media would be detected by the end client but if you need to be able to put your hand on your heart and declare that your workflow is the best that money can buy then any marginal cost penalties might be worthwhile. In spite of our irritation at the product billing we actually like Lyve Canvas quite a lot!
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