if stout added a border to the image, it wouldn't do anything for it except add noise, imo. i normally don't add borders by framing w/ double mats either (b/c most times, the print visually sinks into the frame and i don't want that), but what i want to do here is add some dimensionality to the image which is lacking a bit of depth, imo (the artwork is still beautiful!)middayshadows wrote:My personal approach is to never add a border through double matting - or any other way. It may make a certain kind of sense visually, but what you're doing is adding to the artwork. If Tyler wanted a border he would have put one in there himself.
i'm also willing to argue that the red mat isn't distracting; if there were more red values in the print, or other colors for that matter, absolutely, but my instinct when framing prints is to pop color while letting the frame/mat mix w/ the midtones/shadows seen in the image
i guess it depends on what you want from your framed print; i crave contrast, not just from the prints that i buy, but how they're framed and where. white everything works as an option, i guess, but it severely lacks contrast to really pop off a white wall once it's hung, imo; i get what you're saying about its feeling, but to me, the white paper/white walls are enough (but i think it's a good idea to make my frame thinner). when looking at everything together, the red mat pops the red values in the image and acts as a bridge b/t white (paper) and gray (mat), and the dark contrast of the frame makes the print feel a little brighter as your eye moves from from the outside of the frame to the center of the imagemiddayshadows wrote:Having said that, if you were going to do that,look at the frame at the top of the page - it looks fantastic and the border is about a third the thickness of yours. White matting looks much better than grey. Feels more consistent with the wintery feel of the print itself. I think it would look fine with a black frame, maybe even better. But that's the only thing I would change.
thx for the input!