He's a great guy. I love working with him! What did you do with him (what projects?) was it Disney? He's DEFINITELY still chugging :)

@@artinsights Nickelodeon, Hey Arnold, Sponge Bob, etc.

What I think hardly matters, since they'll do what they want anyway! but the problem is really that there are so many cels stolen from inside the studios, and I think some collectors want to feel like they are getting official work that is released directly, instead of pieces that were taken.

Interesting. I didn’t know stolen cels were common. I still imagine a rare jungle book or Cinderella piece would be looked at with a scowl if a third party decided they wanted to enhance the value with their own sticker. I know that doesn’t happen with old pieces. But conceptually, if you wouldn’t do it to more valuable pieces, why do it to newer ones... My purist brain imagines a stamp of approval on the the forehead of the Mona Lisa that’s says “verified by the Louvre”. Thank you for a good video.

@@unnecessaryexprmnt Appreciate the compliment on the video! Stolen cels are very common, but only from more recent films, largely because only Disney, WB, and Walter Lantz Studios had a program for selling art way back when. Lantz used to stamp the backgrounds, actually, Disney had the special mats or were cut down and put on litho or mat backgrounds, (and there was a seal on the back of those) and WB had actual signatures on the cels. SO the messing with the art thing has been around for a while! Recent movies like The Little Mermaid have a lot of stolen cels on the market, (especially LM) and that meant someone was INSIDE the studio doing the 5 finger discount (!!) I'd be pretty appalled if some rando stuck a seal on an original piece, but the more valuable the art gets, the more fakes will happen, so as much ways to authenticate as possible, from my perspective, are welcome! (but I get what you're saying...)

guess not lol. Even for a high price :)

Do you have a framer you trust? A dark purple fabric mat with a fillet? UV plexi of course.

@@artinsights purple fabric with gold filet and what color frame? Black or gold? Also do you have any Little Mermaid cels or sketches available for purchase?

@@MrKomninakis there's a dark purple fabric that looks like silk that matches the darker version of Ursula's tentacles. You can use a black frame and black fillet or a gold frame and gold fillet (i don't like mixing black and gold fillets and frames). I do have LM cels right now: artinsights.com/product-category/little-mermaid-art/

As a former animator with cels I can confirm it will do damage & the damage is unrepairable!

I do know about the practice, and don't think it's necessary. The folks who talked about that might have been referring to nitrate cellulose cels (pre-1945ish) but those on acetate, I'd argue, don't need it. and frankly I wouldn't even do it with nitrate cels. I think it would risk the paint cracking...but that's just my opinion. As to newer cels, I really don't think it's required.

Its not enough. Cel change colors with any kind of light not only sunlight. Cel must "breathe" inside a frame its not possible.

Me too 😊

@@maxdoering2143 innit

To be honest, I don't know how a laser background will be different than one that was printed in a more old fashioned way or as a litho. Laser prints definitely act differently when heated (for example, if a framer tries to drymount a laser print, often it just turns black...) I'm no chemist, so I don't know how they are different. Also, as to things getting stuck to a background or another cel, it happens, especially when a whole stack of cels are stored on top of each other for years...and there's a whole era at Disney (back when the art corner at Disney sold cels and had put them on cheap copy backgrounds) where the cels are stuck to the backgrounds. Like, ALL OF THEM are stuck to their backgrounds. If they aren't, I tend to suspect they've been restored. So having said all of that, I still don't recommend suspending the cels away from the acetate. For one thing, if the cels are painted with acrylic (not gouache) they are less likely to stick to their backgrounds, but for another I just don't think it can be made to look good, and there are other issues that could happen having the cel just floating suspended (and i'd question if they'd stay that way, unless suspended VERY far off the background). You can certainly try it. All that being said, if you've put a laser background behind a vintage cel, especially one from the 50s, i'd say that's not a great idea. Not perhaps that helpful, but those are my thoughts. Good luck! Leslie ArtInsights

@@artinsights I wasn't exactly sure how suspending the cel would work in all honesty. I was merely floating the idea out there. I wasn't sure if even setting them right on archival mat board could or would present a future issue. I know paint on acetate can act strange. I'm not surprised to hear of a passle of Disney cels stuck to a photo copy backgrounds. That said, the 2 cels I have currently are from the late 70s/mid 80s and set right on the background image they were provided with, though in truth I've never tried to separate them, so I don't actually know if there is a problem there. The cel I actually have in mind and the question concerns is a mid 80's Disney cel, since we are not going back as far as the 50s I would assume that it is relatively safe to assume it was painted with Acrylics. So, by your statement you tend to think (and I'm not holding you to anything here) that this would be less likely to have sticking issues. I'm currently debating between 2 cels from the same scene. One has a background and one doesn't, and both come unframed. If you were to put your finger on it, would a lithograph be the preferred/safest method for producing a background for display of a cel while maintaining long term integrity, or is there another method that you would recommend?

Me too!

Well, now you do! You can check out a lot more of his work and his importance to film history on his fan site: www.johnalvinart.com

His estate has art from Willow if you're interested you can find them on artinsights.com.