SpectraFix Degas Spray Fixative SF-31270 (12 oz Spray Bottle)

The problems I have experienced while trying to archive my artwork had to do with toxicity of product and the smell. where could I spray the awful stuff?I found this product and all my problems were solved!It is made from all natural ingredients. It doesn’t smell bad at all and I can spray my work inside my house!This product provides a nice finish for my work. It looks great and works well! I will be purchasing this product from now on!

I’ve had nothing but success using this with my soft pastels, and it’s non-toxic with no smell! After I spray it on, it looks like, uh oh, it’s darker now, but once dry (I use my craft dryer), it looks exactly like it did before I sprayed. The only difference is now there’s more ‘texture/tooth’, and I can keep working on my painting. A perfect workable fixative! I hope they never stop making it.

I recommend this product to all my drawing students as it doesn’t have the dangerous organic vapors in it and does a pretty good job fixing charcoal and/or pencil drawings. HOWEVER, warning to all: the sprayer part does not impart a super fine mist so you must clean the nozzle often and make sure you spray from a distance, or else you may wind up damaging your drawing by causing drips or too much wetness. Otherwise, a fine product — just be careful with it.

I’ve been experimenting with absorbent ground on 6x6 inch canvases lately and this is probably #6 or 7 in the batch. Brush on isolation layers worked on all the previous pictures til I reached the first one with gouache, ruined it! So, if I was to continue to be able to do pieces like this one, more delicate placed pigments, more nuanced with such small spaces, I needed a spray application. I didn’t want anything toxic or requiring masks or having to be done outside. My online info search kept taking me to Spectrafix’s fixative spray, so I tried it, and am extremely pleased it works so close to description! As my before (on the right) and after image (on the left) show, very little change, esp in regard to the tiny speckling of pigment and the wash gradations created by the watercolors (I feel I can only help that happen, the quality of watercolors does all the major work). My sig did get faded out some, so it’s the only major addition, one I was able to do with a permanent ink pen on top of the fixative coating (as advertised). I also added two tiny highlights I just wanted to add, not that were re-dos of work messed up. Highly recommend! Now I just need a non-toxic spray varnish 😊

Non-toxic and perfect for studio use... this fixative spray can be used over and over while you are working on your pastel painting. (I use only soft pastels...never oil pastels.) Not an "end result spray fixative"... this is used while the work is in progress. No need to worry about ventilation in the studio... beyond what you'd normally be utilizing for pastel work. Sure beats running downstairs and out into the garage to use the standard fixatives between layers... over and over... leaving each one out there to dry for 10 or 15 minutes! Especially in the winter!! I'm too old for that!Because it's not an aerosol spray ... and is more like a pump spray similar to your Lysol or "409" sprayers... it can scare you when you first use it. By that I mean, it can come out much more unevenly than an aerosol spray. And when you first see it hit your painting, you're afraid that it's gonna' dry "gloppy" or with circles of varying sizes showing! It won't!! Relax, it'll be fine. Give it time to dry thoroughly (doesn't need more than 2 or 3 minutes, unless you've been really heavy handed)... and you'll be pleased. It says on the label that you can use it over and over on the same painting... "indefinitely"... and that's true! Don't know how it works... but magically, you keep gaining more and more tooth... and can layer and layer and layer. Guess if it's the recipe that Degas used... that's why it's so darn good!

This causes paper to crinkle up and not flatten out, spray is quite course no matter how well shaken and even one light spritz makes paper warp and curl, and it needs to be applied several times to get enough to actually fix the surface (Charcoal or graphite or pastels, etc). WAY more change to artwork from the amount of liquid this throws on drawing compared to aerosol.I honestly cannot thing of One Valid Reason any sane person would buy it. It's got all the downfalls of both no fixative and something like Modge Podge while leading people to believe with flowery blatant lies that it's safe and doesn't change anything "if used during entire creation process" -- which can't happen since once you spray it, the surface no longer accepts marks in the same way due to warring/clinks formed and some areas still having normal tooth with other areas having little tooth. It isn't worth $5, let alone $20.Using absolutely no fixative at all is a better option than this crap. Just put in a matted page frame in portfolio so pagers do not rub on each other. Or use the Aerosol workable fixative but with the added bonus of actually fixing work AND giving More tooth back to the paper instead of ruining whatever was left when used.