If you have a piece of artwork that was done on paper you will need a frame with glass. You should also have something separating the work of art from the glass – the most common thing used is a mat. Of course there’s aesthetic reasons for using a mat, but it also helps to protect the artwork from condensation or ghosting onto the glass.
A mat is made out of matboard (which is a dense paper/cardboard material). Matboard comes in all sorts of colors and patterns. They’re a good way to finish off the piece of art. Some people say to do neutrals for art shows (if you have specific requirements for the show try to follow those guidelines), but the most important aspect is that it makes your piece shine.
Below I used a double mat of grey with white core and black with white core matboard with my Sketchy Tree ink drawing “Roots Run Deep”. The “core” is the color that’s on the back and inside of the matboard which will show on the front edge when you do a 45 degree bevel cut.