Giclee Rhymes with Toupee (Sorta)

I apologize again about being slow to blog, but I've been really busy with puppies! In between them and getting ready for this big show. Two weeks and counting. Oh oh OH and I'm talking about the cover and title tomorrow with my editor. I'll let you know the second I know something. (You know I will).

Today I wanted to answer a very good question a blog reader sent me. I actually got it a week ago but I haven't had time to do a really good answer. But without further ado:

Dear Most Amazing Maggie who will always have the body of a twenty year old but the wisdom of the Oracle, (note from Maggie: I may have added some of that in)

I had a question for you and hope you have time to answer. you recently wrote about your brother who was getting the supplies and business to start making the professional prints that you needed for your artwork sales.

What does it take to hire him to make prints? investment? quality of files? digital files? etc?

I have a couple of pieces of artwork that I'm interested in having prints made from, but I don't know who to contact in the art world to see about getting this done, what it should cost me, and/or who to trust.

Could you or would you make a recommendation or share information on this topic for me? I've read about giclee prints and then other people are selling digital prints from their printer on archival paper, etc. it doesn't seem logical to me that these are the same quality and the same worth, but maybe I just don't understand the process.

This is a wonderful question, because I was absolutely clueless about prints when I first began as a professional artist and I still run across very smart people throwing around idiotic terms.

I want to start out with some definitions. The first is "giclee." I don't think most people know what a giclee is, much less how to spell it. Many artists believe that a giclee speaks of archival quality, or a sort of ink, or a kind of paper. The truth is much vaguer. Check out Wikipedia's definition of giclee: basically "any high quality ink-jet print." Many artists use this term to imply an archival print, but don't take it for granted. Always ask about the sorts of inks used.

I tell my buyers that my prints are "fine art prints done with archival inks on acid-free paper (or canvas)." If they say "what about giclee?" I tell them that they are technically done using the giclee process, and then add that they are supposed to last without fading for 50 years.

So, now that we have terminology aside, what do you need to get started with prints? First of all, if you have even thought about creating prints on your desktop printer, smack your fingers with a spoon. Nyet! Nein! No! I cannot think of enough ways to say no. First of all, even if you could produce a decent looking print and you did it on acid-free paper, the inks that are used in desktop printers are absolutely not archival. In two years, your beautiful print would be badly faded and you would've officially ripped off your customer.

That Is Not Good Business Practice.

The first thing you need to make prints is an image of your artwork. There are two main ways to go about getting this. 1) Pay someone to do the "capture" on your artwork or 2) do it yourself. Obviously, if you don't have a camera with a high megapixel count or a good scanner, or if you aren't comfortable color correcting your images, you're going to have to get a professional to do it. I'll warn you -- this is where the real money comes in. I took one look at how much it cost to have a professional giclee service photograph and color correct my artwork (think hundreds of dollars)(for each image) and I knew I'd never be able to make a profitable part of my business.

So I rolled up my sleeves, made some cookie dough, and got busy researching cameras, photo editing software, and printers. I happen to have a beautiful camera (thank you oh husband, how wise you are), a Canon Rebel, that takes beautiful, high quality images. It makes the print process easy. It was, however, $1000. (It has paid for itself many times over since last Christmas when I got it). Quailing at the idea of such an expensive piece of equipment? Fear not, gentle readers. I also pulled up to 11 x 14" prints from my Sony Cybershot, which had 5 megapixels. It took a tripod, some wonderful light, and clever color correction, but I could make it happen. Also you might ask around -- high quality cameras like my good ol' Canon are becoming more popular and you might have a family member or friend who would let you use one.

I also invested in Adobe Photoshop. Every professional artist should have this anyway -- to optimize your images online and to build the graphic bits for your website. Buy it. Learn it. Save big bucks on color correction.

And finally, I found some printers online who would print my print-ready files for much, much less than those giclee places that wanted $200 an image. Much less. The thing to remember with these places is that they print exactly what you send them. So if your file is crap, they print crap. Your file is breath-taking, they print breathtaking.

I've recently switched from my favorite online printers, who are large and impersonal, to my brother's printing service. He just moved back down here to Virginia and has gotten his printing business up and running. I was initially attracted by the prospect of no shipping charges, but I have to tell you, I'm blown away by his prints. People can't tell the difference between my prints and my originals until they slant them and see how the different colors of pencils on the originals have different finishes. Anyway, so I highly recommend him. He'll also work with you one on one to get what you want, which you won't get with the big guys.

His name is Andrew Hummel, and he's at Lucky Pigment.

But if you don't want to go with him, I also recommend the other printers I found (I tried a few but like these two the best).

For prints on paper, Iprintfromhome.com.

For prints on canvas, QualityCanvasPhotos.com.

I know this post is long and very broad and sweeping, so if you have more specific questions, feel free to e-mail me at portraitswithcharacter AT gmail.com and I'll try to address them here. Or if you want me to wax poetic on how I color correct my pieces . . .

Til then, go -- y'all have homework to do!

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