I recently received a question about creating and selling prints. Its kind of an open ended question which can have different answers depending on the person answering.
I have a question Graham. I have asked this no. of artists but none has answered it honestly. The truth is I am new in this selling business and I want to sell my work on my own too because selling from these online websites like Fine Art America, you don’t make much.
My question is which is a good place to get your prints made so that you can give people a better price than Fine Art America and you make some profit as well. I have tried places like Office Max but they don’t offer too many choices in prints.
Thank you
Sonali
Sonali is asking this question.
Do you know cheap, affordable places to get art prints made?
Please also offer Sanali any advice you have for selling art prints.
Please send your answers to the email below. You can also include your website, and an artwork to be published if you want.
ANSWERS:
I use Giclee Factory in Quebec, Canada. The quality is excellent, and they do drop ship. I tried another service that was faster, but the quality was not there - cheap thin canvas, not well protected in the shipping box. I consider the 1 to 2 week delivery estimated time worth it for the quality. I also recommend always ordering a sample print to check your colour calibration. It's hard to judge the lights and darks on a computer screen.
“I live in Washington State, about 25 minutes north of Seattle. For anyone in the greater Seattle area, I would definitely recommend ADG Graphics, in Lynnwood, Washington. They do an incredible job with giclee prints, and have a wide range of pH neutral fine arts papers to choose from. For those out of the area, they also do giclee prints by mail order.”
Robert Stockton (via Linkedin)
“I have prints made in a variety of ways, and all have their good and bad points. These days however, I prefer to do Giclee prints. The key is to find a very good printer ,who does high resolution work. I paint a lot of wildlife watercolors, and on selected paintings, I sometimes have 25-30 Giclee prints made ,that I number and sign. I always market them as Giclee prints. That way besides the original ,only 25 -30 people have a copy of that painting, not 300,500,or 1000 other people. To me it just makes the print more special, and my customer tell ,me they like that as well.
Since I have sold my originals and Giclee prints, throughout the United States,Europe,Russia,China,Japan,Canada and Guatemala ,this process has worked very well for me ,and I have been creating art full time since 1980.”
Jim Turlington (via Linkedin)
Some previous questions asked at Artpromotivate can be found here:
How do you know if a painting is finished?
How long does it take to paint that?
QUESTIONS????
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I don't think there is a "cheap" place to have prints made unless you want your work to look cheap. You will need to get a high quality,good resolution scan done by your printer which could run anywhere from $75-$150 depending on size & where you are located.From there you can have prints made in various sizes etc. It's not a cheap process but once you understand the whole procedure you begin to understand why limited edition prints can be worth a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteHarwood King Fine Arts are fantastic, very reasonable and really know their stuff - you can google them or e mail me for their contact details tellambert@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteTerri
Harwood King Fine Arts are fantastic and very reasonable - they deal with international clients and are very friendly and helpful - google them or e mail me for contact details tellambert@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteTerri Lambert
@Terri Lambert
ReplyDeleteYou absolutely must have a professional scan or a picture taken of your artwork. I have a few fellow artists living near me who also produce giclee reproductions. They ensure that the new printed image is as close to the original as possible. They will provide the reproductions along with a high quality file of the image.
I also have a Canadian source for well priced reproductions: http://www.thegicleefactory.com
There are some sites such as Fine Art America that will sell and produce the reproductions for you - all you need to do is supply them with the high quality image. I would suggest that you get a sample or purchase one of the images that they are selling in your name to ensure that they reflect the quality you want.
Beth Campbell
http://bethsartstudio.com
Hi, I'm in London so can't comment on US-based printers. However, this may be of use: I have recently started to print my own reproductions using a Canon MG8250 printer/scanner, high-quality inks and expensive Hahnemuhle fine art paper (I have to explore other art papers yet!). The prints look true and beautiful and I'm happy with the quality. As presentation is key, I put them in proper archival mountboard, wrap them in cellophane and include a business card. I make sure I attach an affordable price tag since, at exhibitions, people may not want to spend lots of money on a painting but do want the option to buy the image as a print. In this way visitors can take something home at least. The prints were very popular at a recent exhibition and my first sale of 5 prints has already covered double the cost of all new ink and paper. So, if you want to play around and check whether your images would be popular without spending lots on a giclee print set-up, it would be a good idea to invest in a good printer, ink and paper. You can use the printer to create beautiful art greeting cards as well so it is money well-spent. Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteTanja
If you are looking for quality digital printing which most beginning artist must do until they can afford giclee, I highly recommend Callahans Digital Printing In Binghamton NY. They do work for a well known local artist who is very particular about his work. They also did work for a photographer friend of mine. The work was high quality and they were wonderful to work with. Their prices run about the same as those suggested by "Butterscotch" It is not a cheap process. In the printing process the more you print the cheaper the price.
ReplyDeleteI've looked into FineArtAmerica myself...and there is not a lot of profit to be made, but so much of the work is done for you including all the customer service, shipping. So that's worth something.
ReplyDeleteGetting one's own large format printer and inks, maintenance, dealing with bad prints...well, though I've thought about it I'm not sure I want to take that on at moment.
I would recommend avoiding Imagekind...I spent days uploading my artwork to them and finally launched my print shop and they crashed millions of images and have been agonizingly slow (and not too apologetic) about it. They must have very outdated technology to not be able to restore their site quickly.
I am hoping to hear some more great ideas on to your question...and I'm glad you asked it. It's something I keep scratching my head over, too.
I use a local guy in Vancouver WA. He can scan it or you can email him the jpeg. He is very reasonable and has fast turn around. http://www.dolaradesign.com/dolaradesign.com/Home.html is his website. His name is Toma Dolara.
ReplyDeleteis he still in business? I can't find him???
DeleteI used to have my art printed as giclee prints and they were really nice. I discovered this company http://digitalprintdesign.co.uk/index.html just by searching on google. I don't know what they would be like but their website looks nice and I also like the fact that they post the prints directly to our clients. Let me know if anyone tries them out. Cheers all!
ReplyDelete@Terri Lambert
ReplyDeleteThanks Terri, the company you recommend looks great, I might look them up if I need to print some artworks again.
I use a company called the Printmaker.net and I have been very pleased with their quality, helpfulness and speed. They have gone out of their way to assist me to get pieces made asap. They can photograph for you too. Located in San Diego CA I have found Connie and her husband (Rich, I am pretty sure) to be incredible. Feel free to tell them I sent you! Oh and BTW, I have delt with them via email and phone, from Mexico and the US. Couldn't be happier.
ReplyDeleteLike Cheryl O, I have been very pleased with Giclee Factory. If you have someone in the U.S. ordering, you can also use PictureFrames.com and have the print shipped directly. They are the same company that does the printing for Fine Art America.
ReplyDelete