Giclee Printing On Canvas : A Guide For Consumers
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The term fine art giclee is very loosely applied and overused nowadays. There are a lot of misconceptions, misunderstandings and straight untruths spread around on the internet which can make it very difficult for people to understand and judge the quality of the printed work they are buying, whether as a retail customer or an artist getting into prints for the first time.
A lot of people will be familiar with photography stores and printing shops that offer prints of photographs transferred to canvas but what most do not understand is that this does not necessarily qualify as a giclee print. In fact in all probability it is not even close.
Specialist giclee printing requires a good deal of equipment and time if a quality reproduction of an original Painting is going to be produced. This is why we recommend that artists seek out a specialist when ordering prints of their own work.
The printing process requires that the print maker is familiar with colour profiling and has both the hardware and software, along with the knowledge of how to get the best out of them, to ensure that the finished print will match the original as closely in tone and colour as possible. Working with digital images requires knowledge and experience as well as costly programs if the job is going to be done right. Of course it also requires a wide format giclee printer utilizing specific inks/pigments to ensure the longevity of the finished work.
Here at Arteccentrix we only produce giclee prints for artists. Unlike the photography/print store in town or the local industrial park, we are not a mass production facility, we are a husband and wife team, and each and every giclee we produce is carefully prepared, printed and finished by the same person. We do not print flyers and business cards and everything in between – our printing business is geared solely to producing quality art prints.
For canvas giclee prints, after the image has been satisfactorily edited for best/most accurate reproduction we normally produce an in house proof just to ensure that there are no issues with tones and colours before printing the full size work. Once this is done, the print is allowed to dry for at least 48 hours.
After this waiting period the canvas is cut and trimmed and then sealed with a UV protectant, sometimes sprayed, sometimes applied by hand. Although the canvas used is waterproof and acid free, this sealing process is very important and is what you should expect from any giclee printing service working with canvas. Once the sealant has been applied the print is left to “cure” for at least another 24 hours.
Once the print is fully dry it is then stretched onto stretcher bars – all our prints are gallery wrapped so that they can be hung without framing if preferred. A gallery wrap ensures that the image wraps around the stretcher bars so that no bare canvas is visible. You will see many sites online offering “gallery wrap” on canvas prints advising that you will lose an inch or more of the image by choosing this option! Rest assured that we know how to produce a proper gallery wrap and will prepare the image correctly prior to printing so that none of the original painting is lost. (Services that suggest you have to sacrifice any part of your original painting are doing you a disservice. The reasons and excuses for this could be numerous but laziness, incompetence or “rush jobs” are the most common).
After a very careful final inspection the finished canvas is then sealed carefully in a protective clear bag and labeled ready for sale/delivery.
As you can see, the time and work involved in producing a fine art giclee on canvas is quite considerable. You can now also appreciate that anyone who claims they can produce a canvas giclee in a morning while you do your grocery shopping, or “while you wait” is being a little economical with the truth. Prints on canvas vary hugely in quality so you should never assume that canvas automatically translates to high caliber giclee fine art print.
It is not uncommon to see prints labeled as “giclee” that are, in actual fact, lithographs printed on very poor quality paper. There is nothing wrong with lithographic prints of course, but we have often seen blatantly poor quality “cheap” prints touted as something they are not. This adds even further to the misunderstandings surrounding reproductions and the pricing/quality/value equation.
As with quality, pricing varies enormously but in general you will get what you pay for. there are plenty of sites online that allow customers to calculate the cost of a giclee print on various substrates and in various sizes, framed, unframed etc etc. If you spend time comparing like for like products on a number of sites you will probably be very surprised at the range of prices you are quoted.
Our own research has proved that there are people out there who are ripping customers off pure and simple, others are cheap but not offering true quality and those who are charging a fair price for their labours. Some can offer a complete service from scanning the image right through to framing and others offer less comprehensive services. Whatever your needs, shop around to get the best deal you can for your needs and remember that in the world of giclee printing, the caveat of “buyer beware” should always be kept in the back of your mind. As an artist, If you can get the work done locally we would recommend you do so. This will enable you to be far more closely involved and less likely to end up with something you are not happy with.
We have not yet published our retail price list on the internet for a variety of reasons and promise to do so soon but judging by what we have seen elsewhere we do consider our work extremely reasonable. We have deliberately tried to keep our prints affordable with a high value for money quotient and without compromising quality in any way. As a small family operation we keep our overheads to a minimum and try to pass on our cost savings to our customers.
As a guideline, at the time of writing, a stretched, unframed canvas giclee measuring 24″ x 18″ normally retails at CI$135.00 (that is approximately US$165.00) Bear in mind too that these reproductions are all of original works by well established and widely collected artists. Don’t take our word for it though, shop around for the same item online and see what others are charging.
If you are an artist having prints of your own work made that you intend to resell you have to consider your own profit margins too and how much you can command for prints of your work. So, as an artist you should really be looking to work with someone who will offer you a wholesale deal if at all possible.
Arteccentrix is currently the only service of its kind in the Cayman Islands. We are here to serve artists, retailers and direct customers, negating the need for work to be shipped overseas as has always been the case in the past. We only use the finest quality acid free archival papers and canvas – we do not do cheap alternatives.
(Due to our close working relationships with the artists at Arteccentrix, we sometimes produce signed limited editions as well as hand finished prints on occasion or if specifically required. All signed limited editions would be numbered, hand signed by the artist and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity also signed by the artist).
Further note for artists:
In order to produce a truly high quality print, a high resolution digital scan or photograph is essential if a printer is to do your work justice. At present we do not offer scanning or photography services. We do aim to change this in the future but for now, you will need to provide the digital images for us. Digital photographs should preferably be in RAW format – this will mean large file sizes. If you have a quality DSLR camera and tripod there is no reason you cannot produce these yourself. The ideal is to produce three photographs, one correctly exposed and one on either side, one stop up and one stop down. A lot of DSLR cameras have this facility built in. The alternative is to ask a professional to take the photographs for you. If you have access to a high resolution scanner, even better!
If you have any questions at all, please contact us and we will do our very best to help.
